Replacing Dimension 8400 hard drive

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rickmktg wrote:

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TAF1982 wrote:
One of the cleaner programs I run deleted a bunch of important system files and now I can't boot the OS. I can't get the Recovery Console or boot into any type of Safe Mode either. I get a BSOD on every boot attempt.

This is the current hard drive I have causing problems:

160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ Native Command Queuing.

I'm thinking of replacing it with this:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
Model ST3400620AS
Interface SATA 3.0Gb/s
Capacity 400GB
RPM 7200 RPM
Cache 16MB
Average Seek Time 8.5ms
Average Latency 4.16ms
Form Factor 3.5"

Features:
Perpendicular Recording
Adaptive Fly Height
Clean Sweep
Directed Offline Scan
Seagate SoftSonic
Enhanced G-Force Protection

Is that a suitable replacement or is Dell picky about hard drives?

 

Yet another example of the damage a registry cleaner can do.

 

Reboot with the XP CD in the drive and make the CD the first boot device.  Choose INSTALL, then REPAIR.

 

Or, reboot and hit CTRL F11 at the Dell screen to make your computer "as shipped", which erases everything.

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TAF1982 wrote:
I don't know if it matters or not but the 160 GB one is the original hard drive that I chose when customizing my Dimension 8400. I ordered the system 12/06/04 if that matters.

 

To add to a recent post, simply click on it, pick Message Options, then Edit.

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@TAF1982 wrote:

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@rickmktg wrote:

Yet another example of the damage a registry cleaner can do.

Reboot with the XP CD in the drive and make the CD the first boot device.  Choose INSTALL, then REPAIR.

Or, reboot and hit CTRL F11 at the Dell screen to make your computer "as shipped", which erases everything.

I'm pretty sure I tried that but I don't have the option to repair. It tries to continue with the previous installation attempt but then just BSODs.

I tried to reinstall XP back when I could still get into Safe Mode but it BSOD after the first reboot during installation. Now at every startup it gives me load Windows XP or Setup Windows XP. Neither work. Everything I try just BSODs. I can run the Utility Partition tests but everything passes fine. I just can't load the OS.

I don't want to lose everything. I'm trying to save everything and then hopefully just copy it to the new hard drive somehow.

Is the hard drive I mentioned a good choice for a replacement?

 

If you tred a reinstall and it got that far then yes, no repair.

 

Did you try to repair CTRL F11?  If the Symantec PC Restore utility won't work, but still resides on your computer, a Dell customer has figured out some ways to get it to work again. Note - If you removed this partition, it is not recoverable, cannot be downloaded from the internet, and cannot be shipped from Dell. Click here for ways to fix Symantec PC Restore. Users have also reported that the partition can be restored with Ghost 2003, and Ghost 9 using the '03 capabilities of it. If you boot to the Ghost 9 CD, select Advanced Recovery Taks, select Utilities, then Restore Legacy Image it should work - but you want to verify the image before attempting the restore. It's in a folder called IMG.

The drive you listed is faster than the 8400 can handle, so it will slow down.  In other words, you're overbuying.  Get a 1.5 instead of a 3.

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TAF1982 wrote:

Update: Turns out the probem was the 2GB of OCZ Gold memory I was using and not my hard drive. The memory was working for about two weeks and then these problems started happening. Extended testing with Memtest confirmed it. I just popped the 1 GB stock memory that came with my PC back in and set up the new hard drive and the problems cleared up on their own somehow. Luckily OCZ memory has a lifetime warranty so I should be able to send the faulty sticks back and get a replacement for the cost of shipping. The good news is I got everything back the way it was, no more BSODs (whew), and no data is missing. The bad news is I wasted almost two weeks going crazy over this and I wasted $ on a new hard drive. It's ok though since I'll more than likely configure my PC for RAID 1. It's better to be safe than sorry IMO.

 

On a side note anyone with hard drive trouble should check out the program Hard Drive mechanic.

 

http://www.highergroundsoftware.com/hard-drive-mechanic.html

 

I didn't have to use it but it's gotten some pretty good reviews online and seems to be a valuable tool. If you know where to look you can get it for free. :smileyhappy: 

 

Had you mentioned that you had just added OCZ memory, that would have triggered a response to return it as it's not specified for a Dell and likely not compatible.  You should return it for a refund and only buy memory specified for your 8400.  You can find lots of posts via Search about OCZ and other non-compatible memory.

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@TAF1982 wrote:

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@rickmktg wrote:

Had you mentioned that you had just added OCZ memory, that would have triggered a response to return it as it's not specified for a Dell and likely not compatible. You should return it for a refund and only buy memory specified for your 8400. You can find lots of posts via Search about OCZ and other non-compatible memory.

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It is compatible but somehow it died. I did my homework before ordering it. According to the system manual the Dimension 8400 can only use 400 or 533 MHz DDR2 (Dual Channel in mine) memory and that's what I ordered. It wouldn't run at 3-3-3-12 as specified but ran fine at 4-4-4-12.

Here's the page for it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227076

I would've went with Patriot or Corsair but the OCZ was cheaper. I'll probably end up buying Corsair, Patriot, or Crucial in the future. It stinks being back at 1 GB after having 3GB for a short time. I also noticed that the Silencer 470 Dell PSU I upgraded to less than a month ago runs noticeably hotter than the stock Dell PSU. My temps are up 5 degrees.

In a kind of odd twist I found out the hard drive that came with my system is actually a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 which performs better than the newer 7200.8 I just bought. After doing some research I won't be doing RAID 1 since I'll have to erase both hard drives. I guess I'll just use the second one as extra space. I found two good programs I can use to copy/clone hard drives: Acronis True Image 10 Home and Acronis Migrate Easy 7.

 

You can't buy memory on specs for a Dell computer.  Patriot and Corsair would have also likely failed.  OCZ may work, may not.  Lots of posts on this.