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March 30th, 2004 20:00
Second SATA HD for XPS
Hi, I have a Dimension XPS Gen 2 and want to add a second 250 GB SATA HD drive (it already has one 250 GB SATA drive). I have seen some posts in here talking about problems people have had with the BIOS recognizing a second SATA drive. Is that still a problem with the Gen 2 XPSs? I was thinking of getting a Western Digital WD2500 JD drive. Does anybody know (I have called Sales Support and got nowhere with this question) if the drive that Dell sells (which is NOT a retail kit) comes with the SATA cable and the drive brackets that I will need to put it into my XPS? Or do I need to purchase those separately? (and how in the world can you describe what you need to the sales people when they have trouble recognizing normal part numbers?) The e-mail correspondance I have been having with Tech support about this issue has been going nowhere. Finally, what do I need to do to install the second SATA drive? Tech support keeps referring me to an article that just shows you how to hook up the cable and yet makes no mention of any BIOS settings that need to be changed. What do you need to change in the BIOS to make the system recognize the second drive? Any help anybody could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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robnalex
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720 Posts
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March 31st, 2004 04:00
First, relax. Installing a 2nd drive is relatively simple.
Everything should already be OK in the BIOS to accept a second drive, but you can check to be sure that both drives are set to "auto" in the bios.
It's my understanding from other posts here, that if you order just a hard drive from Dell that it does not come with the cable. If you like, you can get a very good deal on a SATA drive retail kit, which includes the cable, at Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, etc.
You should not need any additional hardware or brackets- this should already be in your machine.
The new drive should be set to 'cable select'. Once installed, it will not immediately be recognized by Windows (in 'My Computer') but Windows 'Disk Management' will see it. Go to 'Disk Management' to format the new drive. Once you've done this Windows will recognize the drive and it will be seen in 'My Computer' and ready to use.
Message Edited by robnalex on 03-31-2004 12:17 AM
TomXPS
1.3K Posts
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March 31st, 2004 18:00
Setting up the drive is easy. Plug the cable into the second SATA controller port on you mother board, plug it into the drive and connect power connector.
Assuming your XPS was like mine, the SATA RAID option is set to on so the drive does not have to be enabled:
If you want you could setup RAID 0 or 1 since the mother board supports it. Best if you match the current drive if you planning on doing that.
For me I was able to buy the cable and drive cheaper than the drive kit.
Here a link to the Intel manual n setting up the RAID if your intrested. You can migrate to Level 0 or 1.
I miggrated my system to Level 1 with no problems.
http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa_raid/sb/CS-009333.htm
Here a link for other general information from intel:
http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa%5Fraid/
GojiraFan
3 Posts
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March 31st, 2004 18:00
TomXPS
1.3K Posts
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March 31st, 2004 22:00
The rails you need are in the free bays. So your all set, the whoe process on a SATA drive should only take 5 mins or so. I was supprised on how easy it was to install the hardware.
GojiraFan
3 Posts
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April 1st, 2004 18:00
Thanks again for all of the help.