2nd Hard Drive Must be 'Dell'?

Question

My Dimension 4600 (with XP sp2) came with a 120 G drive. I want to add a second, 300 G hard drive. The Dell tech lady in India said it shouldn't be a problem. However two different Dell sales people said I could only go up to 250 GB, and it had to be a 'Dell' because supposedly people have been installing other drives like Seagate and having lots of problems. They also said my extended warranty would not cover anything but a 'Dell' drive. Is there something special about hard drives supplied by Dell? do they take a Maxtor or other drive and program it especially for Dimension 4600s? or can I buy a way cheaper/better/larger drive from newegg and expect an easy and reliable installation? not to mention for half the cost. I don't mind spending the extra money for Dell if it will save me hours of grief, but.....

newc · Answer

Thanks. Can you recommend a good quality drive? My main concern is the software/settings once I install the drive, as that will be new to me. Dell said I can call them and they'll walk me through it, but I'm not confident that I'll get someone who knows what they're talking about. Are BIOS changes required? Is it a simple matter of loading a driver from a CD?

shesagordie · Answer

newc.   You have been given bad info, you can use any brand of hard drive in a Dell, but I would advise against using Maxtor, due to their reliabilty problems lately. The hard drives to buy from Dell, are exactly the same as you can buy from other vendors.  As you have XP SP2, you should be able to install a 300GB hard drive as a secondary, without a problem   Regards to Dell's warranty, any part not purchased from them, is not included in their warranty.   http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kb/en/document?dn=1057010   Bev.

shesagordie · Answer

newc.

Any brand of EIDE hard drive should be fine, except for Maxtor [reliability problems] set the jumpers to "Cable Select and install on the middle ribbon connector.

How to install a second hard drive

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4600/en/4600/sm/drives.htm

Check the BIOS setup, that the hard drive is enabled [on] and in order for windows to recognize the second hard drive, it must be partitioned and formatted. These are generic instructions for installing an additional hard drive using Windows XP Disk Management, they are by Seagate, but apply to
all brands.

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/howto/install_xp_disk_mgmt.html

Bev.

BigDadday · Answer

What are the problems with the Maxtors and are we talking about ones bigger than say 60GB? I use them and would like to know so I don't buy something bad as well.BD

newc · Answer

Bev. you are a wealth of information. Many thanks.

Here's the drive I'm considering

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148064

Will the bracket and cable that Dell sell for their 250 GB drive work with the Seagate? Or do I need a special Seagate cable?

shesagordie · Answer

newc.   You don't need to buy a bracket for the second hard drive, is included wirh the system by default, check inside the case.  The SATA drive shown, should work fine, [ a good five year warranty].     You don't need any special SATA data cable, buy one from Newegg.   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812104693   Bev.

newc · Answer

Awesome! I cancelled my Dell order and ordered from newegg. You just saved me over $100, plus I got the larger drive I wanted to start with. Dell had called yesterday to tell me they were delaying my order another week anyway.

shesagordie · Answer

newc.   That's a big saving.   You should find that Newegg has excellent customer service, they have helped me in the past with obtaining 'delayed' rebates.   Hope the upgrade goes well.   Bev.

newc · Answer

I'm looking forward to it, now that I've learned much more about it, it's not so formidable. I can't wait to get the 300 GB secondary installed. I'm ripping all my CDs to it in WAV format so I need lots of GB.

Storage, Drives & Media

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