106 Posts

April 11th, 2006 20:00

The 8400 has four SATA ports built right into the motherboard. So the first drive you bought would have worked fine. Go out and buy a SATA RETAIL KIT. That will give you the drive, the necessary cable, an instruction booklet and software to help you install it. Outpost.com frequently puts the Seagate 300GB SATA 150 retail kit up for $99 after rebates so if you want to get a deal watch that site over the next couple of weeks or so. It will work with your 8400.

10 Elder

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46K Posts

April 11th, 2006 20:00

playboy_bunnie  
 
Dell installs SATA hard drives in the D-8400 and the motherboard has four SATA connectors.
 
IDE drives use cables, as shown in this link,
 
 
The D-8400 has two 3.5" bays for hard drives.
 
Adding a PATA [IDE]Second Hard Drive,
 
Due to IDE cable limitation, you could install the IDE drive in the 5.25" internal open bay and connect it to the middle cable connector.
You will require a 3.5"- HD Bracket to install the drive in the internal 5.25" bay.
 
If there are two optical drives installed, then you could,

Use a powered external IDE USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure.
Use a PCI IDE controller card and install the drive inside the case and connect it to the controller.
Use a IDE to SATA convertor.

http://www.addonics.com/products/io/ide_sata.asp
 
After the hard drive is installed, enter the BIOS setup and check that the drive is set to auto [on] and in order for windows to recognize the second hard drive, it must be patitioned 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

Procedures for installing a second SATA hard drive,

 
Bev.
 
 

April 12th, 2006 11:00

Okay Im just growing ever more confused lol

I went out this morning and bought a SATA cable after reading a few things, only to find its wrong. Nevertheless, I though I'd take the IDE cable from my CD-ROM (as I have a spare DVD/RW drive that i use instead) and place that on the new hdd...but no, the stupid thing wont reach the hdd and neither will the molex cable.

So I dont have a clue what to do now :(

if it helps, here are some fotos of the internals etc

My existing hdd setup..
http://www.caroline-murphy.co.uk/~random/temp.jpg

The new hard drive connections..
http://www.caroline-murphy.co.uk/~random/drive_1.jpg

Inside the stupid pc..
http://www.caroline-murphy.co.uk/~random/inside1.jpg
http://www.caroline-murphy.co.uk/~random/inside2.jpg
http://www.caroline-murphy.co.uk/~random/motorboard1.jpg

Hope this helps, if anyone can help!

19 Posts

April 12th, 2006 12:00

Do you have a SATA power adapter on your power supply? If not I have a special going. Free SATA power adapters for blondes

19 Posts

April 12th, 2006 13:00

Because you said so on your original post. :). Yahoo id, ethan_peirce
message me and we will discuss this hair.

April 12th, 2006 13:00

yeah i have a spare sata cable on there...

and how do u know im blonde? lol

April 15th, 2006 21:00

Well, I got it all sorted.

Turns out not many people (including computer stores ?) dont know the difference between IDE and SATA (thank god Im not the only one)

I had to buy an extended IDE cable, cut a few plastic ties off to stretch, set both the hard drive and dvd-drive to Cable Select and its now sorted.

I hope everyone manages to eventually sort their own out xx
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