Start a Conversation

Unsolved

This post is more than 5 years old

34041

October 21st, 2009 15:00

Dell Dimension 3100 hard drive questions

hi, i have a Dell Dimension 3100 with an 80gb hard drive and want to add a second drive underneath it. I have a spare caddy ready but i was wondering about a few things

 

1) What SATA hard drive do i need to buy. i read that the motherboard has SATA l but most drives i have seen for sale are SATA ll. are they all compatible??

2) Is there a limit to the size i can add.. i.e. if i brought a 1TB drive will the BIOS and windows recognise it? (it is running windows media centre)

Many thanks in advance

 

Matt

4 Operator

 • 

34.2K Posts

October 21st, 2009 17:00

Hi, Matt:

Yes, SATA II are supposed to be backward compatible with SATA I. You should make sure your BIOS version is current, however. Your system can accommodate any size drive, provided your XP installation includes SP2, which I'm pretty sure it does.

Good luck!

November 4th, 2011 12:00

Just put a Seagate 1tb in a 3100 and it is running just fine and installation was trouble free.

November 11th, 2011 10:00

It's as easy as pie. just make sure you have an extra hdd caddy (dell blue) and of course sata cable and an empty slot in the hdd cage. Mine had an empty slot but no caddy so I had to order one (I googled it) but, it did have an sata power connector already run to the slot so good there. Bought the tb drive from best buy (seagate) for 69.00. Hope this helped.

1 Message

November 11th, 2011 10:00

Can I ask is it difficult to fit a hard drive and where did you purchase yours from

3 Posts

November 11th, 2011 10:00

Easy as pie. Brought a caddy for it off eBay as it was a fiver and a long sata cable as a short one won't reach. Brought a T1 western Digital. Was the green Eco model 5400rpm. Cant remember where from but it was around £60
No Events found!

Top