bender_unit_22,

Thanks for using the Dell Community Forum.

Dell never designed that model to work with 3 hard drives so we're not going to have much information. 

It sounds like you have a 5 1/4" bay (cage) but you have a 3.5" hard disk.  So go to PC store and buy a "disk drive" bracket that bolts to the side of the hard disk to make it wider, so that it snugly fits into the wider bay.  These are only about $3 usa.

PS: I don't have an 8300, so I am giving my advise freely .. Hope it helps.

PS: DELL moderators are ULTRA conservative when giving advice .. I guess they don't want to have to support configurations that they have not tried in their labs ...

I realize that it was not designed to have 3 hard-drives

otherwise I wouldn't have a problem

thanks for the info

I do have an open 5 1/4" bay, but this dell case uses virtually no screws, the drives do not screw into the case and there are NO screw holes anywhere

I guess I'd have to look into getting an adapter that would attach to the drive itself then use the green dell brackets

I thought that maybe someone here had solved this problem with their 8300

strange ... I have a DELL 8200, the precursor to the 8300, and I have 3 disks and one CD-ROM drive.

I used the green plastic tabs for all 3 disks, without any problem.

I only bought the "rail guides" for a 2nd (non-DELL) PC, to install a 3.5'' disk in a 5.25'' bay.

I'm surprised the 8300 doesn't have the flexibility that the 8200 has in terms of installing 3 disks...

The slot right below the floppy drive (designed for a ZIP drive) works perfect for a third hard drive with a Promise controller card (if needed) on my 8200. The floppy/ZIP slot is 1/8" smaller than the dedicated hard drive cage but it still works. For me the rails were the key component for the hard drive to fit. The ones that came with the case worked perfect but I tried to use some that came with my XPS Gen 2 system and they were too fat. I would call Dell and order some Dimension 8200 ZIP/floppy rails and see if that solves your problem. I can't imagine that Dell changed the hard drive and ZIP/floppy cages that much since it's essentially the same design.

I hope this helps!

Thanks a lot for that info

sounds exactly like the problem I have

I don't have a floppy so maybe the rails that came with the system would fit

when I tested it I just took out one of the current hard drives to see if it would fit

I didn't check to see if the other set of short rails were any different

if the are the same then these won't fit but perhaps the ones you used will

maybe someone from dell could confirm this??

I have a 4600 and just went through adding a second hard drive with Dell.  I have not been able to envision your hardware configuration from the thread, so I'll give you my solution:

The 4600 (and hopefully the 8300, since the cases are almost identical) have internal drive bays. The Dell part number for these are (P/N) 0T962 (that is, zero-tee-nine-six-two) and it is an dell internal part number. These will stack two drives in the front of the case at the bottom.

You may also purchase a similar part from http://www.issue-resolved.com/, but ONLY for a second drive.  The first drive must be installed with a dell part due to the installation tang configuration (the issue-resolved solution will not work as is for the first drive).

Work with dell if you can and I hope this helps.  BTW, have you thought of replacing some/all of the small drives with big drives?

My config (when I get the new drive installed) will be drive 1 - 120GB, drive 2 - 250GB.

Dell 4600, 512MB RAM, 2.66MHz-P4, DVD/CD-RW, 120GB HDD, NVidia GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X, Win2k SP3 (self load, not Dell supported)

The 4600 isn't even close to the 8300 when it comes to attaching hard drives.  The 4600 mounts the drives in the same vertical manner as the 2400.

Dave

True, the 4600 does mount vertically.  Take a look at the link I left and see if you think it could be adapted to work in the 8300. From the manual it looks like the room is available to attach the drive bracket, but you have the system in front of you so please educate the rest of us on our possibilities.

ok problem solved

I used the rails for a floppy that came with the system

had to move my dvd burner down a slot to get the ide cable to fit but it's in there now

is the stock 8300 psu powerfull enough to power 3 hard-drives?