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29644
November 29th, 2013 18:00
Installing a second HDD
Hi, I just purchased a new XPS 8700. It came with a 1TB 7200 RPM SATA HDD @ 6.0Gb/s. I always keep my data in a separate drive, and I want to add my existing data HDD (WD Caviar Green 1TB SATA WD10EADS) as a secondary drive.
I installed it on SATA3 and rebooted. The computer got stuck on the Dell logo. Tried all the other SATA slots with no change. Swapped cables with the factory HDD and the DVD drive and no change. The computer would not even go into Setup. As soon as I disconnected the WD HDD booting was fine. Did some research. Read that sometimes secure boot with UEFI may do it. Went back to Setup and disabled it. Rebooted with just factory HDD. Everything fine. Plugged in the WD HDD. Stuck on Dell logo. Removed the drive and enabled UEFI back in Setup.
When I put the WD HDD back in the old computer, everything is perfect (BTW, my old system is an XPS 400 with Pentium 4)
Before I go buy another hard drive: could it be the cable? is the HDD too slow for this system? which is a good device compatible with my new system?
Please help.
Thanks.
osprey4
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34.2K Posts
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November 30th, 2013 03:00
Hi Penchy,
Windows 8, when installed using the UEFI configuration, will not boot with another drive connected to the system that has an Extended/Logical partition. See this for more information. You should be able to configure the partitions in your old machine and then pop it into the 8700.
124elain
1 Message
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November 30th, 2013 03:00
maybe you need some recovery free data recovery software and back-up your data http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm
Penchy
4 Posts
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November 30th, 2013 05:00
Thanks! I'll try that.
Penchy
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November 30th, 2013 16:00
osprey4! Thank you so much!!
It took me the whole day to back up the drive and convert it back to basic (I initially set it up as a dynamic simple drive with just 1 partition). I did lose some data (my XP OS drive is only 350GB), but nothing irreplaceable. I have my data drive set up and running!! XD
Only one thing happened: When I got the computer, only OS(C:) and DVD(D:) were there. After the system could finally see my data drive E: then ALL the hidden partitions on the system drive are there too. There are 2 recovery, 1 EFI, 1 OEM and 1 PBR in red. How do I hide them again?? NOTE: This morning I upgraded to Windows 8.1
THANK YOU!!
osprey4
6 Operator
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34.2K Posts
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November 30th, 2013 17:00
Unless these other partitions were assigned drive letters, which they should not have been, I would just ignore them.
xedder
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December 12th, 2013 17:00
hello OSPREY4, and thanks for the information that you posted. I followed the link and the information helped some, but it did not tell me what I need to do to my 2nd HDD (that is: how do I go about formatting the 2nd HDD) in order to make it visible to my UEFI win 8 OS. I understand that I will need to transfer all of my files to another drive, then format the 2nd HDD, install the 2nd HDD into the xps 8700, then transfer my data back onto the drive. my question is: how do I go about setting up the proper partition on the 2nd HDD?
Penchy
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December 13th, 2013 09:00
Hi xedder. I know the question was not for me, but this is the way I did it:
1. Transfer/back up all data from 2nd HDD
2. Right click My Computer. Go to Manage>Disk Management.
3. Locate 2nd HDD. My disk was labeled as dynamic, so I had to convert it to basic: Right click>Convert to basic disk. It will tell you that you must format the disk. Standard formatting took me all day. Choose "Quick format" and NTFS.
4. After formatting is done, transfer your data back.
5. Install the 2nd HDD on new machine. (To make sure it was there, I went into setup and the disk showed up on SATA 2. When my system booted, I went to "This PC" and there it was. If you don't see the disk on This PC, reboot and it should show up.
xedder
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December 14th, 2013 07:00
hello penchy,
thank you for the information. I was able to format the hard drive (after backing up the contents), and the computer booted up just fine; however, I had a problem copying the files back over to the drive. it was a long and slow process that at times seemed like the computer just stopped working or "froze". I downloaded an intel storage driver from dell's website, which seemed to help some, but the only way that I was able to finish the job was to copy no more than 5 or 6 files at a time. Microsoft needs to fix this problem. I remember Vista having the same problem until it was addressed in the service pack.
again, thanks for the information. it was a great help...