Solve : Installing a Second internal Hard Drive?

1.	Solve : Installing a Second internal Hard Drive?
Answer» I am currently using the Dell Dimension E520 and have bought the Seagate Serial Ata/300 160GB INTERNAL Hard Drive. I have been able to hook up the damned thing physically but my computer will not even read it. My computer is barely 3 months old and I have had no problems... I just needed more space. PLEASE If anyone can give me any help on this subject I want to try and do this myself before sinking even more money into my machine just to be able to get my computer to read the drive. What is the existing hard drive? Is it seen in the BIOS? What version of Windows? Has it been partitioned yet? Etc.?When I installed my latest hard drive (and the one before it) i had to go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management then click in the tree where it says Disk Management. The hard drive showed up there, and all I had to do was right click the drive and FORMAT it.Quote from: dhaltom on May 23, 2007, 05:10:13 PM When I installed my latest hard drive (and the one before it) i had to go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management then click in the tree where it says Disk Management. The hard drive showed up there, and all I had to do was right click the drive and format it. If he can't get into Windows this may not be an option... p.s. Travis that drive needs to be formatted first before an OS will recognise it...did you recieve a manuf, CD with the drive ? ? If so use it to prep the drive...The OS is windows vista. And to answer another question, yes there was a CD and instruction manual that came with the drive. The CD says that there is no Seagate hardware currently installed. I treid flipping through the manual but... it didnt address my particular problem and I have followed every instruction. perhaps you should check SATA drive settings in the BIOS. If your computer wasn't using any SATA drives before, SATA might be turned off. The CD should be bootable...put it in and re-boot the machine. Then use the seatools to format the drive. Set it as an active partition and a volume label is not neccessary.Well I found the problem... but it only leads to more questions. The computer has two VACANT slots for the SATA plugs but when I plugged the hard drive in to one the computer wouldnt even recognize the drive to format it. When I unplugged the cable for my DVD/ROM drive and plugged in the hard drive it worked like a beauty... but now my DVDROM drive won't work. I had this sneaking suspicion that afew slots that are obviously attached to the motherboard aren't working properly (Two of the six USB ports in back don't read any devices when plugged in). So as the wise man once said answers only breed more questions. I keep hearing PEOPLE asking me about the BIOS, which only leads to one big blank in my mental DICTIONARY when it comes to computers. Keep the advice coming guys, I think we're getting to the root of the problem.Quote from: TravisOxencis on May 24, 2007, 01:13:45 PM I keep hearing people asking me about the BIOS Isn't it about time you filled in that blank? Access/Enter Motherboard BIOSHave you happened to install the SATA/RAID drivers yet ? ?Did you contact Dell? Is it still under warranty? Surely yes, if it has Vista.Thanks guys for the advice and help. Turns out I needed to go through the BIOS and turn on the port that I plugged it into. If I do this again I'm just gonna hope that I don't forget all the advice you people have given me. Thank you again.

Answer»

I am currently using the Dell Dimension E520 and have bought the Seagate Serial Ata/300 160GB INTERNAL Hard Drive. I have been able to hook up the damned thing physically but my computer will not even read it. My computer is barely 3 months old and I have had no problems... I just needed more space.

PLEASE If anyone can give me any help on this subject I want to try and do this myself before sinking even more money into my machine just to be able to get my computer to read the drive. What is the existing hard drive? Is it seen in the BIOS? What version of Windows? Has it been partitioned yet? Etc.?When I installed my latest hard drive (and the one before it) i had to go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management then click in the tree where it says Disk Management. The hard drive showed up there, and all I had to do was right click the drive and FORMAT it.Quote from: dhaltom on May 23, 2007, 05:10:13 PM

When I installed my latest hard drive (and the one before it) i had to go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management then click in the tree where it says Disk Management. The hard drive showed up there, and all I had to do was right click the drive and format it.

If he can't get into Windows this may not be an option...

p.s. Travis that drive needs to be formatted first before an OS will recognise it...did you recieve a manuf, CD with the drive ? ?
If so use it to prep the drive...The OS is windows vista.

And to answer another question, yes there was a CD and instruction manual that came with the drive. The CD says that there is no Seagate hardware currently installed. I treid flipping through the manual but... it didnt address my particular problem and I have followed every instruction.
perhaps you should check SATA drive settings in the BIOS. If your computer wasn't using any SATA drives before, SATA might be turned off.

The CD should be bootable...put it in and re-boot the machine.
Then use the seatools to format the drive. Set it as an active partition and a volume label is not neccessary.Well I found the problem... but it only leads to more questions. The computer has two VACANT slots for the SATA plugs but when I plugged the hard drive in to one the computer wouldnt even recognize the drive to format it. When I unplugged the cable for my DVD/ROM drive and plugged in the hard drive it worked like a beauty... but now my DVDROM drive won't work. I had this sneaking suspicion that afew slots that are obviously attached to the motherboard aren't working properly (Two of the six USB ports in back don't read any devices when plugged in).

So as the wise man once said answers only breed more questions. I keep hearing PEOPLE asking me about the BIOS, which only leads to one big blank in my mental DICTIONARY when it comes to computers.

Keep the advice coming guys, I think we're getting to the root of the problem.Quote from: TravisOxencis on May 24, 2007, 01:13:45 PM

I keep hearing people asking me about the BIOS

Isn't it about time you filled in that blank?
Access/Enter Motherboard BIOSHave you happened to install the SATA/RAID drivers yet ? ?Did you contact Dell? Is it still under warranty? Surely yes, if it has Vista.Thanks guys for the advice and help. Turns out I needed to go through the BIOS and turn on the port that I plugged it into. If I do this again I'm just gonna hope that I don't forget all the advice you people have given me.

Thank you again.

Solve : Installing a Second internal Hard Drive?

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