Adding Additional Hard Drive

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Guest

I recently purchased a new Dell 4600 because my motherboard died on my older
Dell. I had a second hard drive, a Western Digital 120 GB, on the old
computer (only a few months old) and want to add it to the new computer. The
old computer used the Windows ME operating system. The new one uses Windows
XP home edition.

However, when I add the drive per Dell's instructions, the system does not
recognize any drives -- not even the pre-installed one and will not boot. I
spent an hour on the phone withe Dell to no avail.

Please help me overcome the problem. If I need to reformat the additional
drive, so be it (but how can I reformat the drive when I can not get the
system to boot). I have all my data backed up and have transferred it to the
new computer so keeping the data is not important.

Thanks,

Greg
 
Hi Greg,

Assuming you are installing the drive on the same cable as the original
drive, have you set the jumper to slave and assured the installed drive is
set to master? Sometimes, on a single drive installation, there is no jumper
installed.

JAX
 
I recently purchased a new Dell 4600 because my motherboard died on my older
Dell. I had a second hard drive, a Western Digital 120 GB, on the old
computer (only a few months old) and want to add it to the new computer. The
old computer used the Windows ME operating system. The new one uses Windows
XP home edition.

However, when I add the drive per Dell's instructions, the system does not
recognize any drives -- not even the pre-installed one and will not boot. I
spent an hour on the phone withe Dell to no avail.

Please help me overcome the problem. If I need to reformat the additional
drive, so be it (but how can I reformat the drive when I can not get the
system to boot). I have all my data backed up and have transferred it to the
new computer so keeping the data is not important.

Thanks,

Greg
Click to expand...

Had this problem on my brother's Dell. There's a goofy setting in BIOS and,
darn it!, I forgot what it's called. Something about "silent' I think. It's
not real obvious what it does going by its name, it's on the same screen as
the one that lists the drives and their parameters though. Toggle the
setting. Boot with the new drive. It will be recognized by BIOS and
consequently it will be usable in Windows. Once the drive is recognized,
you can toggle the setting back again.
 
Something about "silent' I think. It's
not real obvious what it does going by its name, it's on the same screen as
the one that lists the drives and their parameters though.
Click to expand...

Remembered the menu for this -- "audit mode."
 
Thanks for all your help. As it turns out the hard drive I purchased two
weeks ago is defective. Now, need return it to Western Digital for a
replacement and then try again.

Greg
 
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