Help: Adding a Second Hard Drive to a Dell GX1

[Darren Harris]

I have a Dell GX1 with all original hardware, and have been trying to
add a second hard drive to it.

The cable has two connectors. The connector at the end of the cable is
connected to the original 6 Gig hard drive. In that configuration,
everything works fine.

But when I connect the unused connector to the "new" 6 Gig hard drive,
and attempt to boot up, I get the following message: "No boot device
available-
Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility."

Now if I take the new drive out of the loop, and use the free
connector on the original hard drive(instead of the correct one at the
end of the cable), I get the following message: "Primary hard disk
drive 0 not found. Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup
utility."

Could the problem be that connector on the cable?

In the BIOS, under "Primary", Drive 0 is set to "AUTO", and Drive 1 to
"NONE".

Under "Secondary", both Drive 0 and Drive 1 are set to "AUTO".

So, I tried different combinations to no avail.

I really need to get this done, and any help would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

 

[Rod Speed]

I have a Dell GX1 with all original hardware, and
have been trying to add a second hard drive to it.

The cable has two connectors. The connector at the
end of the cable is connected to the original 6 Gig
hard drive. In that configuration, everything works fine.

But when I connect the unused connector to the "new"
6 Gig hard drive, and attempt to boot up, I get the
following message: "No boot device available-
Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility."

What did you do about the jumpers on the new and original drive ?

Now if I take the new drive out of the loop, and use
the free connector on the original hard drive(instead
of the correct one at the end of the cable), I get the
following message: "Primary hard disk drive 0 not found.
Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility."

Could the problem be that connector on the cable?

Its more likely its a cable select cable.

Dunno what specifically is used in that PC tho.

In the BIOS, under "Primary", Drive 0 is
set to "AUTO", and Drive 1 to "NONE".

That would explain why moving the original drive
to the other connector doesnt see the drive, it
would need to be set to AUTO with both settings
if the original drive is jumpered as master.

Under "Secondary", both Drive 0 and Drive 1 are set to "AUTO".

Not relevant, you arent using that cable.

So, I tried different combinations to no avail.

What about the jumpers on the drives ?

I really need to get this done, and
any help would be greatly appreciated.

See how the original drive is jumpered. That should
tell you if a cable select cable is being used.

If the drives are both jumpered as master, that
would explain why adding the second drive to the
spare connector stops the original drive being seen,
because there would be two masters on the cable.
One needs to be jumpered as master and the other
as slave if its not a cable select cable.

And both entrys on the primary controller need to be AUTO too.

 

[Darren Harris]

Okay, I jumpered the "new" drive for cable select, and the machine
booted all the way to the desktop.

Unfortunately, my system does not find the "new" hard drive. It's like
I installed nothing.

That drive is a Fujitsu MPE3064AT:
www.fujitsu.com/au/services/technology/hdd/models/MPE3xxxAT-Series.html

The original drive which is a Western
Digital(http://support.ap.dell.com/docs/storage/9674e/) was also
already jumpered to cable select.

So with both still set to "AUTO" under "Primary" in the BIOS, I
jumpered the original to Master and the "new" drive to slave. When I
booted, I received the following message:

"Primary hard disk 0 not found"
"Primary hard disk 1 not found"
"Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility".

Any other ideas?

Thanks a lot.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

 

[Robert Barr]

The Fujitsu HAS been FDISKed and formatted, right? If so...

For what it's worth, I've had THREE Fujitsu drives (MPD series, though)
that developed identity problems, for lack of a better term; they'd
FDISK & Format OK from a DOS prompt, but they'd never show up in a
Windows system (except in Device Manager). Windows would never see them.

Each time, I'd talk to a Fujitsu service rep, and he'd diagnose the
drive as defective & send me a new one -- which worked as it should.

If your Fujitsu has the same problem, odds are you'll frustrate yourself
to death and then give up. You'd be doing everything correctly and
still have problems. If you have a different brand of a halfway modern
drive, try that.

Using cable select on both drives, it's really difficult to screw up --
unless the drive is sick. With Cable Select, the drive at the very end
of the ribbon should always be Drive 0 -- the boot drive. The drive at
the center connector will be the slave drive.

If your system boots properly, you're doing it right.

 

[Rod Speed]

Okay, I jumpered the "new" drive for cable select,
and the machine booted all the way to the desktop.

Unfortunately, my system does not find the
"new" hard drive. It's like I installed nothing.

Thats normal, it has to be partitioned and
formatted before its visible at the Win level.

Presumably it does show up on the black bios screen at boot time ?
You should be able to see something similar to the drive model
name there. Or you can with most bios, not sure about that Dell.

That drive is a Fujitsu MPE3064AT:
www.fujitsu.com/au/services/technology/hdd/models/MPE3xxxAT-Series.html

The original drive which is a Western
Digital(http://support.ap.dell.com/docs/storage/9674e/) was also
already jumpered to cable select.

So with both still set to "AUTO" under "Primary" in the BIOS,
I jumpered the original to Master and the "new" drive to slave.
When I booted, I received the following message:

"Primary hard disk 0 not found"
"Primary hard disk 1 not found"
"Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility".

Likely because its a cable select cable.

Any other ideas?

Go back to cable select jumpering on the drives,
check that they both show on the black bios
screen, then use fdisk to partitiion the new drive.
Then format it in the usual way. Be careful to
format the new drive and not the original.

Thats assuming you are running Win, you
dont actually say what OS you are using.

 

[Darren Harris]

I think this is a lost cause now, because the original hard drive is
not working. It started vibrating and let out a couple of screams that
obviously meant it was in it's death throes. I don't know what I did,
but all that plugging and unplugging couldn't have helped matters.

So I'm going to have to post to Craigslist for a couple more equal
sized drives and start from scratch. :-(

I had intended to ship this PC out to my mother, which should have
been done last week, but a host of problems developed, including
having to drill new holes for the second hard drive so it would sit on
top of the first.

It seems like the $40 I paid for this PC wasn't worth it after all.

Anyway, I now have two Fujitsu drives(MPE3064AT) inside the case, but
they will not install Windows 98(SE). At least not the CD that
originally was part of some Dell PC package. (And it's the full
version, because I installed it on the original hard drive before it
died).

Windows NT was on at least one of the Fujitsu drives, so and followed
all the instructions concerning, "How to Partition and Format a Master
Hard Disk" at Microsoft's
website(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;255867).
That was another couple of hours wasted. Now at least oen of the two
drive has is missing files needed for setup, but I can't start over
and reformat again. I can't go forward or back.

Thanks.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York