Which hard drive works?

I would like to add another internal hard drive, of 120GB or larger size to
my computer Dimension 8200 (its has a 40G now). I do a lot of audio work and
the 40G is full now.

When using Dell website to select drives for this machine, only 80GB are
shown. Is that the max size I can go? If not, what other drive can I use?
The drives shown were specified as EIDE type. I would also like a minimum
7200 RPM drive.

Also, when I buy it from Dell, does it come with instructions and everything
I need to install and cables etc?

Thanks for any help!

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 22:02:56 -0700, stratman wrote in
news:eqt3d.27311$ni.8550@okepread01:

I would like to add another internal hard drive, of 120GB or larger size to
my computer Dimension 8200 (its has a 40G now). I do a lot of audio work and
the 40G is full now.

When using Dell website to select drives for this machine, only 80GB are
shown. Is that the max size I can go? If not, what other drive can I use?
The drives shown were specified as EIDE type. I would also like a minimum
7200 RPM drive.

Also, when I buy it from Dell, does it come with instructions and everything
I need to install and cables etc?

Thanks for any help!

If I were you, I'd just go to Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, etc. and
pick up a hard drive. I was just in Best Buy yesterday and they had a
120GB Seagate SATA hard drive for $96. I'm sure you can find it a little
cheaper on the 'net, but then you have to pay shipping and wait for it to
arrive, etc. I'm not sure how much the IDE hard drives were since I don't
use them for my 8400.

As for cables and instructions, yes those will come in the box. However,
you probably won't need a cable if you only have a single hard drive in
your system. You would just need to screw on the two plastic "rails" to
the hard drive itself (there should be some extra ones inside your computer
case), make sure it's jumpered correctly for slave or cable select, slide
it into place, plug in one of the connectors on the IDE cable, and plug in
a power connector.

Boot up and once you get to the Windows desktop go to Control Panel -
Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management and select
the new hard drive which you should see here if it's jumpered correctly.
If not, check the jumper plug again. The main hard drive or the one you
are booting from (the one already in your system) will be either master or
cable select. If it's master set the second hard drive to slave. If the
one in your system already is set to cable select, set the new drive to
cable select as well. Also make sure the boot hard drive is on the end of
the IDE cable. It should be there already with an empty connector in the
middle of the cable. This is the cable you will hook to the new drive.
Anyway, back to formatting... Right click on the new hard drive once you
get to Disk Management and select format and Windows will format it for
you. Once that is done it's all ready to use.

This is how I've added IDE hard drives to my Windows XP system before. :-)

Dave
--
You can talk about us, but you can't talk without us!
US Army Signal Corps!!

http://www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

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David Casey wrote:

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 22:02:56 -0700, stratman wrote in
news:eqt3d.27311$ni.8550@okepread01:

I would like to add another internal hard drive, of 120GB or larger size to
my computer Dimension 8200 (its has a 40G now). I do a lot of audio work and
the 40G is full now.

When using Dell website to select drives for this machine, only 80GB are
shown. Is that the max size I can go? If not, what other drive can I use?
The drives shown were specified as EIDE type. I would also like a minimum
7200 RPM drive.

Also, when I buy it from Dell, does it come with instructions and everything
I need to install and cables etc?

Thanks for any help!

If I were you, I'd just go to Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, etc. and
pick up a hard drive. I was just in Best Buy yesterday and they had a
120GB Seagate SATA hard drive for $96. I'm sure you can find it a little
cheaper on the 'net, but then you have to pay shipping and wait for it to
arrive, etc. I'm not sure how much the IDE hard drives were since I don't
use them for my 8400.

Generally good advice, but you're not quite on the money when it comes
to online merchants - I bought a new HDD from Newegg last month, they
were offering free 2 day shipping & the price was much better than the
local CompUSA had it. This was a bare drive, i.e., no cables, screws,
instructions, which shouldn't be a problem as David pointed out.

If you have a Dell (which you do), the new HDD should be jumpered for
Cable Select (CS). IIRC most HDDs come jumpered for Master. FYI, you may
need needlenose pliers to manipulate the jumper.

On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 16:15:36 GMT, Sparky wrote in
t:

Generally good advice, but you're not quite on the money when it comes
to online merchants - I bought a new HDD from Newegg last month, they
were offering free 2 day shipping & the price was much better than the
local CompUSA had it. This was a bare drive, i.e., no cables, screws,
instructions, which shouldn't be a problem as David pointed out.

If you have a Dell (which you do), the new HDD should be jumpered for
Cable Select (CS). IIRC most HDDs come jumpered for Master. FYI, you may
need needlenose pliers to manipulate the jumper.

I just bought and installed a DVD burner this weekend and as I was reading
through the manual it came with, it said to use cable select you had to
have a special cable select IDE cable. I'd never heard of that before and
it didn't really apply to me since in my 8400 everything is set to cable
select from the factory anyway. Just wondering if such a cable really does
exist and what the difference might be.

Dave
--
You can talk about us, but you can't talk without us!
US Army Signal Corps!!

http://www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

Remove IH8SPAM to reply by email!

Cable select cables have one wire filaments cut to one of the connectors. I
don't have a cable select cable to tell you which filament is cut to which
connector. If you jumper both devices in the cable select position, one device
will show up as master and the other as slave, the relation dictated by the
position on the cable. Hence the name "cable select." The connectors on these
cable are also usually marked "system", "master" and "slave", so they can be
connected up properly.

The other type of cable has all wire filaments present to both connectors, and
drives must be explicitly jumpered as master or slave with this type of cable.
A drive jumpered as master can be attached to either of the non-system cable
connectors. Same with slave.

One can, of course, jumper a drive as master and connect it to the master
position of a cable select cable, and the drive will operate properly as a
master. Same with slave... Ben Myers

On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 10:52:21 -0600, David Casey
wrote:

On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 16:15:36 GMT, Sparky wrote in
et:

Generally good advice, but you're not quite on the money when it comes
to online merchants - I bought a new HDD from Newegg last month, they
were offering free 2 day shipping & the price was much better than the
local CompUSA had it. This was a bare drive, i.e., no cables, screws,
instructions, which shouldn't be a problem as David pointed out.

If you have a Dell (which you do), the new HDD should be jumpered for
Cable Select (CS). IIRC most HDDs come jumpered for Master. FYI, you may
need needlenose pliers to manipulate the jumper.

I just bought and installed a DVD burner this weekend and as I was reading
through the manual it came with, it said to use cable select you had to
have a special cable select IDE cable. I'd never heard of that before and
it didn't really apply to me since in my 8400 everything is set to cable
select from the factory anyway. Just wondering if such a cable really does
exist and what the difference might be.

Dave
--
You can talk about us, but you can't talk without us!
US Army Signal Corps!!

http://www.geocities.com/davidcasey98

Remove IH8SPAM to reply by email!

(Ben Myers) wrote:
One can, of course, jumper a drive as master and connect
it to the master position of a cable select cable, and the drive
will operate properly as a master. Same with slave...


The jumpering is only to differentiate the drives on the
channel. A drive jumpered "Master" can be put at the
intermediate connector, and a drive jumpered "Slave"
can be put at the end connector, and they will work just as
well. "Master" and "Slave" are bad names. "Drive X" and
"Drive Y" would actually be better since they don't imply
a hierarchy of authority.

*TimDaniels*

"The jumpering is only to differentiate the drives on the channel. A drive
jumpered "Master" can be put at the intermediate connector, and a drive jumpered
"Slave" can be put at the end connector, and they will work just as well." True,
with the other "non-cable select" type of cable, where positions of the drives
are irrelevant. While explicit master and slave jumpering may work with
cable-select cables, it violates the standard.

The master and slave designations accurately depict function. IDE/ATAPI drives
have built-in controller logic to replace the freestanding controllers of their
similar MFM, RLL and ESDI predecessors. The "master" IDE drive in a two-drive
setup interprets and executes commands on behalf of the "slave". There is a
reason for the politically incorrect master-slave relationship, which is why the
industry standard body which concocted it used the terminology that it did.

.... Ben Myers

On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 10:44:20 -0700, "Timothy Daniels"
wrote:


(Ben Myers) wrote:
One can, of course, jumper a drive as master and connect
it to the master position of a cable select cable, and the drive
will operate properly as a master. Same with slave...


The jumpering is only to differentiate the drives on the
channel. A drive jumpered "Master" can be put at the
intermediate connector, and a drive jumpered "Slave"
can be put at the end connector, and they will work just as
well. "Master" and "Slave" are bad names. "Drive X" and
"Drive Y" would actually be better since they don't imply
a hierarchy of authority.

*TimDaniels*

"Timothy Daniels" wrote in message ...

"Master" and "Slave" are bad names.

Which is probably why that nomenclature was abandoned starting
with ATA-2.

"Drive X" and "Drive Y" would actually be better since they
don't imply a hierarchy of authority.

Device 0 and Device 1 are the proper names.

Back to the future. MFM, RLL & ESDI called the devices 0 & 1, too... Ben Myers

On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 16:26:29 -0400, "Ted" wrote:


"Timothy Daniels" wrote in message ...

"Master" and "Slave" are bad names.

Which is probably why that nomenclature was abandoned starting
with ATA-2.

"Drive X" and "Drive Y" would actually be better since they
don't imply a hierarchy of authority.

Device 0 and Device 1 are the proper names.

I usually buy a name brand white box drive from http://www.dalco.com/ . I
then go to the maker's tech support, and read the faq on how to install a
HD in XP.

If I buy a DVD burner, I purchase a retail box Plextor drive from Dell.I
usually get a drive at a discount and with a rebate.


ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers) wrote in message
...
Back to the future. MFM, RLL & ESDI called the devices 0 & 1, too... Ben
Myers

On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 16:26:29 -0400, "Ted"
wrote:


"Timothy Daniels" wrote in message
...

"Master" and "Slave" are bad names.

Which is probably why that nomenclature was abandoned starting
with ATA-2.

"Drive X" and "Drive Y" would actually be better since they
don't imply a hierarchy of authority.

Device 0 and Device 1 are the proper names.