Dell E510 Second Hard Drive

Ok, I have a Dell E510. It's my main desktop PC and still works fine.
However, I'm taking so many pictures and downloading so much music from
iTunes the hard drive that came with it, 80GB, is all full. I already had
to transfer
all the pictures from it to an external hard drive last year. Now it's full
again.

I was reading the manual for this computer and see that it can hold a
second hard drive. I went to Best Buy and looked
for internal hard drives. I found a worker and told him I want a bigger
hard drive in my computer. He said is should be pretty
easy to slide in another hard drive and hook it up.

Anyway, I just opened up my E510. I found were the first hard drive is
and where the second one goes. I also saw the plastic holder that slides
out and you put the second hard drive in.

Questions - Is a SATA the same as a serial ATA drive? I found a 2
terabyte Seagate internal hard drive for around $80.00. That would be soooo
nice.

So do I do this, so I just slide the second hard drive in the second spot
and hook up the cables? Would I have to take out the first hard drive and
replace it with the second and put the first one in the second place? Or
can I keep the first one in the first place (on top) and put the second hard
drive in the empty second space? I was reading something in the manual
about this and I'm not sure it applies to me: This from the manual -

"IDE Drive Addressing
When you connect two IDE devices to a single IDE interface cable and
configure them for the cable
select setting, the device attached to the last connector on the interface
cable is the master or boot
device (drive 0), and the device attached to the middle connector on the
interface cable is the slave
device (drive 1). See the drive documentation in your upgrade kit for
information on configuring devices
for the cable select setting."


Also, when I put the second drive in, how many cables will I have to hook
up?

Thanks!

Von Fourche wrote:
Ok, I have a Dell E510. It's my main desktop PC and still works
fine. However, I'm taking so many pictures and downloading so much
music from iTunes the hard drive that came with it, 80GB, is all
full. I already had to transfer
all the pictures from it to an external hard drive last year. Now
it's full again.

I was reading the manual for this computer and see that it can hold a
second hard drive. I went to Best Buy and looked
for internal hard drives. I found a worker and told him I want a
bigger hard drive in my computer. He said is should be pretty
easy to slide in another hard drive and hook it up.

Anyway, I just opened up my E510. I found were the first hard drive
is and where the second one goes. I also saw the plastic holder that
slides out and you put the second hard drive in.

Questions - Is a SATA the same as a serial ATA drive? I found a 2
terabyte Seagate internal hard drive for around $80.00. That would
be soooo nice.


For about the same money you can get a drive in a case that plugs into a USB
port and you don't have the hassle of installing it. Just Google USB hard
drive. New Egg has 2GB USB drives for $99 to $110.

Tom J
who has a 4 TB USB drive and like it

On Fri, 31 Dec 2010 12:30:10 -0500, in alt.sys.pc-clone.dell, "Tom J"
wrote:

For about the same money you can get a drive in a case that plugs into a USB
port and you don't have the hassle of installing it. Just Google USB hard
drive. New Egg has 2GB USB drives for $99 to $110.

Tom J
who has a 4 TB USB drive and like it

A USB external hard drive is fine if you don't mind the slower speed, but
they can't match the performance of a SATA internal drive or eSATA external
drive.

I have one USB external drive and two eSATA drives, and the backup speed to
the eSATA drives is more than double the speed to the USB drives. (eSATA is
the external version of the SATA interface used for internal hard drives.)

The new USB 3.0 interface is faster, but there are very few hard drives
available that use that and it's unlikely that the original poster has a USB
3.0 interface on his computer.

--
Nick

"Natural laws have no pity." R.A.H.

"Tom J" wrote in message
eb.com...
Von Fourche wrote:
Ok, I have a Dell E510. It's my main desktop PC and still works
fine. However, I'm taking so many pictures and downloading so much
music from iTunes the hard drive that came with it, 80GB, is all
full. I already had to transfer
all the pictures from it to an external hard drive last year. Now
it's full again.

I was reading the manual for this computer and see that it can hold a
second hard drive. I went to Best Buy and looked
for internal hard drives. I found a worker and told him I want a
bigger hard drive in my computer. He said is should be pretty
easy to slide in another hard drive and hook it up.

Anyway, I just opened up my E510. I found were the first hard drive
is and where the second one goes. I also saw the plastic holder that
slides out and you put the second hard drive in.

Questions - Is a SATA the same as a serial ATA drive? I found a 2
terabyte Seagate internal hard drive for around $80.00. That would
be soooo nice.


For about the same money you can get a drive in a case that plugs into a
USB port and you don't have the hassle of installing it. Just Google USB
hard drive. New Egg has 2GB USB drives for $99 to $110.




I know about the externals but I want an internal so I can put it in and
forget about it.

On Thu, 30 Dec 2010 23:09:40 -0500, "Von Fourche"
wrote:



Ok, I have a Dell E510. It's my main desktop PC and still works fine.
However, I'm taking so many pictures and downloading so much music from
iTunes the hard drive that came with it, 80GB, is all full. I already had
to transfer
all the pictures from it to an external hard drive last year. Now it's full
again.

I was reading the manual for this computer and see that it can hold a
second hard drive. I went to Best Buy and looked
for internal hard drives. I found a worker and told him I want a bigger
hard drive in my computer. He said is should be pretty
easy to slide in another hard drive and hook it up.

Anyway, I just opened up my E510. I found were the first hard drive is
and where the second one goes. I also saw the plastic holder that slides
out and you put the second hard drive in.

Questions - Is a SATA the same as a serial ATA drive? I found a 2
terabyte Seagate internal hard drive for around $80.00. That would be soooo
nice.

So do I do this, so I just slide the second hard drive in the second spot
and hook up the cables? Would I have to take out the first hard drive and
replace it with the second and put the first one in the second place? Or
can I keep the first one in the first place (on top) and put the second hard
drive in the empty second space? I was reading something in the manual
about this and I'm not sure it applies to me: This from the manual -

"IDE Drive Addressing
When you connect two IDE devices to a single IDE interface cable and
configure them for the cable
select setting, the device attached to the last connector on the interface
cable is the master or boot
device (drive 0), and the device attached to the middle connector on the
interface cable is the slave
device (drive 1). See the drive documentation in your upgrade kit for
information on configuring devices
for the cable select setting."


Also, when I put the second drive in, how many cables will I have to hook
up?

Thanks!





Von Fourche, I'm not particularly versed on your model but it
shouldn't matter where it goes inside as long as the SATA cable and
power cable can reach it. I don't know if your power supply offers a
free connector for the length you need and I don't know if you have a
spare SATA cable to reach your 2nd drive. Of course Ben or Chris may
be more versed on this but I'm just trying to give you a feel for what
you should look out for. I went thru the same hoops as you when I
got my 410 years ago. I think I have 3 drives in it now. I remember
people telling me I had to get a right angle connector for I think the
2nd drive slot... a pain but knowing that ahead saved me a lot of
grief. Sad thing now is I hardly use it.

"RnR" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 30 Dec 2010 23:09:40 -0500, "Von Fourche"
wrote:





Von Fourche, I'm not particularly versed on your model but it
shouldn't matter where it goes inside as long as the SATA cable and
power cable can reach it. I don't know if your power supply offers a
free connector for the length you need and I don't know if you have a
spare SATA cable to reach your 2nd drive.


When I looked at it last night I saw the SATA cable connected to the drive
but it also continued down with an open
connector. It was like one cable with two connectors - one at the very end
(that is not used) and a connector a few inches up that is used by the first
hard drive.

On Fri, 31 Dec 2010 20:35:22 -0500, in alt.sys.pc-clone.dell, "Von Fourche"
wrote:

When I looked at it last night I saw the SATA cable connected to the drive
but it also continued down with an open
connector. It was like one cable with two connectors - one at the very end
(that is not used) and a connector a few inches up that is used by the first
hard drive.

Whoa!

That does not sound like a SATA cable. A SATA cable is round, with one
connector on each end.

An IDE cable is a flat ribbon cable and they usually have two connectors for
two drives: one of the end, one in the middle.

If you have an IDE cable, you need an IDE drive; a SATA drive won't work, as
the interface is completely different.

You'll have to shop around for IDE drives; most newer computers and newer
hard drives use the SATA interface. No idea what sort of prices, sizes,
etc. are available for IDE drives.

My advice: wait for somebody familiar with your specific computer model to
show up and give you some advice with this.

--
Nick

TANSTAAFL! (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!) R.A.H.

Interesting since the E510 specs here indicate that it came with SATA
drives...

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc.../sm/specs1.htm

--------

Regards,
Hank Arnold
Microsoft MVP
Windows Server - Directory Services
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/personal-pc-assistant/

On 1/1/2011 12:33 AM, Nick wrote:

On Fri, 31 Dec 2010 20:35:22 -0500, in alt.sys.pc-clone.dell, "Von Fourche"
wrote:

When I looked at it last night I saw the SATA cable connected to the drive
but it also continued down with an open
connector. It was like one cable with two connectors - one at the very end
(that is not used) and a connector a few inches up that is used by the first
hard drive.

Whoa!

That does not sound like a SATA cable. A SATA cable is round, with one
connector on each end.

An IDE cable is a flat ribbon cable and they usually have two connectors for
two drives: one of the end, one in the middle.

If you have an IDE cable, you need an IDE drive; a SATA drive won't work, as
the interface is completely different.

You'll have to shop around for IDE drives; most newer computers and newer
hard drives use the SATA interface. No idea what sort of prices, sizes,
etc. are available for IDE drives.

My advice: wait for somebody familiar with your specific computer model to
show up and give you some advice with this.

"Hank Arnold" wrote in message
...
Interesting since the E510 specs here indicate that it came with SATA
drives...

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc.../sm/specs1.htm

--------

Regards,
Hank Arnold
Microsoft MVP
Windows Server - Directory Services
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/personal-pc-assistant/

On 1/1/2011 12:33 AM, Nick wrote:

On Fri, 31 Dec 2010 20:35:22 -0500, in alt.sys.pc-clone.dell, "Von
Fourche"
wrote:

When I looked at it last night I saw the SATA cable connected to the
drive
but it also continued down with an open
connector. It was like one cable with two connectors - one at the very
end
(that is not used) and a connector a few inches up that is used by the
first
hard drive.

Whoa!

That does not sound like a SATA cable. A SATA cable is round, with one
connector on each end.

An IDE cable is a flat ribbon cable and they usually have two connectors
for
two drives: one of the end, one in the middle.

If you have an IDE cable, you need an IDE drive; a SATA drive won't work,
as
the interface is completely different.

You'll have to shop around for IDE drives; most newer computers and newer
hard drives use the SATA interface. No idea what sort of prices, sizes,
etc. are available for IDE drives.

My advice: wait for somebody familiar with your specific computer model
to
show up and give you some advice with this.


Both the E510 and E310 (my model) list SATA as supported drives, however the
primary drive connector is an IDE connector, the motherboard is also
supposed to include two SATA ports. I just checked the installed hardware
on my E310 and the hard drive is an IDE drive.
Carl

you just described the sata power connector.


Von Fourche wrote:
When I looked at it last night I saw the SATA cable connected to the drive
but it also continued down with an open
connector. It was like one cable with two connectors - one at the very end
(that is not used) and a connector a few inches up that is used by the first
hard drive.