[griffia2]

Hi
I just bought a second hard drive for my Dell Dimension but I cannot get my pc to see it. I believe that everything is connected ok but no joy! the story is my pc has an original hard drive (80 GB) - parallel connection. the new one which I ordered from Dell (big mistake) is a 160GB Serial ATA (Seagate). I then had to buy a SATA data cable and a parallel to serial power adapter. it is now installed in the pc but nothing is happening. I tried running a disc wizard from Seagate but still nothing. I am hoping someone out there can help as I am getting nowhere with dell tech support.

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did you get sata drivers with the drive..try going to dells website...support section and get the drivers there

[happyrock]

did you get sata drivers with the drive..try going to dells website...support section and get the drivers there

[Vaillant]

Allright griffia2, crash course in IDE vs SATA behaviour.
It just so happens I installed a 320gig WD SATA drive in my Dimension 4600 no less than 3 weeks ago.

What is important to note about SATA stuff is that
1- no jumpers
2- sata 0 is your equivalent to IDE 1 master
3- when put on sata 0 with an IDE as 1 master, there will be a massive conflict

that usually results in something like you have, the sata wont work, or, I've seen this before, if windows is installed on both drives, there will be a huge struggle over power between the two OS's and the system will continually reboot, never getting to either of the windows desktops.

Now (deep breath), ,, you have two choices, from what I know of the situation. Either you try putting the SATA onto SATA 1, which should make it act as a "slave" on the SATA bus, letting your master be clear and slave drive be clear, windows wont be confused. Other choice is to put your IDE on Cable select, put your SATA on 0, and install XP on the SATA (note that its alot easyer to install windows when its just the sata in there)

I dont need to remind you that if you didnt think about formatting the drive, it wont show in windows, so be sure you didnt just have that oversight

[griffia2]

Hi
Thanks for the replys. However, you need to slow down with me! You're not talking to a computer geek here - just someone who needs to upgrade pc, but not really very knowledgeable on these things!
Firstly, I cannot find drivers for the SATA power cable adapter I installed. I bought it in Maplin. It is Oyatech Model # A12AZ. All other parts (hard drive and data cable) were bought in Dell.
Also, I cannot do anything with the disk i.e. format etc, until pc can see it, can I?

Anne

[crash override]

Hi
Thanks for the replys. However, you need to slow down with me! You're not talking to a computer geek here - just someone who needs to upgrade pc, but not really very knowledgeable on these things!
Firstly, I cannot find drivers for the SATA power cable adapter I installed. I bought it in Maplin. It is Oyatech Model # A12AZ. All other parts (hard drive and data cable) were bought in Dell.
Also, I cannot do anything with the disk i.e. format etc, until pc can see it, can I?

Anne

Basically, follow the data cable (non power cable) to where it plugs in to the motherboard. You should see two connectors, one which already has the new drive plugged into it. Unplug the cable from the one it is in and plug it in to the other one. turn the computer on and it should show up.

[happyrock]

does your bios see the sata drive...you get to the bios by tapping the delete key about once a second right after you boot up the computer

[griffia2]

No BIOS does not see SATA drive

[griffia2]

OK. Did that, but still not showing!

[happyrock]

is the SATA drive connected to your motherboard or to a PCI card that you put into the computer...

[griffia2]

it's connected to the motherboard

[happyrock]

go to the motherboard manufacture's website an get ALL the newest drivers for your motherboard...I suspect its the SATA controler driver is the problem...after getting the drivers install them

[griffia2]

OK - it's working now. I downloaded any new drivers I thought were relevant and most importantly, I set SATA to Auto in BIOS. It was actually set to OFF. Anyway it kicked in and is working like a dream, so far.
Thanks for the help

[happyrock]

YOUR WELCOME....

[Ponytail John]

F2 your computer when you turn it on. Make sure that the SATA option is turned on in the System Bios (Setup).I installed a 500 Ghz. Seagate in my Dell Dimension 4600 and installed Win XP Pro Service Pack 3 with no problems!
No RAID driver required!

[Bartenderman]

I am having same problem. Installed 500GB WD hard drive. Connected power using Sata power cable.4 pin to 15. Connected drive to Sata 1 on mother board. Computer doesn't show it. can't get to Bios. Help