Dell Dimension 4300 new HD installation

moki899 · 06-10-2008, 07:39 PM

Hi- Been helping out my parents with their Dell Dimension 4300 (p4,1.7GHz,i845mobo,ata-100) PC. They needed a new HD and I'm trying to put in a new ST3160815A from Seagate. I set jumpers to cable select, put on end of IDE cable (black connector), entered BIOS and set to auto-detect (btw, not much customization allowed in there) and it keeps coming up Primary Drive 0 'unknown device'. I tried to erase and reset the NVRAM with the Alt-E, Alt-F,and a reboot but still the drive is 'unknown'.

I even put the CD-ROM cable on the drive and same report -- unknown device. I was thinking my next step is to boot off a seagate CD and run diagnostics but wanted to see if I may have missed something in the BIOS. Fast boot is off and even under the drive settings I can only edit: Drive Type and Capacity -- nothing on cylinders, etc. One blog mentioned the 4300 has a 100GB drive limit, but this is an intel, Pent-4, that used to run XP so I'm skeptical on that....what am I missing?

**eneles** · 06-11-2008, 08:13 AM

Welcome to TSF.

If the drive is alone on the cable - set it to master.
Try another 80-wire ribbon cable.

BTW - I don't think the computer's BIOS supports HDDs larger than 137GB. The drive will work, but you can't use the full capacity.

moki899 · 06-11-2008, 10:02 AM

Yes, it's alone on the cable and tried both CS and Master. No difference. Will try new cable. Would a PCI IDE Adaptor overcome the 137GB limitation? If not, I don't see a big loss since at most it'd lose 12GB or I could partition it 80GB/80GB.

My recent thoughts were possibly bad battery on the mobo -- the PC is 6 years old and I can't verify it's really retaining any info. Also, does anyone know if I run /boot the Seagate utils if I can 'see' the drive even if the BIOS can't?

I'll post back after my next attempts.

**eneles** · 06-11-2008, 10:09 AM

If BIOS says "unknown", even when set to Auto detect, it usually means bad cable, bad drive or incorrect jumper settings.

You won't be able to use more than approx. 128GB in Windows (if BIOS doesn't support 48-bit LBA) - even if you partition the drive.

moki899 · 06-11-2008, 12:46 PM

Haven't gotten the cable, but fingers crossed for LBA-48. According to this, it should cover >137GB:

Intel Application Accelerator

All members of the 845 chipset family support the Intel Application Accelerator (IAA), a driver which provides faster disk I/O, quicker boot times, 48-bit LBA (over 137GB) hard disks, automatic selection of fastest DMA transfer rates for ATA devices, and other benefits. Specific versions of the Intel Application Accelerator vary according to whether you use Windows XP or other Windows versions. See the Intel Application Accelerator Web site for details and to download the latest version of the IAA for your version of Windows: http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa/index.htm

Thanks for the help. Will post after more results.

06-10-2008, 07:39 PM	#1 (permalink)
moki899 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 3 OS: WinXP	Dell Dimension 4300 new HD installation Hi- Been helping out my parents with their Dell Dimension 4300 (p4,1.7GHz,i845mobo,ata-100) PC. They needed a new HD and I'm trying to put in a new ST3160815A from Seagate. I set jumpers to cable select, put on end of IDE cable (black connector), entered BIOS and set to auto-detect (btw, not much customization allowed in there) and it keeps coming up Primary Drive 0 'unknown device'. I tried to erase and reset the NVRAM with the Alt-E, Alt-F,and a reboot but still the drive is 'unknown'. I even put the CD-ROM cable on the drive and same report -- unknown device. I was thinking my next step is to boot off a seagate CD and run diagnostics but wanted to see if I may have missed something in the BIOS. Fast boot is off and even under the drive settings I can only edit: Drive Type and Capacity -- nothing on cylinders, etc. One blog mentioned the 4300 has a 100GB drive limit, but this is an intel, Pent-4, that used to run XP so I'm skeptical on that....what am I missing?

06-11-2008, 08:13 AM	#2 (permalink)
eneles Serf Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 22,292 OS: Xp	Re: Dell Dimension 4300 new HD installation Welcome to TSF. If the drive is alone on the cable - set it to master. Try another 80-wire ribbon cable. BTW - I don't think the computer's BIOS supports HDDs larger than 137GB. The drive will work, but you can't use the full capacity.

06-11-2008, 10:02 AM	#3 (permalink)
moki899 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 3 OS: WinXP	Re: Dell Dimension 4300 new HD installation Yes, it's alone on the cable and tried both CS and Master. No difference. Will try new cable. Would a PCI IDE Adaptor overcome the 137GB limitation? If not, I don't see a big loss since at most it'd lose 12GB or I could partition it 80GB/80GB. My recent thoughts were possibly bad battery on the mobo -- the PC is 6 years old and I can't verify it's really retaining any info. Also, does anyone know if I run /boot the Seagate utils if I can 'see' the drive even if the BIOS can't? I'll post back after my next attempts.

06-11-2008, 10:09 AM	#4 (permalink)
eneles Serf Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 22,292 OS: Xp	Re: Dell Dimension 4300 new HD installation If BIOS says "unknown", even when set to Auto detect, it usually means bad cable, bad drive or incorrect jumper settings. You won't be able to use more than approx. 128GB in Windows (if BIOS doesn't support 48-bit LBA) - even if you partition the drive.

06-11-2008, 12:46 PM	#5 (permalink)
moki899 Registered User Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 3 OS: WinXP	Re: Dell Dimension 4300 new HD installation Haven't gotten the cable, but fingers crossed for LBA-48. According to this, it should cover >137GB: Intel Application Accelerator All members of the 845 chipset family support the Intel Application Accelerator (IAA), a driver which provides faster disk I/O, quicker boot times, 48-bit LBA (over 137GB) hard disks, automatic selection of fastest DMA transfer rates for ATA devices, and other benefits. Specific versions of the Intel Application Accelerator vary according to whether you use Windows XP or other Windows versions. See the Intel Application Accelerator Web site for details and to download the latest version of the IAA for your version of Windows: http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa/index.htm Thanks for the help. Will post after more results.