New Dell Drive

Imno Guru · 09-05-2008, 06:38 AM

Hello, I have a dell dimension 4600i
1 GIG ram
No Drive ( I have actually got a 13 gig with win98se on it, in the computer currently)
Pentium 4 dual core
service tag 7xkz91s

I have just bought a new drive, it is a WD 500Gb SATA2 16m HDD, the power connection cable and the data cable.

The tech put the cable on to the mother board.
They also set up the drive????

.... I think to recognize the drive.

SO now, do I remove the old drive, install new drive (500gig sata), attach power connection and data cable, close case and turn on power? YES/NO

Then what do I do

I have a copy of Win XP sp3 HOW EVEEEERRR THE CD PLAYER doesnt work.eg the bios tells me it is not installed?
need more please ask Ill give you a small history.
Any help offered will be gratefully accepted Thank you.

**blah789** · 09-06-2008, 04:22 PM

By "CD player" do you mean the DVD or CD drive? What interface does it use? (PATA or SATA). If it's not detected, have you tried changing cables? If PATA have you checked the jumper settings in the back of the drive? (is it set to master, slave or cable select? and you have a 'cable select' cable? (they'll usually have DRIVE 0 and DRIVE 1 written somewhere, or maybe MASTER and SLAVE))
If none of this works, just get a new DVD-ROM drive. They're so cheap these days.

If all of this works, you probably know how to do the rest. You set the boot order in your BIOS so the CD boots first, then pop the CD into the drive and let XP install.

A couple more words about XP installation: you have two options since you have a SATA drive (and XP doesn't support SATA natively)
- you can go into the BIOS and set the SATA controller to act like a PATA one (setting may be named 'legacy IDE' or something like that) If you do that XP will detect the drive fine
- if you have a floppy drive, when you boot from the XP CD, you have to press F6 to provide the SATA drivers on a floppy disk. You can find such drivers by finding out the model of your SATA controller (usually bundled with the motherboard these days, so likely on the motherboard manufacturer's web site)
According to the Dell manual for the 4600i, you have an Intel 865G chipset. I had a lot of trouble locating the drivers (most are for graphical mode of Windows) - but I learned a bit of info about the controller, you can run it in RAID or AHCI mode (I presume AHCI means single drive - make sure it's set to run in AHCI in the BIOS if you have the choice). Anyway after a bit of searching I found the floppy drivers here
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...ional&lang=eng
(I got it from here http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Prod...ProductID=1809 and selected XP 32-bit - then it's under "Utilities, Tools and Examples" - NOT drivers)
Once you make the floppy you should be good to go.

Imno Guru · 09-26-2008, 04:40 AM

Wow that was a lot on the To Do List. Thanks heaps. I followed what you said to do piece by piece.
Turns out it was the cd Drive gone bung. I bought a new one but didnt have any install disks for it, did a bit of searching and fixed that. The cD Drive was IDE Hard drive Sata.
I went to the dell site but it gagged on my service code, and wsa no help there for me.
Your link saved the day though and now everything running smooth as silk.
Thanks for the help.

09-05-2008, 06:38 AM	#1 (permalink)
Imno Guru Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 8 OS: none	New Dell Drive Hello, I have a dell dimension 4600i 1 GIG ram No Drive ( I have actually got a 13 gig with win98se on it, in the computer currently) Pentium 4 dual core service tag 7xkz91s I have just bought a new drive, it is a WD 500Gb SATA2 16m HDD, the power connection cable and the data cable. The tech put the cable on to the mother board. They also set up the drive????.... I think to recognize the drive. SO now, do I remove the old drive, install new drive (500gig sata), attach power connection and data cable, close case and turn on power? YES/NO Then what do I do I have a copy of Win XP sp3 HOW EVEEEERRR THE CD PLAYER doesnt work.eg the bios tells me it is not installed? need more please ask Ill give you a small history. Any help offered will be gratefully accepted Thank you.

09-06-2008, 04:22 PM	#2 (permalink)
blah789 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2,309 OS: Windows 2000 SP4 and Windows XP SP3	Re: New Dell Drive By "CD player" do you mean the DVD or CD drive? What interface does it use? (PATA or SATA). If it's not detected, have you tried changing cables? If PATA have you checked the jumper settings in the back of the drive? (is it set to master, slave or cable select? and you have a 'cable select' cable? (they'll usually have DRIVE 0 and DRIVE 1 written somewhere, or maybe MASTER and SLAVE)) If none of this works, just get a new DVD-ROM drive. They're so cheap these days. If all of this works, you probably know how to do the rest. You set the boot order in your BIOS so the CD boots first, then pop the CD into the drive and let XP install. A couple more words about XP installation: you have two options since you have a SATA drive (and XP doesn't support SATA natively) - you can go into the BIOS and set the SATA controller to act like a PATA one (setting may be named 'legacy IDE' or something like that) If you do that XP will detect the drive fine - if you have a floppy drive, when you boot from the XP CD, you have to press F6 to provide the SATA drivers on a floppy disk. You can find such drivers by finding out the model of your SATA controller (usually bundled with the motherboard these days, so likely on the motherboard manufacturer's web site) According to the Dell manual for the 4600i, you have an Intel 865G chipset. I had a lot of trouble locating the drivers (most are for graphical mode of Windows) - but I learned a bit of info about the controller, you can run it in RAID or AHCI mode (I presume AHCI means single drive - make sure it's set to run in AHCI in the BIOS if you have the choice). Anyway after a bit of searching I found the floppy drivers here http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...ional&lang=eng (I got it from here http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Prod...ProductID=1809 and selected XP 32-bit - then it's under "Utilities, Tools and Examples" - NOT drivers) Once you make the floppy you should be good to go.

09-26-2008, 04:40 AM	#3 (permalink)
Imno Guru Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 8 OS: none	Re: New Dell Drive Wow that was a lot on the To Do List. Thanks heaps. I followed what you said to do piece by piece. Turns out it was the cd Drive gone bung. I bought a new one but didnt have any install disks for it, did a bit of searching and fixed that. The cD Drive was IDE Hard drive Sata. I went to the dell site but it gagged on my service code, and wsa no help there for me. Your link saved the day though and now everything running smooth as silk. Thanks for the help.