Can I put a second hard drive in this computer?

TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
edited October 2003 in Hardware
I've got a Dell Dimension 2100 with the 1.1 Celeron and a 20 GB Seagate Barracuda HD. It works good but the hard drive is just too small.

I opened it up to look, and the motherboard only had one IDE plug, and the cable going to the HD doesn't have any extra connectors on it.

If I bought another drive and the multiple connector cable and plugged them both into the one available IDE plug, would it work?

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Yep.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited October 2003
    Some HDDs come with an ATA cable with a master and slave connections. My 80GB WD SE did.
  • BDRBDR
    edited October 2003
    Tim had this to say


    I opened it up to look, and the motherboard only had one IDE plug

    Are you saying it doesn't have a second IDE port for the cdrom drive?

    I don't know that I've ever see a mobo with only 1 IDE plug in.

    No matter though. You should just be able to buy a connector with master and slave connections, to replace the one you have now.
  • BDRBDR
    edited October 2003
    mmonnin had this to say
    Some HDDs come with an ATA cable with a master and slave connections. My 80GB WD SE did.

    Ah yes, if you buy the retail package, you should get a connector with the new hard drive.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    ONE IDE plug is unusual. If it has a CD-ROM that is connected to the second one, and sometimes they are two different color surrounds but still both IDE. I have seen mobos with one white IDE and one Black, sometimes the black one is hidden behind cables or teh HD almost sticks out over it when mounted.

    Yes, you could do this-- get a 40 GB and copy the data from the 20 onto it and then unhook it. Retail WD and Maxtor HDs come with dual connector IDE cables, but you might end up at a store gettign an older style cable-- they run $3-4.00 USD each for the 40 conductor cables, close to same for the 80 conductor ones in larger quantities. Used one of older kind shuold be around $1.50-2.00 each-- cable, not drive.

    Curiously, the WDs are more backward compatible than the Maxtors, a 40 GB Caviar (bigger buffer) is cheaper right now than a 20-30 GB HD of most kinds that are still available and warrantied. With an older box, you might find that 40-60 GB is as much as the Windows on box will handle WELL unless you have upgraded Windows. 98, for example, likes less than 20 GB partitions, the 40 would need to be two partitions. Boxes from 95 and 96 might see only a total of about 32 GB of the HD, but if it later went into a newer (mfr'd in 99 or more recently) box the newer box should see all 40 GB OK.

    Yes, you can run two HDs, I tend to jumper them to the ID I want them to (Slave or Master) when mixing Seagates and WD HDs.

    John.
  • TacoguyTacoguy Colorado
    edited October 2003
    Hi Tim

    Usually (newer) Motherboards have 2 connectors allowing up to 4 drives set up in a master / slave configuration. Some other older boards have a single IDE channel with the hard drive being master and usually a CDROM as slave. If you have this type of board, you can do as AGeek suggested, disconnect the CDROM and copy the master drive data to the slave hard drive. It gets messy but it can be done

    Best
    TG
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    That´s generally Dell for you. Mixing a harddrive and a atapi on the same ide channel.

    As John said, look for a connector with another colour.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2003
    Have you got space for another hard drive? Even if you have another connector, if you don't have an open drive bay, it won't make much difference...
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Geeky1 had this to say
    Have you got space for another hard drive? Even if you have another connector, if you don't have an open drive bay, it won't make much difference...

    Don´t underestimate the power of good old gaffatejp. The goodlike mod-tool.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited October 2003
    Thrax had this to say
    Yep.
    Indeedy. You might need to go into the BIOS and let the computer know that there is a new kid in town.

    In case you need help doing that.

    BDR - As Ageek said, this is unusual, but they are out there... :eek3:
    It was a favorite trick of the late (unlamented) Packard-Bell. At my first job at a repair shop I think roughly 25% of the profits we made were from the poor souls who made one little teeny-tiny mistake when they bought their first computer... :wtf:
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    One port IDE cables AREN'T unusual at all, you will find they are quite common in cheap and old mini-ATX machines, especially from crap brands such as Tiny, Time and other places like them.

    NS
  • CreepCreep Hell Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Yea, I think you guys misunderstood. Somehow I think he means the IDE Cable only has one connector, not the MotherBoard.
  • TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    What I meant was that there was only one IDE port for the hard drives. There is another one for the CD-RW / DVD drive I have in the computer. Then there is one for the floppy drive that I almost never use.

    I went to a computer show in the area today. I was going to buy a hard drive there, ended up almost buying another low powered system to be used for Kazaa filesharing, and ended up not getting anything. The people selling hard drives were some Russian family, and the word was that their stuff was junk and they had a side deal with the managers of the computer show to let them be in there.

    So I went to a nearby Circuit City and looked at their hard drives. I could have bought a 40 GB Western Digital for $60 after the mail in rebate.

    I then went across the street and 2 blocks down to a Comp USA store. They had Seagate Barracuda 80 GB drives on sale for $50 after the mail in rebate. Since I've had a Seagate Barracuda 20 GB in my computer for nearly 2 years and it has performed flawlessly, I got it.

    Once home, I read through the instruction manual and installed the driver CD data in the computer. I have my 20 GB as the master and the new 80 GB as the slave drive. Everything went well in the installation process.

    Only 2 minor things I have to deal with:

    The one extra power cable needs to have its wires lengthened by about 12" to reach the CD drive now. I had to pull the power off of the CD drive to reach the hard drive.

    There is no second bay for a hard drive in this computer. The original is bolted vertically to the front metal panel of the computer. So I just stood the new 80 GB drive up alongside it, sitting on the floor of the case. The wires in the case should be enough to hold it in place. Maybe I'll tape down the lower edge to be sure.

    Only thing I didn't like is that the "80 GB" drive is really only 74.5 GB. Just like my "20 GB" drive has always been only 18.6 GB.

    I think this will be my webshow topic for this weeks' episode. The size difference.

    The cable supplied with the new drive also worked well to connect both drives to the motherboard.

    So after I lengthen the power wires to reach the CD drive again and tape down the new hard drive, all should be well again. And I'll have a lot of extra space for backing up data and storing more stuff. The main job of this new drive is to have a seperate backup of important (to me) files. Mostly my own and other webshows from the internet.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited October 2003
    Tim had this to say
    What I meant was that there was only one IDE port for the hard drives. There is another one for the CD-RW / DVD drive I have in the computer. Then there is one for the floppy drive that I almost never use.
    The HD & CDROM are both IDE, and interchangeable. Floppy's a different animal altogether (compare the number of wires).
    I went to a computer show in the area today. I was going to buy a hard drive there, ended up almost buying another low powered system to be used for Kazaa filesharing, and ended up not getting anything. The people selling hard drives were some Russian family, and the word was that their stuff was junk and they had a side deal with the managers of the computer show to let them be in there.
    You were wise to be skeptical of the Russians. I would also advise you to be equally careful when dealing with any group listed here - these countries are known for harboring rip-off artists. You might also be leery of the "word" that goes around computer shows.
    So I went to a nearby Circuit City and looked at their hard drives. I could have bought a 40 GB Western Digital for $60 after the mail in rebate.

    I then went across the street and 2 blocks down to a Comp USA store. They had Seagate Barracuda 80 GB drives on sale for $50 after the mail in rebate. Since I've had a Seagate Barracuda 20 GB in my computer for nearly 2 years and it has performed flawlessly, I got it.

    Once home, I read through the instruction manual and installed the driver CD data in the computer. I have my 20 GB as the master and the new 80 GB as the slave drive. Everything went well in the installation process.

    Good job!
    Only 2 minor things I have to deal with:

    The one extra power cable needs to have its wires lengthened by about 12" to reach the CD drive now. I had to pull the power off of the CD drive to reach the hard drive.

    There is no second bay for a hard drive in this computer. The original is bolted vertically to the front metal panel of the computer. So I just stood the new 80 GB drive up alongside it, sitting on the floor of the case. The wires in the case should be enough to hold it in place. Maybe I'll tape down the lower edge to be sure.

    Only thing I didn't like is that the "80 GB" drive is really only 74.5 GB. Just like my "20 GB" drive has always been only 18.6 GB.

    Last things first: HD manufacturers rate their drives this way:

    1GB = 1,000MB

    Real world (mostly windows & dos based OS's) rate it in the binary way as 2 to the 10th power, or:

    1GB = 1,024MB

    The size difference is normal.

    As far as the mounting, if you bump your case and the HD topples over you'll find yourself back at Circuit City, hat-in-hand... :wtf:
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