Sata hd

[sabu]

I am trying to put a second sata hd in a dell 8400. I need a 1-2-on installing it, or setting the bios to reconise it. Any help or a point in the right direction will be greatly appreciated. thanks

 

[Rick]

It's all plug 'n pray...

Just connect the power cable and the SATA cable and physically mount the drive into whatever kind of drive cage your case has and it's automatic. No BIOS. No jumpers. No 'slave/master' stuff... As long as it is connected, it works.

Installing a SATA drive is almost as easy as plugging in a USB device, so don't be afraid to get in there and start hacking away at it.

If you are replacing your current drive or installing Windows on it, things could get a little hairier... But the hardware install is just the same and just as 'easy'. It's the software that can make it a little trickier.

 

[sabu]

second sata

I did get in and hacked away. You do have to change the bios. I enabled all sata and later turned off the ones the computer could not find. It appeared to be working fine but it gives a mesage that the hardware may not work because a driver was not valed. Can I download drivers from seagate or if it is working what the hell?

 

[Rick]

You do have to change the bios. I enabled all sata and later turned off the ones the computer could not find.

Good work on that. Kind of odd SATA was disabled by default though.

There is not really a driver for your hard drive. But there is one for your SATA/RAID controller. You'll need to find out what brand and model of controller you have so you can get a driver for it.

Is this a custom built system? If it is, you can find the driver based on the system board installed and the manufacturer's website. If this is a commercial product (Such as Dell or HP), then you should be able to get the drivers based on the model of your computer from their website.

I'm not sure why your drive works if the RAID controller is not installed, but it will be a good idea to install the driver for it regardless.

 

[IBN]

plug 'n pray

All systems come with plug `n pray as standard.