How To Install Second Hard Drive Dell Xps 8300 User
Define getting it to work. Are you wanting to use the disk as a second drive for storage, or are you wanting to 'Boot' from the disk and use the more advanced feature in Windows Professional? I assume you have the cables connected to the disk! Windows has a problem with two disk containing a System being installed at the same time.
Press in the two green rail tabs and pull the first hard drive out of the upper bay. Gently slide the first hard drive into the lower bay until you hear a click. Page 95 Locate the extra connector on the drive cable that is attached to your first hard drive and attach the connector to the second hard drive. Your computer uses cable-select drive cables. How many hard drives can the xps8300 accomadate.? It looks like two from what I can gather which surprises me since my old xps435 can hold 3. From dell info site on 8300 it does not make it clear. Anyone installed two additional sata drives along with the main drive? Xps 8300 Cry Me a River.
How To Install Second Hard Drive Dell Xps 8300 User Guide
If a hard drive is removed from one computer and inserted in another computer, windows will turn the second disk off. The first thing to check is has windows turned the disk off. Click on Start Right Click on Computer Click Manage Look down near the bottom of the tree that appears on the left, look for Storage.
Below this you should see Disk Management. Click on Disk Management Wait, you should see a message saying, Connecting to virtual disk service at the bottom of the small window that was to the right of the disk management you just clicked on. When information appears in the window, expand it. Look and see if the drive you just installed is listed. Your original drive should be listed as drive 'O' and the new drive should be listed as '1' Is the drive listed as drive '1' showings as being active or is it being show as 'OFF' Exit from here back to you Desktop. Now we go to an elevated Command prompt.
Click on Start Click on Accessories Right click on Command Prompt Click on Yes A DOS Command window should now be open on the screen. Do not get creative or decide to try 'What IF' here. Enter the following, depress enter after each entry and wait for a blinking cursor before entering the next entry.
Diskpart Enter (You may or may not get another window after entering this) List Disk Enter (You should now see which disk can be physically be seen, they will also be listed as offline and online.) Select Disk X (X - will be the disk number that is being show as off line - should be disk 1 - Disk 'O' is the primary drive) Enter Online Disk Enter (Wait) (You should see a message saying the disk is now on line) Exit Enter Now click on 'Start' Right click on 'Computer' Do you see the disk listed now? You should see your primary drive as 'C' and the new drive as 'D' or some other listing. Assuming the disk is listed as 'D' place the cursor on the drive and right click. Now select formatfrom the drop down memu. This will remove everything from the drive and you will be able to use it for storage. If you are no longer using the Windows Professional on the other machine, and have the product code number you may consider doing a 'Anytime' upgrade and have Professional on this machine.
You can access the anytime upgrade through the 'Control Panel. Click on the Anytime Upgrade and then enter the product code number for Professional. If you encounter an activation problem when you select activate now, activate by phone. The call is quick, pain and charge free. Both hard drives show as online.
When I restart the computer it shows 2 options, Windows 7 (drive 0) and ramdisk options (I imagine thats drive 1, but it stillcant get windows to open on that drive. I already did a repair on it and still the same. Windows only opens form drive 0. The reason I dont format or do an anytime upgrade is because I have some files on windows pro hard drive there is some files there that I need. But if i was able to do the dual boot I then I wouldnt have to worry about lossing them ( I know, I should have backed it up before, just didnt think I was going tohave this problem. Dual Booting is what I thought you had in mind or wanted to do.
That is somewhat involved if it works. I know some people who have had success with 'Dual Booting' from the same Hard Drive, different parititons with both operating systems installed on the same computer and others that have had disasters. Your call, here is Microsofts instructions on how to do:. The problem with trying to 'Multi-boot' with a configuration such as your are proposing is like taking a Windows 7 Ultimate Hard Drive out of another computer, insert the Hard Drive in your computer running Windows XP and expect to see Windows 7 Ultimate Boot Up. This is not going to happen. I don't know of anyone who has had great success with this.
Good luck in your endeavor.
Sris The procedure for installing an additional SATA hard drive in the XPS 8300, are HERE You will need a SATA data cable, there should be a spare power connector for a second hard drive inside the case. Four 6-32X1/4, phillips head screws will be required to secure the hard drive to the drive cage. After installing the drive, check in the System Setup, that the motherboard SATA connector the second hard drive is connected to, is enabled on. For windows to recognize the drive, you may need to partition, format and assign the hard drive, a drive letter, using Disk Management. Right click 'Computer' and select, Manage, then Disk Management from the menu.