I want to install this samsung pro ssd in my friends Dell xps 8300.

Pavel Pokidaylo

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Hi. I installed this samsung pro ssd into my friends dell xps 8300 and installed windows on it. It boots up and works fine but his old 500gig hdd is not showing up. He told me this PC came with this 500gig HDD and also a 15Gig recovery drive. The physical size of both drives is identical so not sure if that really is a 15gig recovery drive. Something is also popping up as a 1TB drive.

With the SSD installed into SATA0 and the 500gig HDD in SATA1, windows boots up from the SSD but does not show the 500gig HDD.

Any help is appreciated thanks
 
Solution
Hi,
Since there is some confusion, you should just take the side of the case to observe what drives are actually there.

*The 500GB drive should show up in Windows Explorer, and since it's already been formatted it should be there provided it's functional and the Data/Power cables are connected to it.

15GB:
I think he's referring to a portion of the Hard Drive that contains a backup Partition with an Image of the original Windows Installation (used to Restore Windows in case of problems). If you find the hard drive again you should just FORMAT the entire thing provided there's no data you need from it.

If it's a Hidden partition you wouldn't normally see it, but then you can't find the hard drive anyway.

(not sure what you are...
Hi,
Since there is some confusion, you should just take the side of the case to observe what drives are actually there.

*The 500GB drive should show up in Windows Explorer, and since it's already been formatted it should be there provided it's functional and the Data/Power cables are connected to it.

15GB:
I think he's referring to a portion of the Hard Drive that contains a backup Partition with an Image of the original Windows Installation (used to Restore Windows in case of problems). If you find the hard drive again you should just FORMAT the entire thing provided there's no data you need from it.

If it's a Hidden partition you wouldn't normally see it, but then you can't find the hard drive anyway.

(not sure what you are referring to when you say "equal" either)

1TB: not sure, again look inside the PC.

**Is it possible there is a 1TB Hard Drive that's been partitioned into TWO pieces? Is that what he meant by "equal" and may explain why you see a 1TB drive? Maybe there is no 500GB drive, just a 1GB drive?

If so, in Windows Explorer you might see something like THIS:
1) C: Windows (SSD)
2) D: DVD drive
3) E: Partition #1 of 1TB HDD1
4) F: Partition #2 of 1TB HDD1
 
Solution

Pavel Pokidaylo

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Hey thanks for the reply. By equal I meant that they are of equal physical size. I mean the actual size of the hdds and not the amount of memory on them. Like the actual physical drives are identical in width and length. That's why It's hard for me to believe that the second drive is just a 15gig recovery drive.

When I plugged the SSD in the SATA0 and installed windows on it it booted up just fine no problems at all. But the PC is not finding the other drive in the computer. It did find his western digital external hard drive but not the HDD in inside the PC. When I unplugged the SSD and plugged the other drive back in it booted up windows and all his stuff was there.

We did not format the 500gig hdd.
 
I think the 15GB is the Windows recovery partition - not another actual physical drive.
Both the SSD and the HDD have to be plugged into power and the sata cable to the motherboard. Are there connectors available for both the SSD and HDD? Are both drives plugged in?
 

Pavel Pokidaylo

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Ok Yogi I will try that thanks. And yes both are plugged in. The thing is that this PC came with 2 HDDs. My friend thought that the second one was the 15gig recovery drive but that made no sense to me when I opened the case and saw that the drive is just as large as the 500gig one.