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2 Hard Disks in Dell - where to get cable?

Forum Windows XP : Windows XP General Discussion - 2 Hard Disks in Dell - where to get cable?

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

I had my Dell Dimension 4700 and an ancient Compaq plugged into the
same Gold series Belkin surge protector. After a storm, the Compaq is
fine but the Dell rolled over. I could not even boot from the CD, but,
after installing the replacement hard drive, I was able to boot and
install WinXP.

I want to put my sick disk in as a second drive to see if I can get
anything off of it before shipping it off to a data rescue company but
Dell says that they don't support 2 hard drives. There is a second bay
and a spare jack on the power cable but the data cable (not sure the
official name for this) goes straight from the motherboard to the disk
with no additional plugs on it. Where can I get another one of these
cables that has 2 jacks? What is the cable called? Is this even the
kind of cable/interface that allows things to be daisy-chained?

Has anyone had much success with these rescue companies?

Thanks!

Add a reply

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

It's called an ide ribbon cable and any computer store will have them.

<lyne@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:1121902880.857715.247190@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
I had my Dell Dimension 4700 and an ancient Compaq plugged into the
same Gold series Belkin surge protector. After a storm, the Compaq is
fine but the Dell rolled over. I could not even boot from the CD, but,
after installing the replacement hard drive, I was able to boot and
install WinXP.

I want to put my sick disk in as a second drive to see if I can get
anything off of it before shipping it off to a data rescue company but
Dell says that they don't support 2 hard drives. There is a second bay
and a spare jack on the power cable but the data cable (not sure the
official name for this) goes straight from the motherboard to the disk
with no additional plugs on it. Where can I get another one of these
cables that has 2 jacks? What is the cable called? Is this even the
kind of cable/interface that allows things to be daisy-chained?

Has anyone had much success with these rescue companies?

Thanks!

Reply to Anonymous

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

lyne@mindspring.com wrote:
> I had my Dell Dimension 4700 and an ancient Compaq plugged into the
> same Gold series Belkin surge protector. After a storm, the Compaq is
> fine but the Dell rolled over. I could not even boot from the CD,
> but, after installing the replacement hard drive, I was able to boot
> and install WinXP.
>
> I want to put my sick disk in as a second drive to see if I can get
> anything off of it before shipping it off to a data rescue company but
> Dell says that they don't support 2 hard drives. There is a second
> bay and a spare jack on the power cable but the data cable (not sure
> the official name for this) goes straight from the motherboard to the
> disk with no additional plugs on it. Where can I get another one of
> these cables that has 2 jacks? What is the cable called? Is this
> even the kind of cable/interface that allows things to be
> daisy-chained?
>
> Has anyone had much success with these rescue companies?
>
> Thanks!

Just go to your closest computer store and tell them what you want to do.
What you need is a IDE cable that supports a master and slave drive. When
you install the second drive remember to change the pin on the back of the
hard drive from master to slave or cs depending on what you current drive is
set to.

Reply to Charlie

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

"...Dell says that they don't support 2 hard drives..."

http://support.dell.com/support/ed [...] #wp1053797

Scroll down to "adding a second hard drive".

Standard IDE ribbon cables support two drives. I'm a little surprised that
Dell gave you a single-drive cable, although they certainly exist. I believe
that the master drive usually goes on the end. Make sure that you get an 80
conductor cable that supports Ultra DMA drives. (These are also known as ATA
100 and ATA 133.) On other Dell systems, they have recommended that the
drives be jumpered for Cable Select, but they don't supply that detail in
the link above.

I've never used a data recovery company. The word on them is that they are
much too expensive for personal data, but I have never gotten a quotation.

Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

<lyne@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:1121902880.857715.247190@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I had my Dell Dimension 4700 and an ancient Compaq plugged into the
> same Gold series Belkin surge protector. After a storm, the Compaq is
> fine but the Dell rolled over. I could not even boot from the CD, but,
> after installing the replacement hard drive, I was able to boot and
> install WinXP.
>
> I want to put my sick disk in as a second drive to see if I can get
> anything off of it before shipping it off to a data rescue company but
> Dell says that they don't support 2 hard drives. There is a second bay
> and a spare jack on the power cable but the data cable (not sure the
> official name for this) goes straight from the motherboard to the disk
> with no additional plugs on it. Where can I get another one of these
> cables that has 2 jacks? What is the cable called? Is this even the
> kind of cable/interface that allows things to be daisy-chained?
>
> Has anyone had much success with these rescue companies?
>
> Thanks!
>

Reply to Anonymous

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

<lyne@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:1121902880.857715.247190@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I had my Dell Dimension 4700 and an ancient Compaq plugged into the
> same Gold series Belkin surge protector. After a storm, the Compaq is
> fine but the Dell rolled over. I could not even boot from the CD, but,
> after installing the replacement hard drive, I was able to boot and
> install WinXP.
>
> I want to put my sick disk in as a second drive to see if I can get
> anything off of it before shipping it off to a data rescue company but
> Dell says that they don't support 2 hard drives. There is a second bay
> and a spare jack on the power cable but the data cable (not sure the
> official name for this) goes straight from the motherboard to the disk
> with no additional plugs on it. Where can I get another one of these
> cables that has 2 jacks? What is the cable called? Is this even the
> kind of cable/interface that allows things to be daisy-chained?
>
> Has anyone had much success with these rescue companies?
>
> Thanks!
>

If this is just a temporary setup, unplug your CD drive and plug the hard
drive in using those connections.

As for data recovery companies, plan on spending $200 to $2000, average. The
lower end of that will get you a diagnostic and probably not much more.

Reply to Anonymous

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

My Dell (8300)doesn't use the standard 80 pin ribbon cable,it looks more
like a round fiber optic cable.

Mike Pawlak

Reply to map

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Try installing the old HD on another computer and network the two.
If you do this you might need this link.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308421
--
Mike Pawlak

lyne@mindspring.com wrote:
> I had my Dell Dimension 4700 and an ancient Compaq plugged into the
> same Gold series Belkin surge protector. After a storm, the Compaq is
> fine but the Dell rolled over. I could not even boot from the CD,
> but, after installing the replacement hard drive, I was able to boot
> and install WinXP.
>
> I want to put my sick disk in as a second drive to see if I can get
> anything off of it before shipping it off to a data rescue company but
> Dell says that they don't support 2 hard drives. There is a second
> bay and a spare jack on the power cable but the data cable (not sure
> the official name for this) goes straight from the motherboard to the
> disk with no additional plugs on it. Where can I get another one of
> these cables that has 2 jacks? What is the cable called? Is this
> even the kind of cable/interface that allows things to be
> daisy-chained?
>
> Has anyone had much success with these rescue companies?
>
> Thanks!

Reply to map

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

It would appear that the dell 4700 system uses serial ATA and will require a
serial ATA cable. SATA cables only support one drive
Using the IDE cable from the CD will not work as it has a differant
connection.

Chances are the compaq pc uses IDE not SATA. If this is the case, you wont
be able to put the drive into the old compaq pc, unless of cource you can
source some sort of convertor, which to my knowledge is not available.

"lyne@mindspring.com" wrote:

> I had my Dell Dimension 4700 and an ancient Compaq plugged into the
> same Gold series Belkin surge protector. After a storm, the Compaq is
> fine but the Dell rolled over. I could not even boot from the CD, but,
> after installing the replacement hard drive, I was able to boot and
> install WinXP.
>
> I want to put my sick disk in as a second drive to see if I can get
> anything off of it before shipping it off to a data rescue company but
> Dell says that they don't support 2 hard drives. There is a second bay
> and a spare jack on the power cable but the data cable (not sure the
> official name for this) goes straight from the motherboard to the disk
> with no additional plugs on it. Where can I get another one of these
> cables that has 2 jacks? What is the cable called? Is this even the
> kind of cable/interface that allows things to be daisy-chained?
>
> Has anyone had much success with these rescue companies?
>
> Thanks!
>
>

Reply to Anonymous

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Oops.

My apologies. As another poster pointed out, the 4700 probably uses a SATA
(Serial ATA) hard drive. I assumed that, since you weren't familiar with
cables, that the replacement drive was the more common ATA sort.

SATA controllers support a single drive per cable. There are two SATA
sockets on the mainboard, right next to each other.

You'll need a second SATA cable. They are becoming commonly available,
although they may be overpriced at the office supply stores or Circuit City.

Bob Kn.

<lyne@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:1121902880.857715.247190@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I had my Dell Dimension 4700 and an ancient Compaq plugged into the
> same Gold series Belkin surge protector. After a storm, the Compaq is
> fine but the Dell rolled over. I could not even boot from the CD, but,
> after installing the replacement hard drive, I was able to boot and
> install WinXP.
>
> I want to put my sick disk in as a second drive to see if I can get
> anything off of it before shipping it off to a data rescue company but
> Dell says that they don't support 2 hard drives. There is a second bay
> and a spare jack on the power cable but the data cable (not sure the
> official name for this) goes straight from the motherboard to the disk
> with no additional plugs on it. Where can I get another one of these
> cables that has 2 jacks? What is the cable called? Is this even the
> kind of cable/interface that allows things to be daisy-chained?
>
> Has anyone had much success with these rescue companies?
>
> Thanks!
>

Reply to Anonymous

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

I'm the original poster....

Thank you all so much for your responses. I looked online and can get
the SATA cable for under $10 so I think that will be my best option.
There is aanother connector on the motherboard.

I talked to Belkin about the data recovery warranty and they said they
are not too concerned about getting the original receipt for the surge
protector. You have to mail them the surge protector so they can
decide if there was a failure, then ship the disk off to the data
recovery firm That sounds like it could take a long time so I'll try
it myself first.

The one positive in all of this is that I finally was able to create my
partition for Linux before reinstalling stuff on the replacement disk.
I miss Linux!!! I was a nut for commands like "find", "grep", "sed",
and "strings".

Thanks again!

Lyne

Reply to Lyne

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