Can I add 3rd harddrive to Dell XPS system?

meg20 · January 16th, 2005, 03:44 PM

There is room (slot) for the drive, but I need a controller connection. What do I need to get/do?
Thank you

HeadBand · January 16th, 2005, 03:53 PM

are there 2 optical drives already?

are any of the other 2 hard drives sata?

do you know if there are any sata ports on the board even?

LeftCoast · January 16th, 2005, 04:01 PM

In a pinch you can remove one of the optical drives (as HB is alluding to, I think), and add the HDD there. So, if you have a cd-rom and cd-rw drive, disconnect the plain cd-rom, make the burner the master, and slave the 3rd HDD to the burner IDE cable. You access times may suffer (for the 3rd HDD), but I've done it.

Also, for @ $20, you can get a controller card that will allow you to do this W/O removing any optical drives.

LeftCoast · January 16th, 2005, 04:09 PM

Wait a minute...the XPS-- is this a notebook? You'll need to get an external USB HDD for it in that case.

meg20 · January 16th, 2005, 10:17 PM

Is there any special type/brand of controller card? I have empty slots in computer and don't want to remove optical drive. It could take RAID drives, but I don't want to spend that kind of money.
Thanks

LeftCoast · January 16th, 2005, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meg20

...It could take RAID drives, but I don't want to spend that kind of money.

What's the model number and specs of the computer? Does the mobo have raid controllers, because if so, you may just need an additional cable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by meg20

There is room (slot) for the drive, but I need a controller connection. What do I need to get/do?

HeadBand · January 16th, 2005, 10:39 PM

you still have not awnserd my questions, i know that dell sometimes puts a 1 connector ide cable in so if you just simply replace that with a 2 connector cable and add another hard drive as a slave

when you say it can take raid drives, are you refering to the motherboard you have, i think any RAID dell would have would be SATA so there is a good chance you have onboard sata, so you could just add an sata hard drive (it does not have to be in a raid config)...look on your motherboard there should be a set of 2-4 connectors each about an inch long by 1/4 inch high 1 long peice of plastic in the middle with 7 metal contacts

if you don't have sata then you will need a controller, this is the cheapeast i found on newegg with good reviews
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...102-002&depa=0

if you don't have sata

LeftCoast · January 16th, 2005, 10:40 PM

To verify that your computer is a Dell Dimension XPS Gen ???:

1. Right-click My Computer.
2. Click Properties.
3. Verify that XPS Gen ??? appears on the General tab.

meg20 · January 17th, 2005, 01:30 PM

Sorry,
Dell Dimension DIMXPS Pent 4 3.0
I've tried customer service, but they don't understand my question.
I don't know sata. I did not order RAID, just the normal harddrive. We have added a 120 harddrive, so now have 2 hard drives, dvd and dvd burner, so total of 4. Started editing home video and filling up fast.
Thank you.

LeftCoast · January 17th, 2005, 01:58 PM

It appears your computer supports 3 serial HDDs, which is good. You need to verify that your system is a SERIES 4 XPS, however, as I asked in my last post.
__________________________________
To verify that your computer is a Dell Dimension XPS Gen ???:

1. Right-click My Computer.
2. Click Properties.
3. Verify that XPS Gen ??? appears on the General tab.
__________________________________

If it is a Series 4, you just need to get a serial HDD. I'd make it as large as you can afford, as it's the last one you can add without getting more stuff. If it's a series 3 however, 2 HDDs is the limit for onboard support.