internal hard drive upgrade: Inspiton 531 desktop vista 32 bit AMD64 2core?

kr236rk

You connect the SATA hard drive's power connector directly to the power supply's wiring harness, there should a spare SATA power connector inside the case for a second hard drive, the data cable is connected to the motherboard.

For more info, go HERE

After installing the drive, did you enter the system setup and check that the hard drive is 'enabled' [on]?

For Vista to recognize the second hard drive, it must be partitioned and formatted.

Instructions for installing an additional hard drive using Windows Vista Disk Management, check out the generic procedures HERE.

Bev.

kr236rk:

shesagordie:

kr236rk

A SATA II hard drive will be fine, you will need to buy a SATA data cable, there should ba spare SATA power connector inside the case.

Personally, I would transfer the data on the 10gb D:/ to an external hard drive.

I use the following method to safe guard my data:

Using SATA two hard drives and an imaging utility, like Acronis, or Casper to image the C:/ drive to the secondary hard drive.

When there is a problem, all I need to do, is to swap the data cables and boot the system. 

Then image the new C:/  to the corrupted second hard drive, creating a corrupt free image again.

Plus make regular backups of the files and folders to an USB external hard drive.

Bev.

update

just had the cover off the pc and checked all the connections again - the power cable might just stretch to where it shows on the Dell 531 instructions but this cable ends in a four pin plug - there are no four pin sockets or anything that i can see with four sockets???

still no sign of the 3rd hard drive - 'Computer' shows 'C' and backup 'D' and that's all :(

R

 

kr236rk

You have me confused, the Inspiron 531 motherboard supports only 4 SATA drives, usually 2 x SATA hard drives and 2 x SATA optical drives.

How many drives do you have installed?

There are no lagacy 4-pin Molex power connectors on the 531 wiring harness, only 4 x 15-pin SATA  power connectors and 1 x Floppy drive connector.

Dell's documenation shows a 4-pin P7, this is the connector for floppy drive.

See HERE,

Bev.

shesagordie:

kr236rk:

shesagordie:

kr236rk

A SATA II hard drive will be fine, you will need to buy a SATA data cable, there should ba spare SATA power connector inside the case.

Personally, I would transfer the data on the 10gb D:/ to an external hard drive.

I use the following method to safe guard my data:

Using SATA two hard drives and an imaging utility, like Acronis, or Casper to image the C:/ drive to the secondary hard drive.

When there is a problem, all I need to do, is to swap the data cables and boot the system. 

Then image the new C:/  to the corrupted second hard drive, creating a corrupt free image again.

Plus make regular backups of the files and folders to an USB external hard drive.

Bev.

update

just had the cover off the pc and checked all the connections again - the power cable might just stretch to where it shows on the Dell 531 instructions but this cable ends in a four pin plug - there are no four pin sockets or anything that i can see with four sockets???

still no sign of the 3rd hard drive - 'Computer' shows 'C' and backup 'D' and that's all :(

R

 

 

kr236rk

You have me confused, the Inspiron 531 motherboard supports only 4 SATA drives, usually 2 x SATA hard drives and 2 x SATA optical drives.

How many drives do you have installed?

There are no lagacy 4-pin Molex power connectors on the 531 wiring harness, only 4 x 15-pin SATA  power connectors and 1 x Floppy drive connector.

Dell's documenation shows a 4-pin P7, this is the connector for floppy drive.

See HERE,

Bev.

have 2 optical drives

have HDD 'C'

have back up drive (tiny) 'D'

have spare slot for extra SATA Hard Drive - now occupied by WD 500GB HDD (currently inert)

am going to insert the Vista dvd and try to get the 531 to recognise the new HDD

will update

thanks

R

update

hastily removed Vista disc! :))

followed instructions -  with thanks - for 2nd HDD installation: W/Digital HDD now formatting [rather slowly] ;)

R

kr236rk

Sounds good.

Are you using the 'Quick Format' option?

Bev.

shesagordie:

kr236rk

Sounds good.

Are you using the 'Quick Format' option?

Bev.

many thanks - hard drive now formatted and working - just saved 2 small files to it :)

'quick format'? ~ afraid i do not know what this is?

will update tomorrow

best regards

Ric

hi,

well, i'm up and running with thanks :)

only slight concern was i have no thermal grease for the processor, but there seemed to be quite a lot of grease left on the heatsink anyway?

next project will be to empty the 10GB backup 'D' to an external hard drive - is there any way to stop the D backing up everything, and only to back up crucial data please?

many thanks again - the upgrade should enhance my movie making: i edit on this pc but especially use it to compress files for upload, since it carries a software with the H264 codec which is absolutely brilliant! i prefer 'Adobe Premiere' edit software but the version i use is XP not Vista, but that doesn't prevent me from swopping a project from XP to Vista, after the initial capture.

thanks again!

Ric

Ric.

Thank's for the heads up.     

The best you can do is disable the Backup option. 

I have a 530 and intent to carry out a clean reinstall of Vista, whenever I have any spare time and delete all the partitions.

Have a great July 4th weekend.     

Bev. 

You too Bev - have a great weekend :)

and thanks to for all the help! ;)

Ric