Jump to content

Adding a Hard Drive to a Dell


Recommended Posts

Does anyone know where exactly i can mount another Hard Drive in my Dell Dimension 2350 its really crappy the one that came with it is only 27 gigs and i want to add a 36 my dad just gave me for free

----Someone please help me out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


If the case doesn't have any bays for the hard drive, then your outta luck. An option would be to buy an external USB 2.0 enclosure and run the extra drive that way. You can probably find an enclosure for $50.

Another option (if you want to fight with the system) is to try to clone the Dell partition that lies at the very start of your current drive onto your new one. Unless this small partition (24MB or so) is there, you won't be able to boot from that drive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that the problem with these computers is the pure lack of space in the case.

My Dimension 4500S has the same problem... only physical space for 1 HD. I simply use an external drive to store all my data.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went through this one with dell once already and well they don't support 3rd party hd's or home networks for that matter. (just make sure u install a western digital thats what dell uses mostly and tell them u had it upgraded if you have a prob!) (caution 3rd party hd may void all other warrenty) note if u work at it you can normaly squeeze the hd in under the floppy drive but i don't recommend that as it has poor cooling in that area.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It wouldn't be a good idea to tape the drive to the case. The tape will severly limit the cooling of the drive. Depending on your warranty, I would suggest buying a hard drive cage like previously mentions or if you don't move the case at all, you could consider even setting the hard drive on the bottom of the case. Just don't forget that it is not fastened. This may also cause a little extra noise from vibration.

The best solution would be to get a new case and move all the guts from the Dell case to the new case. Again, this would void any warranty from Dell, but then you'd have room for even more peripherals in the future.

Just out of curiosity, do you have a cd-rom drive bay that is open? You could always buy hard drive rails for them bays for a couple bucks and mount the drive right in there.

Subcodec

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you have recovery cds and a cd burner. Burn all your data you want to back up, then swap the old drive for the new drive. Format and FDISK it, then use the restore cds to create everything and load your backups.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you have recovery cds and a cd burner.  Burn all your data you want to back up, then swap the old drive for the new drive.  Format and FDISK it, then use the restore cds to create everything and load your backups.

The problem with this is that Dell computers have a special partition at the very beginning of the drive that the BIOS checks to see if it is "allowed" to boot from. He would need to clone this partition onto his new drive before being able to boot from it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really? Wow... they must have done something special to my specific model then... stupid Dell... they "fixed" my friend's laptop screen and it came back with a blown pixel... talk about poor quality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dont have another bay free at the time but im pretty sure i can find a mount to fit on my other HD mount, either that or take off the mount , take out the old HD and screw myself some new holes in the sides of the original mount (Put a mount on another mount)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...