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General discussion

Add a SATA Hard Drive

Feb 19, 2013 12:44AM PST

I have a Dell Inspireon(sp) and want to add a SATA drive. I have installed the drive, but the computer does not "see" it. What to do?

**** Clevenger
reclev@sbcglobal.net

Discussion is locked

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Does the BIOS see it?
Feb 19, 2013 12:47AM PST

Get into BIOS setup and see if it shows there. If the BIOS doesn't see it, Windows won't either. The other thing is I have to ask if you've created a partition and formatted the drive. You have to do that before it will be assigned a drive letter.

Good luck.

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Adding a SATA drilve
Feb 19, 2013 7:43AM PST

Your message was a help to me. I see the drive is listed on the BIOS, I just dont know how to format it and make it useful.

Thanks, **** C

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Add a SATA drive
Feb 19, 2013 10:17AM PST

The BIOS sees the drive but as you said it dosen't have a number/letter and I don't know how to address lit.
Thanks for your input!!

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SATA hard drive
Feb 19, 2013 4:58AM PST

Hi Dick Clevenger,

Please share the system model & the operating system.
Earlier, were you using an IDE hard drive?

Reboot PC and press F2 key repeatedly at Dell logo. A BIOS screen will appear. Check if the hard drive is detected.
You can also load defaults in BIOS depending upon the BIOS version utility.

Please share the system configuration details; I will help you further.

Thanks and Regards,
Manpreet C

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Add SATA hard drive
Feb 19, 2013 7:39AM PST

Thanks for your response. I have an Inspiron with Windows 7. I do not use EIDE,only SATA.
I bought the H.D. for another computer but that computer can only use a SATA 2 drive and this one is a SATA 3. I am just trying to use the drive as a backup drive.
I have checked the BIOS and it sees the new drive but hasen't given it a name or an address. How do I go about formatting the drive since it doesn't have an address

****
reclev@sbcglobal.net

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Thanks for the response.
Feb 20, 2013 6:37AM PST
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add SATA drive
Feb 20, 2013 10:42AM PST

I copied your link. I had to go directly from "control panel" to find "disk management" which got me to a place where I saw both drilves listed, but there it ended. I could find no way of finding "Change drive lertters and paths" I did manage to get a "Recovery" section in my "C" drive that I can't erase.
I supposely have Windows 7, but the instructions in the file you addressed don't coorespond with my selections. Are those instructins for Windows 8? I can get so far and then I hit something I can't do.
Thanks for your assestance and keep trying!!!!

**** Clevenger
reclev@sbcglobal.net

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Add a SATA drlive
Feb 21, 2013 11:19PM PST

Manpreet, I responded to your last reply and still don't have a "numbered/lettered" drive that I can use. Is there nothing else you can give me to help me get this SATA drive operational? I can see it but I cannot use it. Thanks for all the assistance you have given, I hope and pray you have some more help for me.

**** C

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Thanks for the response
Feb 22, 2013 1:40AM PST

Sorry for the delayed response.
Could you please post a screenshot of Disk Management using snipping tool or paint. You can upload the screenshot on Flickr or Imageshack.

I will help you further.

Thanks and Regards,
Manpreet C

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Add SATA drive
Feb 22, 2013 2:02AM PST

I'm sorry I don't have Twitter installed. Is there another way to send a "pictrue". I now have a photo of the screen. Would that help?

**** C

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Add a SATA H.D
Feb 22, 2013 2:23AM PST

Will I not need your e-mail address to send a "snip" to you? If so please let me know what I can to to send it to you. I don't think I can put the "snip" in my "reply">

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You can use Flickr
Feb 22, 2013 5:36AM PST

Save the picture to the desktop. Go to flickr.com and log in with a Gmail or Yahoo account. Once logged in, upload the picture from the desktop.

Once uploaded, click the picture and select the resolution that you want for the picture; right-click the picture and select 'Copy Image Url'. Paste the link here.

Thanks and Regards,
Manpreet C

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Add SATA Drive
Feb 22, 2013 7:27AM PST

I've got the picture in my "pictures" folder under the name "Capture" Thats the only URL I have for it, is that enough? I will sent that much now and hope you get what you want.


pictures/capture

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Format the drive
Feb 22, 2013 10:10AM PST

When you right-click the backup drive in Disk Management, do you see 'Format' option? If so, please format the backup drive which will lead to data loss and check if there is a drive letter assigned to it.
These pictures are uploaded on a personal folder on your computer; I can't access them. However, follow the steps in the video to upload photos on Flickr: http://youtu.be/_wGNHDntr0g.

Please try to format the drive and share the status.

Thanks and Regards,
Manpreet C

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Add SATA H.D.
Feb 22, 2013 11:33AM PST

Hey Manpreet, I now have "J" H.D. that my computer sees. I don't know what I did right, but the computer now sees the H.D. and I am formating it as I write.
You have taught me many things through our discussions and I thank you for that and add that I thank GOD for your "hanging" with me through my trials. Again I thank you and ask GOD to bless you and yours for helping me.

**** Clevenger
reclev@sbcglobal.net

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Add a SATA Hard Drive
Feb 22, 2013 11:45AM PST

Does this computer, running Windows 8, not show any indication of Formatting a drive? I see no indication of anything happening...no moving green line, no nothing, is that right? I hope it is formating the new drive. It should take some time but I would like to know it is working...

**** C

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Add a SATA drive
Feb 25, 2013 2:03AM PST

I feel the problem is "solved", now how I remove if from the last of problems?
Thanks again for your assistance, we got it done....

**** C.

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Thanks for the response
Feb 25, 2013 6:16AM PST

I am glad that the drive has been assigned a letter. Did the formatting finish?
What other issues are you facing?

Please share the model number of the Inspiron laptop.

Thanks and Regards,
Manpreet C

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Add a SATA drive
Feb 26, 2013 2:23AM PST

Msnpreet, I'm not sure the drive finished its format. It went to "format" and in less than a minute said "format finished", I think it should take longer than that to finish a "format" since ii is a 500G drive, am I right? Maybe is should tell the computer how big the drive is.

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A quick format takes a few seconds.
Feb 26, 2013 2:31AM PST