You need to get the hard drive to appear in system BIOS first before you even attempt to do anything with it in Windows XP.
Make sure both the POWER and DATA cables are connected to it.
Enable SATA ports in BIOS.
Set SATA detection to "automatic" or "autodetect" in BIOS.
Once you get it to appear in BIOS, you need to boot to Windows XP and then go to Disk Management to initialize, partition, and format it.
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I will note that the big name computer companies have been known to use special motherboards that have "dummy" ports that aren't wired to be functional or have BIOS'es that don't address certain functions. If this is the case, you need to chat with Dell's technical support to learn how to use those ports.
I just installed a new Western Digital 160GB SASA drive in my Dell Dimension 4600. As far as I can tell, I hooked up everything properly, and tight. I've installed hard, floppy, and CD drives before. This one is giving no signs of life. Doesn't show up on the tree, isn't detected by the WD setup software. But I have a nagging suspicion that it's not a dead drive, but something that I overlooked. Maybe the cable connector isn't seated properly even though I don't see how it could not be. Maybe there's something wrong with the motherboard?
I'm running WinXP with SP2. The motherboard supports SASA, and I tried both the SASA 0 slot (first) and the SASA 1 slot.
Is there a practical way to determine whether a drive is alive or dead before I send it back for a replacement? Or should I just send it back and try again?
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