Help
My PC is a Dell 531 running Vista Ultimate SP2. It has the AMD Athlon 64 x2 with 2 GB RAM. It is also set up to dual boot to Ubuntu. I recently had to replace the HD and reinstall the OS, apps, and Dell drivers. It has been working fine for a number of weeks.
I installed a second optical drive; Plextor PX880 because the original GSA H73N (LG I believe) wouldn't cleanly copy music files. The HD was plugged into SATA0 and the H73N was plugged into SATA1 (the Dell 531 manual indicated that HDs should use SATA0/ SATA1 and optical drives should use SATA2/SATA3).
The Plextor powered up, but was not recognized. When I checked the BIOS it showed my HD at SATA0 and the H73N at SATA1. SATA2/3 were empty and the cursor just skipped over them. I couldn't get anything to work, so I just plugged the Plextor into SATA1. It worked fine. But, neither SATA2 or 3 will recognize the H73N.
I'd like to have access to both optical drives and I have been planning on installing a second HD. I'd like to get all the SATA connections working. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Page 1 of 1
SATA2 and SATA3 not working Only 2 of 4 SATA connections work on Dell 531
#1
- New Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 9
- Joined: 07-November 06
- Gender:Male
- Location:Florida
Posted 26 September 2010 - 04:40 PM
Back to top
#2
- Forum Addict
-
- Group: Moderator
- Posts: 31,436
- Joined: 03-September 05
- Gender:Male
- Location:Killeen, TX
Posted 26 September 2010 - 05:42 PM
I don't know anything about Dells...but SATA slots that I have any familiarity with...are not earmarked for anything in particular.
If I have 4 SATA slots...I can attach the system partition/drive to any of those...select that drive as the first boot option in the BIOS...save the settings...and the system will boot from it.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/syst...g.htm#wp1118793
That system supports a RAID setup, which is a special type of hard drive configuration where multiple hard drives are used.
I suspect that what you refer to...is part of the documentation for some type of RAID setup. That may require the slots to be used in some type of order.
You do not want to have a RAID set up on your system, there's a setting in the BIOS that controls that. I've provided the link above to your manual and you should find the appropriate information there about your BIOS options.
See Setting Your Computer to RAID-Enabled Mode...and bear in mind that you do not want to enable a RAID.
Once that is done in the BIOS/Setup...save the changed settings and see if the system responds properly.
Louis
If I have 4 SATA slots...I can attach the system partition/drive to any of those...select that drive as the first boot option in the BIOS...save the settings...and the system will boot from it.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/syst...g.htm#wp1118793
That system supports a RAID setup, which is a special type of hard drive configuration where multiple hard drives are used.
I suspect that what you refer to...is part of the documentation for some type of RAID setup. That may require the slots to be used in some type of order.
You do not want to have a RAID set up on your system, there's a setting in the BIOS that controls that. I've provided the link above to your manual and you should find the appropriate information there about your BIOS options.
See Setting Your Computer to RAID-Enabled Mode...and bear in mind that you do not want to enable a RAID.
Once that is done in the BIOS/Setup...save the changed settings and see if the system responds properly.
Louis
Share this topic:
Page 1 of 1