Installing an older IDE HD to xps gen 5

[emulatorx]

i have an older 250gb IDE HD from my DIM8200 that i wanna put on this new puppy, i have a Raid 0 configuration 2x 80gb SATA drives ( 10,000rpm each), 2 cd optical drives, will i be able to add this older HD to the system, im getting it Tuesday Aug 30th,2005 via UPS, i just wanna know before hand what ill be up against when it comes, if i cant i may then have to buy a new 250gb SATA HD i guess and put my big storage files on it , transfer everything via a network or something, but i just wanted to simply plug and play my old hd to the new system with all my files ready to go, any help on this, is there only 1 IDE channel meant only for the optical drives ( ie: cd/dvd's)? , by the way, i need to have 2 optical drives installed, i dont wanna sacrafice removing 1 optical drive to substitute it with the older HD i have , i basically want it all installed , can it be done? if no answer i guess ill find out tuesday when i open it ,

got 34% off ended up with $3294 after taxes


Dimension XPS Gen 5
Pentium® Extreme Edition Dual Core w/ HT Tech (3.20GHz, 800FSB), Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition Qty: 1
Unit Price: $4,577.00
DIMENSION XPS GEN 5 Pentium® Extreme Edition Dual Core w/ HT Tech (3.20GHz, 800FSB)
MX840EH
[221-8327]

Memory SAVE $80! 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs
1GB62P
[464-0341]

Keyboard Dell USB Keyboard
EK
[310-5234]

Monitor 20 inch UltraSharp™ 2005FPW Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
2005WFP
[320-4126]

Video Cards 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon™ X850 XT PE
X850XT
[320-4298]

Hard Drive 160GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 80GB /10000 RPM SATA HDDs)
160R0
[341-2505]

Floppy Drive and Media Reader No Floppy Drive Included
NFD
[341-2375]

Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
WHXP
[420-4938]
[313-7222]
[412-0721]
[412-0749]
[420-4927]

Mouse Dell Optical USB Mouse
OM
[310-4037]

Modem No Modem Requested
N
[313-3607]

Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
AAREAD
[412-0705]

CD or DVD Drive Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 48x CD-RW Drive
DVDCDR
[313-2603]
[420-5265]

Sound Cards Sound Blaster Audigy™ 2 ZS (D) Card w/Dolby 5.1, IEEE 1394 capability
SBA2X
[313-3041]

Speakers Dell AS501 10W Flat Panel Attached Spkrs for UltraSharp™ Flat Panels

[Zefram0911]

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS! I found this place too when I first got my Gen 4 almost 10 months ago. This place is the BEST place on the web to find help for your XPS. Undeniably the best people here.... way better than outsourced Dell tech support. Good luck and post and ask question!

As for your question:
I know my Gen 4 only has 1 IDE channel (I think that's that only I saw). And both the DVDRW and the CDRW is connected too it. I'm not able to add another IDE device to the motherboard. I do have 3 other SATA hard drives (2 in a RAID0 array).

I think you'll be able to add another SATA hard drive or two in there though, if the Gen 5 is anything like my Gen 4.


Also, you can do what I did with my 100gig IDE drives from my previous computer. I would just disconnect one of the IDE devices (one of your optical devices) from your Gen 5 and connect it to your IDE hard drive temporarily. Transfer (copy/cut/move) your data off... and replug the optical drives. Of course, you can't hot swap IDE devices so remember to shutdown and reboot inbetween the swapping of the drives.

[emulatorx]

hey, thanks for your quick reply, i started figuring that, and i already ordered a WD SATA II 250 gb drive, i have the same config as u i think, well not exactly but, i have a RAID 0 2x80gb sata, and i believe ill have space for 1 more SATA drive, hence ordering the new drive, basically i thought about doing exactly what u suugested, ill tempoarily, install the ide hd , copy/paste everything to my C: drive ( RAID config) and then install the NEW SATA II 250gb and paste it back later... and of course put but the optical drive where it should be...it costed me $140 to get the new drive but i guess its for teh better, same drive space , but better drive, SATA II, i guess is a nice upgrade from Ultra ATA 100 ( I say GUESS cuz, i've never dealt with SATA before till now, my first PC uprgade in like 2-3 years ) replacing my DIM 8200 2.53ghz 1.5gb Rambus, 128gb Nvidia 4600T, to get this new baby, 3.2ghz dual core with HT 1gb ddr2 667mhz ram, 256mb ati radeon x850, should be a nice boost in gaming and dvd ripping and encoding

[Zefram0911]

heh... that's nothing... before the Gen 4 I have now. I was running 5400rpm hard drives and had no idea what SATA was. When I broke open the case... I thought it was funny how thing those SATA cables were... but how neat!

Glad things will work out for you. Tell us how much you like your Gen 5. I want dual cores!