Dimension 8400 disks and interfaces.

Hi all

The machine is a Dimension 8400 running Win XP Pro with SP3.  Stuff so... Old hat.  I have a few questions about the disks and disk interfaces.

1. the machine is equipped with BIOS Version A03, dated 11/10/2004 - it's (I think) in the American format for dates.  Somewhere in the BIOS there are probably a large number that controls the largest disk size that the machine can see and format.  Example from another manufacturer, HP Kayak series 1 machine has this number set to 137 GB in the BIOS.

If anyone knows:

b how large the number is for the 8400 (there is no indication in the official specs of Dell) and

b where in the BIOS the number is?

2. the machine has 4 SATA ports labeled SATA 0-3.  Nobody knows who, SATA standards, these ports are according to the.  The possible answers are SATA 1 (1.5 Gbit/s MTR maximum transfer rate), 2 (3 Gbit/s MTR) SATA and SATA 3 (6Gbit/s MTR).

Since the dates, that the standards have been published, I guess that these ports are SATA 1 (or SATA 2), but once again the official specs of Dell give no information.

3. in an earlier period, when the IDE/PATA drives are common, cables from the motherboard to the drive had two connectors, and so two disks could be related.  It had to be cavalier as the master (or bootable) and the other rider as a slave drive.  When the machine is started, all the disk partitions found were affected drive letters.  In a disk two put in place with each disk has several partitions, the first partition on the drive master has been assigned C:, then the first partition on the slave become D:.  As a result, all the remaining partitions on the master are assigned letters from E:...  Finally, all partitions after D: on the slave are assigned to drive letters from after the last letter of drive/partition on the master drive.  You have that?

So how is it with SATA?  Should readers be connected?  How are the drive letters assigned during startup of a multi-disc set up with multiple partitions on each disk?

4. now, we come to the difficult bit.   In fact, I don't use the IDE/PATA/SATA drives on this machine - in fact, I rarely used readers using this Protocol since early 1981;  the current computer has an of Adaptec SCSI adapter and therefore has a SCSI drive.  You can see that I'm relatively speaking a Virgin IDE and know little about this technology and even less about SATA

The question is can I attach a SATA drive and use the machine in a configuration mixed Protocol?  How drive letters are assigned in a configuration mixed Protocol?  How name you the bootable disc - this is only of the order of starting the BIOS, or by any other method?

Trusting someone in the community can help me and thanks in advance for any help that can be given.

Kind regards

CoventryKid

I can meet some people. I still have a 8400 although I have not used for several years.

1.) it will be a SATA drive up to 2 TB. I have no knowledge of the locations of address in the BIOS. (the latest version which is BTW A09)

2.) this computer has the Intel 925 X Express Chipset that makes the standard SATA 1.5 Gbps Serial ATA (aka SATA v.1)

(3.) this vintage Dell computers has configured with their PATA drives jumper "cable select"rather than "master/slave.". So drive primary/secondary status has been determined by the position of drives on the cable, the 'master' being at the end of the cable and "slave" being at the Center. (FYI to cable select to work, a drive IDE/EIDE must have its jumpers on CS and use a cable that supports the CSEL)

SATA has no jumpers are attributed and drives in the BIOS SATA0, SATA1, SATA2 etc. According to the port in which they are connected.

Drive letters are assigned by the operating system and are configurable in XP disk management and since. The operating system drive is usually C:\ Drive letters are usually assigned by windows in alphabetical order according to availability. (i.e... If there is a c and an optical drive called D: the next reader plugged in and booted will usually get E: Although we are talking about Windows where all can and often does happen

(4.) I have no experience using a SCSI daughter card in this computer I will speculate. I see no problem with a joint disk configuration.

I guess the daughter Board handles it's own BIOS for SCSI drives and the Dell BIOS should pick up new readers directly to the motherboard. (Note: there is a setting in the BIOS for each SATA port to set their power and that they can expose the particular behavior if a player is connected to a port on off)

Boot priority can be defined for the controllers embedded in the great Dell BIOS how it works with the SCSI adapter in the game I can not say. Experiment of base a bit I think is going to be the only way you'll really know.

HTH

D

Tags: Dell Drives

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