question about SATA hard drives (READ BELOW)?

First, you should have 2 SATA cables for your 2 SATA hard drive.

On your motherboard, there should be more than one Sata connections: SATA0, SATA1, SATA2, SATA3. (that is what is on my motherboard)

connect your primary hard drive (the one with the OS installed) to the SATA0 port of the motherboard. then connect your secondary Hard drive to the SATA1 port.

*Note*

On some motherboards, there is no SATA0 port. Therefore, you would use the SATA1 and SATA2 ports on the motherboard.

Picture: http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2005/12/14/dual_gra...

Look at the back of the drive and set the one you want to be primary as master using the jumper.

OR

Open your case, and put the one you want to be first plugged into the first port.

ie

[Sata Port 1] <- Plug the one you want to be primary into this slot.

[Sata Port 2]

[Sata Port 3]

[Sata Port 4]

If you haven't tried yet, if one has an OS installed, it should have an MBR entry. This will be recognized by the bios and it will start the drive with the OS as primary. The OS will initialize the other as the secondary (slave).

In your motherboard you'll se SATA 1 and SATA 2 port (if not sure, check the user guide). Put it on SATA 2. For me it worked. I put my primary drive on SATA 1. After some days, I got another drive and put it on SATA 2 port. My computer automatically recognized it as secondary.

notice that Dell has a habit of filling all its memory slots. extremely then providing you with a single a million gb chip, and leaving the different slot(s) open for growth, Dell supply you 2 512 or 4 256 chips that fill each and every of the slots. in case you prefer to enhance, you will desire to eliminate each and every of the memory in it and carefully replace it. (would it not because of the fact Dell needs to sell you 2 1gb chips extremely than basically one? Hmmmm). So in case you intend to advance the memory as quickly as you get it, verify the configuration to confirm that they do no longer look to be going to rigidity you to interchange the memory it comes with. additionally with the troublesome rigidity, that's extra inexpensive to bypass with an better troublesome rigidity now then to would desire to replace it later. additionally a lot much less artwork.