Installing cd-drive question:

[Robert]

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 with home XP with DSL connection. It has
a cd-drive but it's read only and also a 3 1/2" disk drive which is
useless. I would like to upgrade it to a cd-read/write drive and my
question is this; can I use the same connectors for the 3 1/2 drive
for the new cd-drive? Also will the new cd-drive come with a
faceplate or do I have to purchase that separately? I would appreciate
any suggestions as to what brand/type of drive to get.

Thanks,
Robert

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 with home XP with DSL connection. It has
a cd-drive but it's read only and also a 3 1/2" disk drive which is
useless. I would like to upgrade it to a cd-read/write drive and my
question is this; can I use the same connectors for the 3 1/2 drive
for the new cd-drive? Also will the new cd-drive come with a
faceplate or do I have to purchase that separately? I would appreciate
any suggestions as to what brand/type of drive to get.

Thanks,
Robert

Don't get a CD burner, get a DVD/RW drive. These will all burn CDs as well
as DVDs. Where I am, bare drives like this are around $40. However, a
fully bare drive for you may not be appropriate, as you will probably need
the DVD software. With the purchase of a drive, disks for Nero Lite with
DVD software is usually included, maybe for another $5.

It's about the simplest possible upgrade, but you cannot connect it to the
3.5" cabling. That cabling is totally different.

Shut down and unplug the system, open it up. Unplug the CD drive and pull
it out - you may need to remove a few screws. Look at the back end of the
drive for its jumpers, and set the jumpers on hte new drive exactly the
same. Slide the new drive in, plug it in, and do up any screws. Close the
case, plug it back in, and restart. After restarting, put in the CD and
install the software. That's it.

HTH
-pk

 

[Robert]

Don't get a CD burner, get a DVD/RW drive. These will all burn CDs as well
as DVDs. Where I am, bare drives like this are around $40. However, a
fully bare drive for you may not be appropriate, as you will probably need
the DVD software. With the purchase of a drive, disks for Nero Lite with
DVD software is usually included, maybe for another $5.

It's about the simplest possible upgrade, but you cannot connect it to the
3.5" cabling. That cabling is totally different.

Shut down and unplug the system, open it up. Unplug the CD drive and pull
it out - you may need to remove a few screws. Look at the back end of the
drive for its jumpers, and set the jumpers on hte new drive exactly the
same. Slide the new drive in, plug it in, and do up any screws. Close the
case, plug it back in, and restart. After restarting, put in the CD and
install the software. That's it.

HTH
-pk

Thank you very much, I appreciate the advice. However another question
has come to mind. I'm wondering now whether I should upgrade my hard
drive given the age of the computer before it crashes. I assume I do
the same procedure as with the dvd/rw drive but my question is how do
I move my files etc off my hard drive to the new one? I don't have a
separate hard drive so I assume I need to build/buy one and acquire
something like Norton ghost before changing the hard drive. Or can I
just insert another hard drive and copy the files over? However, when
I had the computer opened up to disconnect the 3 1/2 connectors
because when I powered it up today it was making a terrible noise I
didn't see any other connectors for another hard drive while I was
looking. So does this mean that it can only handle one hard drive?

Robert

 

[WaIIy]

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 with home XP with DSL connection. It has
a cd-drive but it's read only and also a 3 1/2" disk drive which is
useless. I would like to upgrade it to a cd-read/write drive and my
question is this; can I use the same connectors for the 3 1/2 drive
for the new cd-drive?

If you're talking about your floppy drive , then No.

Also will the new cd-drive come with a
faceplate or do I have to purchase that separately?

The 8200 appears to have the same case as my 4550.

Refer to :

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8200/replace.htm#1101572

If you are going get rid of your old drive, just replace it with the new
one. You don't need a faceplate, just be sure the new drive has it's
own black faceplate. Many drives come with a black and a white plate.
If you want to keep the old drive, just chain the drives on the same
cable and select one as master and one as slave or both as cable select.

If you keep both drives, just pop one of the inserts off the front of
the computer and add the new drive.

There is a Dell group alt.sys.pc-clone.dell

I would appreciate
any suggestions as to what brand/type of drive to get.

Thanks,
Robert

Many people like LG and I've been pleased with mine. You mention a CD
R/W drive, but a CD-DVD R/W drive is probably the way you want to go.

A drive with CD-DVD capability, Lightscribe and even SecureDisc included
is about $70-80.

I like Lightscribe, which allows you to make a nice label burned into
the disk. Lightscribe disks don't cost much more.

You can get the Lightscribe drivers here :
http://www.lightscribe.com/downloadSection/windows/index.aspx?id=810

and a pretty nice free labeling program here -

http://www.lightscribe.com/downloadSection/windows/index.aspx?id=1524


http://www.lightscribe.com/

The cd freaks like Verbatim disks.

My 2 cents

 

[Robert]

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 with home XP with DSL connection. It has
a cd-drive but it's read only and also a 3 1/2" disk drive which is
useless. I would like to upgrade it to a cd-read/write drive and my
question is this; can I use the same connectors for the 3 1/2 drive
for the new cd-drive? Also will the new cd-drive come with a
faceplate or do I have to purchase that separately? I would appreciate
any suggestions as to what brand/type of drive to get.

Thanks,
Robert

I wanted to add that my main purpose for wanting a cd-rw drive isn't
to burn cd's but to make copies of photo's that I can take to have
pictures made. Perhaps it's the same thing but I just wanted it to be
clear.

In regards to master/slave I'm familar with the term but dont know how
to do it. Do I just buy extra cabling and plug it in the existing
cable or what? How do I tell which is the master and which is the
slave or am I better off just buying/building a separate hard drive
and moving all my files over and getting a new hard drive?


Thanks,

Robert


Robert

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Thank you very much, I appreciate the advice. However another question
has come to mind. I'm wondering now whether I should upgrade my hard
drive given the age of the computer before it crashes. I assume I do
the same procedure as with the dvd/rw drive but my question is how do
I move my files etc off my hard drive to the new one? I don't have a
separate hard drive so I assume I need to build/buy one and acquire
something like Norton ghost before changing the hard drive. Or can I
just insert another hard drive and copy the files over? However, when
I had the computer opened up to disconnect the 3 1/2 connectors
because when I powered it up today it was making a terrible noise

Ensure that this sound is not the fans. If it is, other system
components are at risk, like the CPU.

I
didn't see any other connectors for another hard drive while I was
looking. So does this mean that it can only handle one hard drive?

It might, take the service tag number from the back of the system and look
for the documents at the Dell support site. If there is only one IDE
channel, you can only have two drives attached, the hard drive and the
optical disk.

Robert

An easy way to migrate to a new disk is to get the new disk and a USB2 drive
case or drive connector and clone the drive. The case or connector can
start around $20. Be sure that your system can use the drive you bought -
some older systems can't recognise all of larger drives. An 80 gig drive
here is around $60.

You might, depending on the age of your system, also need a USB2 PCI card.
For me these are available at retail for about $14. You do NOT want to
proceed with the following if you only have USB1 or 1.1. the difference is
hours.

Assemble the drive to the drive case and connector, install the USB2 card if
needed, and attach the drive to a USB2 port. Now, download and install the
free Acronis TrueImage trial, about 100 meg, from www.acronis.com . After
rebooting, Clone the system disk to a new disk. Use Manual mode, as this
will allow you to tell the software to use the full size of the hard disk.
Walk carefully through the dialogs, and then let it run. The cloning is
usually pretty quick, but the transfer rate is important, and that's why you
got the USB2 card.

When you're done, shut down, remove the old hard disk and set the jumpers on
the new one in the same way (on a Dell, this is usually the CS jumper).
Plug the hard drive in to exactly the same place. Reassemble the case and
turn the system on. You may have to go through the BIOS setup to allow the
new hard drive to be properly detected, but after a quick reboot you should
be done. You can then uninstall the trial version of TrueImage.

HTH
-pk

 

[Robert]

Ensure that this sound is not the fans. If it is, other system
components are at risk, like the CPU.


It might, take the service tag number from the back of the system and look
for the documents at the Dell support site. If there is only one IDE
channel, you can only have two drives attached, the hard drive and the
optical disk.




An easy way to migrate to a new disk is to get the new disk and a USB2 drive
case or drive connector and clone the drive. The case or connector can
start around $20. Be sure that your system can use the drive you bought -
some older systems can't recognise all of larger drives. An 80 gig drive
here is around $60.

You might, depending on the age of your system, also need a USB2 PCI card.
For me these are available at retail for about $14. You do NOT want to
proceed with the following if you only have USB1 or 1.1. the difference is
hours.

Assemble the drive to the drive case and connector, install the USB2 card if
needed, and attach the drive to a USB2 port. Now, download and install the
free Acronis TrueImage trial, about 100 meg, fromwww.acronis.com. After
rebooting, Clone the system disk to a new disk. Use Manual mode, as this
will allow you to tell the software to use the full size of the hard disk.
Walk carefully through the dialogs, and then let it run. The cloning is
usually pretty quick, but the transfer rate is important, and that's why you
got the USB2 card.

When you're done, shut down, remove the old hard disk and set the jumpers on
the new one in the same way (on a Dell, this is usually the CS jumper).
Plug the hard drive in to exactly the same place. Reassemble the case and
turn the system on. You may have to go through the BIOS setup to allow the
new hard drive to be properly detected, but after a quick reboot you should
be done. You can then uninstall the trial version of TrueImage.

HTH
-pk- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thank you for your great advise, no, the noise wasn't the fans. Its
running very quietly now although it 'seems' I'm hearing the hard
drive work which leads me to think its getting near crashing. So to
make sure I've run defrag, disk cleanup, and now running check disk
just to clean things up. I also run AVG and A-Squared and Spybot on a
regular basis, and have Comodo which was upgraded recently. Hmmmm I
just got a message that it wasn't able to complete the check disk. Its
never happened before.


Robert

 

[Tim Slattery]

Don't get a CD burner, get a DVD/RW drive. These will all burn CDs as well
as DVDs. Where I am, bare drives like this are around $40. However, a
fully bare drive for you may not be appropriate, as you will probably need
the DVD software. With the purchase of a drive, disks for Nero Lite with
DVD software is usually included, maybe for another $5.

It's about the simplest possible upgrade, but you cannot connect it to the
3.5" cabling. That cabling is totally different.

It depends on what 3.5" connection you're talking about. If you're
talking about a 3.5" floppy disk, then you will not be able to plug an
optical drive into that connection.

If you're talking about a 3.5" EIDE drive, then you should be able to
use it. Make sure that you're getting an optical drive that uses an
EIDE connection, lots of them these days use SATA. Even if you are
talking about a floppy drive, you may be able to install an optical
drive. Most likely, you are currently using one 3.5" EIDE hard drive
in your system. That means that you should be able to install at least
one more EIDE device (each EIDE controller can handle two devices) and
maybe as many as three (most computers these days come with two EIDE
controllers).

Patrick is right about getting a DVD RW drive. With prices as they
are, there's no reason to limit yourself to CDs.

 

[Tim Slattery]

In regards to master/slave I'm familar with the term but dont know how
to do it. Do I just buy extra cabling and plug it in the existing
cable or what? How do I tell which is the master and which is the
slave or am I better off just buying/building a separate hard drive
and moving all my files over and getting a new hard drive?

You'll need a special cable to attach two devices (master and slave)
to one controller. It has a connection on each end and one in the
middle. Which device is which is controlled by jumpers on the device.
You'll have to read the material that comes with the device to figure
out how to set it correctly. Many manufacturers also print this
information on the device itself.

Note that if your machine uses SATA, this becomes much simpler.
There's no master/slave relationship, you just find an empty SATA
connector on the mobo and plug the device in. (And plug in the power
connector of course). Then go to the BIOS setup, and make sure that
the SATA connector you used is activated.

 

[WaIIy]

An easy way to migrate to a new disk is to get the new disk and a USB2 drive
case or drive connector and clone the drive. The case or connector can
start around $20. Be sure that your system can use the drive you bought -
some older systems can't recognise all of larger drives. An 80 gig drive
here is around $60.

You might, depending on the age of your system, also need a USB2 PCI card.
For me these are available at retail for about $14. You do NOT want to
proceed with the following if you only have USB1 or 1.1. the difference is
hours.

Assemble the drive to the drive case and connector, install the USB2 card if
needed, and attach the drive to a USB2 port. Now, download and install the
free Acronis TrueImage trial, about 100 meg, from www.acronis.com . After
rebooting, Clone the system disk to a new disk. Use Manual mode, as this
will allow you to tell the software to use the full size of the hard disk.
Walk carefully through the dialogs, and then let it run. The cloning is
usually pretty quick, but the transfer rate is important, and that's why you
got the USB2 card.

When you're done, shut down, remove the old hard disk and set the jumpers on
the new one in the same way (on a Dell, this is usually the CS jumper).
Plug the hard drive in to exactly the same place. Reassemble the case and
turn the system on. You may have to go through the BIOS setup to allow the
new hard drive to be properly detected, but after a quick reboot you should
be done. You can then uninstall the trial version of TrueImage.

HTH
-pk

This is absurd.

Drives, such as Seagate give you all you need to move your operating
system to the new drive.

http://tinyurl.com/2uso4d

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Thank you for your great advise, no, the noise wasn't the fans. Its
running very quietly now although it 'seems' I'm hearing the hard
drive work which leads me to think its getting near crashing. So to
make sure I've run defrag, disk cleanup, and now running check disk
just to clean things up. I also run AVG and A-Squared and Spybot on a
regular basis, and have Comodo which was upgraded recently. Hmmmm I
just got a message that it wasn't able to complete the check disk. Its
never happened before.


Robert

If you think the drive is failing, now is not the time to thrash it with
scans and defragmentation. You are using up its limited time. Save the
time for the data transfer.

HTH
-pk

 

[gmanjoe]

Robert,

How old is your PC? I have an 8200 dell dimension and I got mine about 3-4 years ago. You are probably better off buying a new pc (especially if it is older than mine) and getting a transfer kit with it (to move your data)than going through the time and money to add a dvd drive and new hard drive and then in a couple months you either have to replace something else or you realize that fancy new program you want will not work on your old hardware.. Youre already going through the trouble of data migration so why not take the oppourtunity.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

This is absurd.

In what way? The file size? The Seagate DiskWizard download is 104 meg,
so it's not small.

This is not absurd, it is a practical and proven approach to a common task.

Drives, such as Seagate give you all you need to move your operating
system to the new drive.

Well, no, they don't.

If your system does not have a way to connect another hard disk, the
utility does not provide a way to attach the drive. Hence the use of a USB2
drive case or connector.

And if you read the post, you will find that the OP appears to have limited
connections in the system, which indicates that external adapters may be
needed. And many older Dells do not have USB2 ports, and transfer rates
for USB1 are low.

http://tinyurl.com/2uso4d

Not all drives come with software. None that I buy do. And cloning
software has more uses than just disk copying.

HTH
-pk

 

[sgopus]

With the case open, you will notice noise is louder, not to worry, this is
normal, but consider system age as a factor in replacing the components, good
idea to do it before it fails, not after.

IMHO the advise to get a dvd/rw is a good one, considering the additional
storage capacity and the added ability to read DVD's

 

[WaIIy]

In what way? The file size? The Seagate DiskWizard download is 104 meg,
so it's not small.

What are you talking about ? You d/l nothing.

If it's a Seagate, all the software comes with it.

I don't think you've ever bought a new drive from the sounds of it.

This is not absurd, it is a practical and proven approach to a common task.


Well, no, they don't.

Like I said, it sounds like you've never bought a new drive. You're
trying to justify an unjustifiable position.

If your system does not have a way to connect another hard disk, the
utility does not provide a way to attach the drive. Hence the use of a USB2
drive case or connector.

If, if, if.

connections in the system, which indicates that external adapters may be
needed. And many older Dells do not have USB2 ports, and transfer rates
for USB1 are low.

That Dell can easily take two drives , do your due diligence before
handing out advice.
Ps It has at least 4 USB ports, also.

The case makes the installing of components a dream, since it opens up
90 degrees.

Not all drives come with software. None that I buy do. And cloning
software has more uses than just disk copying.

HTH
-pk

Where do you buy your drives, Bangladesh?

Seagate, Western Digital and Maxtor have the sofware included on a CD
that comes with the drive.

 

[Robert]

I have a Dell Dimension 8200 with home XP with DSL connection. It has
a cd-drive but it's read only and also a 3 1/2" disk drive which is
useless. I would like to upgrade it to a cd-read/write drive and my
question is this; can I use the same connectors for the 3 1/2 drive
for the new cd-drive? Also will the new cd-drive come with a
faceplate or do I have to purchase that separately? I would appreciate
any suggestions as to what brand/type of drive to get.

Thanks,
Robert

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions and help. This is what
I've decided to do and I would appreciate any comments or follow up
suggestions. Also, bear in mind that although I'm not completely
computer illiterate I sometimes have difficulty following some of the
comments. I have no idea what SATA is for example, so please bear with
me.

First, before my hard drive crashes I want to build an external hard
drive using a Kingwin enclosure:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817146307

Then buy a Western Digital Caviar hard drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136178

Then as I understand it buy Acronis True Image Home version 10 for
downloading from my computer.

After I've bought and set up my external hard drive then I want to
replace the existing hard drive with a new hard drive, and the cd-
drive with a dvd/rw. My present hard drive is a 40GB Ultra ATA/100
but when I check on My Computer>C: drive> properties> it says
WD400BB-75CLBO. Perhaps they are the same. In any case, I would
appreciate any suggestions for a replacement.

Given my system are there any requirements I need to look for? In
addition, I seem to remember USB1 or 1.1 it being mentioned. How do
I tell what I have?
All I can say at this point is that I have a USB connector on the
front and the back of the computer but the rear connector is presently
being used for my wireless mouse and I use the front occassionally to
upload pictures from my digital camera.

Thanks,
Robert

 

[Robert]

I forgot to add, that I would appreciate any suggestions for a dvd/rw
drive or are they all more or less the same?


Thanks,
Robert

 

[Jim]

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions and help. This is what
I've decided to do and I would appreciate any comments or follow up
suggestions. Also, bear in mind that although I'm not completely
computer illiterate I sometimes have difficulty following some of the
comments. I have no idea what SATA is for example, so please bear with
me.

First, before my hard drive crashes I want to build an external hard
drive using a Kingwin enclosure:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817146307

Then buy a Western Digital Caviar hard drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136178

Then as I understand it buy Acronis True Image Home version 10 for
downloading from my computer.

After I've bought and set up my external hard drive then I want to
replace the existing hard drive with a new hard drive, and the cd-
drive with a dvd/rw. My present hard drive is a 40GB Ultra ATA/100
but when I check on My Computer>C: drive> properties> it says
WD400BB-75CLBO. Perhaps they are the same. In any case, I would
appreciate any suggestions for a replacement.

Given my system are there any requirements I need to look for? In
addition, I seem to remember USB1 or 1.1 it being mentioned. How do
I tell what I have?
All I can say at this point is that I have a USB connector on the
front and the back of the computer but the rear connector is presently
being used for my wireless mouse and I use the front occassionally to
upload pictures from my digital camera.

Thanks,
Robert

Go to Western Digital's web site and lookup that model. You will probably
find that is a particular variety of a 40GB drive.
Access the Hardware Management section on the control panel. If you have a
USB2 controller, the driver will be listed as Enhanced USB.
Jim

 

[Anna]

I want to thank everyone for their suggestions and help. This is what
I've decided to do and I would appreciate any comments or follow up
suggestions. Also, bear in mind that although I'm not completely
computer illiterate I sometimes have difficulty following some of the
comments. I have no idea what SATA is for example, so please bear with
me.

First, before my hard drive crashes I want to build an external hard
drive using a Kingwin enclosure:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817146307

Then buy a Western Digital Caviar hard drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136178

Then as I understand it buy Acronis True Image Home version 10 for
downloading from my computer.

After I've bought and set up my external hard drive then I want to
replace the existing hard drive with a new hard drive, and the cd-
drive with a dvd/rw. My present hard drive is a 40GB Ultra ATA/100
but when I check on My Computer>C: drive> properties> it says
WD400BB-75CLBO. Perhaps they are the same. In any case, I would
appreciate any suggestions for a replacement.

Given my system are there any requirements I need to look for? In
addition, I seem to remember USB1 or 1.1 it being mentioned. How do
I tell what I have?
All I can say at this point is that I have a USB connector on the
front and the back of the computer but the rear connector is presently
being used for my wireless mouse and I use the front occassionally to
upload pictures from my digital camera.

Thanks,
Robert

Robert:
First of all, hold off on those purchases...

I'm pretty sure that Kingwin USB external HDD enclosure you mention is NOT
compatible with a SATA HDD such as the WD one you've also mentioned. That
USB enclosure supports *only* PATA (IDE) hard drives such as the type of HDD
currently installed in your Dell machine. So check that out.

Now you could purchase a SATA HDD for use in an enclosure that supports a
SATA HDD with the external enclosure supporting USB connectivity. So that
you could use that device with your Dell machine. But there's another
problem here...

I'm virtually certain your Dell 8200 has only USB 1 (1.1) capability, i.e.,
it does not support USB 2.0. As such, while you could use the USB external
HDD with your present system it would be slow - tortuously slow - when
employing the device as the recipient of the cloned contents of your
internal day-to-day HDD (which I'm assuming you're planning to do using the
Acronis program you've mentioned).

Now you can get around this by purchasing a PCI card that supports USB 2.0
capability. They're relatively inexpensive - see, for example,
http://www.directron.com/aud041.html
(I'm assuming, of course, that you have an available vacant PCI slot in your
PC to install this card).

If you decide to go that general route, I would suggest purchasing an
external enclosure that has *both* USB-connectivity as well as direct
SATA-to-SATA connectivity. The difference in cost between the two types is
generally modest. Coupled with a SATA HDD (such as the WD one you've been
contemplating) this type of device could prove useful if & when at some
future point you purchase a new machine which will, no doubt, have built-in
SATA capability. SATA-to-SATA connectivity is decidedly superior to
USB-connectivity in terms of speed of operations.

I believe you've already received a flurry of responses re your optical
drive issue so I won't comment on that aspect.

One other thing...
While the Acronis True Image program is a fine program (incidentally, the
latest version is 11, not 10), we prefer the Casper 4.0 program for
disk-to-disk cloning rather than the Acronis program. We recently provided
details concerning the use of this program in a 11/18 posting to this
newsgroup under the subject...

"Re: My miserable experience in testing and "removing" the "Acronis
[alleged] True Image 11 Home" Backup product."

Take a look at it if you're interested. Or I can reost the info to this
newsgroup if you (or anyone else) is interested.
Anna

 

[WaIIy]

One other thing...
While the Acronis True Image program is a fine program (incidentally, the
latest version is 11, not 10), we prefer the Casper 4.0 program for
disk-to-disk cloning rather than the Acronis program. We recently provided
details concerning the use of this program in a 11/18 posting to this
newsgroup under the subject...

"Re: My miserable experience in testing and "removing" the "Acronis
[alleged] True Image 11 Home" Backup product."

Take a look at it if you're interested. Or I can reost the info to this
newsgroup if you (or anyone else) is interested.
Anna

I'm not the poster here, but I found your post regarding Casper 4.0.

You are very generous with your time and advice.

Thanks