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Laptop has IDE and SATA connectors, but only one HDD slot?!

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Ploper001

Technical User
Oct 5, 2006
286
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*First of all if there is a laptop forum, I could not find it, so could someone point it out to me if it exists please? Thanks.*

Hello all. I have a Dell Insprion 6400 and I am very happy with it thus far, except for one thing - the HDD is so small (56GB, 6GB used for Dell's Restore Software), so I want to buy a larger one (120-160GB preferably). I have seen that external and 6.35cm/2.5" internal Laptop drives are around the same price, and I'd prefer to have an internal one because it would be faster I assume (although I would lose the original drive's capacity...).

However, according to Device Manager and SiSoft Sandra, the laptop's HDD is connected via IDE (Ultra DMA 5), as is the DVD+RW DL Drive, but there is also an SATA interface! Now I'm pretty darn sure that there's only one HDD slot, so how does this work? Could I buy an SATA drive or not?

(Also, a minor question, can I actually get rid of this Dell Restore thing? The only thing I can think it's useful for is if the DVD+RW drive dies and I can't reinstall Windows from the CD they gave me...plus if I use their restore software, I just know it'll put all of that bloatware back on anyway...)


Thanks for any help!
 
Either phone Dell support and ask them what the drive interface is or remove the drive and find out for yourself (it doesn't appear to say in the documentation - after a quick look). You shouldn't need the Dell restore partition if you don't intend using it - should be able to install clean XP and just download any needed drivers from the Dell site.
 
I have MediaDirect though...but I think Dell have a utility for making that work after a reinstall.

How can I tell which interface it is? I know what SATA and IDE cables look like in desktops - will it be the same in the laptop, or will it just be connector pins or a propietory format (like the digital video transfer Laptop screens use - it's not DVI)...?
 
I have a Dell Inspiron 1505, which is the same as a 6000, and my configuration sheet from Dell shows a Hitachi SATA drive. Device manager - Disk drives reveals a Toshiba MK1032GSX, which is SATA. Tom's hardware has some good pictures here:


I do believe your system is SATA too, but pull the drive as wolluf suggests or look up your system configuration on the Dell site using your Service Tag number.
 
The official specsheet says my drive is "ATA/ATAPI-7, SATA II Ext to SATA1.0a,SATA II Electrical Spec.1.0"

Does ATA-7 mean SATA??
 
From a quick Google on term ATA/ATAPI-7 it appears that SATA is or will be part of the ATA/ATAPI-7 specification. The rest of the your spec reads to me as you having SATA II interface.

What type of drive does Device Manager show?

Pulling the drive out of your laptop will answer most, if not all, of your questions.
 
I will check the drive in an hour's time. The drive is listed under "Primary IDE Channel", and the drive itself if just under "Disk Drives" named after its model number.
 
OK, I just removed the drive and according to the label it's SATA (Do SATA and SATA-II use the same ports? In other words if I wanted to replace this drive, would a SATA-II drive fit?), so that solves that mystery.

About the Dell Restore thing...I've taken a screenshot of the drive's layout:


Is it safe to use both the green and yellow partitions here? Or should I just leave the green one alone? Maybe it's best to take them both, and then run Dell's Utility for restoring MediaDirect functionality...

I don't know, lol, opinions please?
 
How are you going to set up new drive? Use something like Ghost to transfer existing system, or start from scratch? If transferring, you should be able to just copy the ntfs partition to the whole of the new drive (I'm assuming you have the means to retrive data from current drive and write to new). If it doesn't work, may need to play with stuff like fixboot and making partition active - or just copy the whole drive and take the 5GB hit.

If from scratch - will it be using a Dell 'restore' or via XP install disk? Using XP install should just be ok - drivers all on Dell site - using whole drive. Dell restore - depends what's in it! I'd just do a straight XP install - or image partition if you've got it all set up as you like.
 
I will be getting a new drive later this year, which was the reason for this question, but in the mean time I want to claim as much space as possible from this drive - so I want to get rid of the Dell System Restore partition and then remormat my main NTFS partition and reinstall Windows XP (without the Dell bloatware) - I will do this with the Windows XP Install CD that Dell sent me (it is a full XP disc - not a restore CD).

I was just wondering if I could safely remove the ~90MB partition at the beginning of the drive, and still have Media Direct functionality??
 
I don't usually refer to forums outside of Tek-Tips but I will in this case. I blew away Dell's XP install and did a clean install. However, I left the two hidden partitions intact. I DO NOT have MediaDirect Functionality (nor do I care to) but I now understand why. The MBR must be fixed AFTER a reinstall of XP, and Dell has the tools to do this. BUT if you delete the hidden partition that exists following your XP partition, then you've effectively deleted MediaDirect. So its a two-fold thing: the MBR fix and the actual MediaDirect files in the partition that follows XP's partition. My opinion: a real kludge, but hey, if you like MediaDirect, more power to you.

Here are two links you should read if you want to reinstall XP and maintain MediaDirect.



For my curiosity, did you happen to write down the manufacturer and part number of your hard drive? (Also available from Device Manager - Disk Drives. I'm curious to know what kind of SATA drive you received, and if it is SATA I or SATA II.
 
Device Manager says Fujitsu MHV2060BH.

I don't use MediaDirect much because my laptop is on quite a lot of the time, but I have used it on occassion. I shall take a look at those links, thank you.
 
OK, after some research, I've finalled figured out how everything works (Dell makes it sound so complicated).

The ONLY reason you'd need to reinstall MediaDirect (2.0) is if you get a NEW HDD. If you just reformat the original HDD (or if you remove the Dell Restore partition, or both), the MediaDirect program IS STILL THERE, in a "HPA" (hidden partition - not even PartitionMagic can see this!). This can be proved by comparing the disk space visible in PartitionMagic compared to the disk space quoted by the manufacturer:

My Drive = 60GB

PartitionMagic Disk Size = 55796MiB = 58506346496 Bytes = 58.5GB.

There is 1.5GB "missing" - which is in a hidden partition used my Dell MediaDirect.


So, if I just remove the pointless Dell Restore Partition, reformat and reinstall, then run the MediaDirect repair utility, it should work fine.


However, I'm still unsure whether I need the 80MB (only 8MB of which is taken up) FAT partition at the beginning of the drive...
 
No, you don't get something for nothing. All drive manufacturers advertise their drive capacities in base 10, simply because it provides a larger number.

In base 10 one GB = 1000 * 1000 * 1000

Your 60GB in base 10 is 60,000,000,000 bytes

In binary terms, a GB = 1024 * 1024 * 1024 or 1,073,741,824

Divide this value into the base 10 60GB and you'll get 55.879GB which is close enough to what Partition Magic is showing you.

Referring to your Partition Magic link, note that there is no 1.5 GB hidden partition shown, so your MediaDirect files must reside in the partition colored yellow and identified as CP/M, Concurrent DOS, CTOS. I suspect that Dell's restore files reside there too. I am very sure that if delete this partition you will also lose MediaDirect files.

I provided the links in my previous post so you would be aware that when you got your new drive, the MediaDirect files would not be present on the new drive.

I too am unsure what the 80MB partition at the beginning of the drive is for. On my Inspiron it's 47MB with the same 8MB used. My guess is it is either diagnostics or a front-end loader for the MediaDirect and the Restore partition that is at the end of the drive. I've been curious about this partition too, but I haven't bothered deleting them as my drive is 100GB. But I am going to image my partitions and try some experimenting with removal of these partitions. It may not be right away, but I will post back what I've found.
 
Freestone, I am fully aware of the Base 2/Base 10 problem, which I thought I clearly explained by using "MiB" and then "GB".

In Partition Magic, the drive is said to be 54.5GiB, or 58.5GB, so there is 1.5GB (1.4GiB) missing.
 
Okay, I missed your lowercase I there, Ploper001. But I still don't understand or see where you are getting the missing 1.5GB from. The advertised size is 60GB, but that is base 10. You multiplied it all out in binary math to arrive at the real binary size of 58506346496 bytes. What am I missing?
 
I am now running without the 47MB partition at the beginning of the drive and the Dell Restore partition at the end - the entire drive is used for my purposes.

I used the Dell MediaDirect Repair Utility and recovered MediaDirect capabilities. That is gone now too (I restored my original MBR). I've seen enough of this to know I don't like what I see. I use Acronis Disk Director, but I imagine Partition Magic boot media would reveal the same thing. I started the laptop using the MediaDirect button, let MediaDirect fully start, then exited and booted with Acronis Disk Director. I found that my C: drive had disappeared and showed as unallocated space of the same size as the original partition, while at the same time another drive appeared at the end of drive. This drive had no label, was a FAT32 Primary partition marked active, and was 1.402GiB in size. This size of 1.402GiB was NOT TAKEN from any partition - it was in addition to any partitions that already existed. Some tricky manipulation was going on here making my C: drive unallocated and another drive appear that had space not taken from anywhere on the drive.

The fact that the C: becomes unallocated is what shies me away from leaving this software on my laptop. To me it just seems too open to failure and with it my C: drive disappearing. I don't need this type of smoke and mirrors.

I still haven't a clue what the 47MB primary partition at the beginning of the drive is for. I think it is a placeholder but this is just a wild guess.

Delete your partitions at your own risk. If you are going to delete the 90MB partition at the beginning of your drive, be sure to check your BOOT.INI file first. In my laptop, the 47MB partition was a primary partition, making my XP primary partion the 2nd on the drive. I had to alter boot.ini statement ...partition(2) to ...partition(1) in both places prior to deleting the 47MB partition.
 
I think you realised I was right in your above response, but to clarify: The total size of the drive according to Partition Magic is 58.5GB (base 10), but it is 60GB (base 10) according to the system manufacturer...

I left the small first partition on the drive there, but made it smaller (25MB). I then reinstalled XP on a freshly formatted C: Drive (the Dell Restore partition is gone). It appears the CD they gave me still has all the crapware on it, but I just Ctrl+Alt+Del after the first reboot and stopped the stupid orange/red flashing Dell banner then closed every program that was trying to install. Now I have a clean XP installed.

I'm updating at the moment, after that I shall repair MediaDirect and test it.
 
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