Trying to connect a SCSI zip drive to a Dell OptiPlex GX1 400MHz and want to install a new Segate Barr 40Gig thers only 1 bay

There is a 2TB limit with MBR (Master Boot Record), but even a larger drive can be partitioned. So a single 4TB (biggest on the market) drive will look like several drives.
External drives that are bigger than 4TB are really several physical drives combined by an array.

RAID 1 requires optional SCSI drives, cables, and even software?
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ws670/en/ug_en/before.htm


Add on SATA 3 cards to PCI are not a good idea if you are looking for speed. They just bottlenecks the throughput.

Two wire are needed to attach a new hard drive.
Please refer to the links below ,to see how the attaching cables looks.

This cable is connects Hard drive to Motherboard
SATA Data Cable

This cable connects Hard drive to Power Supplier
SATA Power Cable

Yes and No..

The standard machine only allows SCSI, (no IDE or SATA or SAS connectors...

However SCSI drives are not cheap.. so

To overcome the power issue (you will notice there are no 4 pin molex connectors, or sata power connectors). However there is a 4 pin molex socket on the SCSI backplane. You can use one of those molex adaptor cables (one connector to many) to get power, from the molex you can use a 4 pin to SATA power connector.

Next step is to decide the drive you want to use. I personally use SCSI, SATA, SAS and IDE in mine (overkill I know).

Cheapness says use IDE or SATA. You can get a pci IDE/SATA controller card on ebay dirt cheap (PCI cards are compatible with the large PCIX slots), they dont take the entire "socket" up but they work (be carefull here, there is one 5v pci socket on these machines, and 6 pcix sockets, the pcix sockets will accept 3.3v pci cards (look at the notches).

Next you have to mount them, with a bit of jiggery pokery you can feed the IDE/SATA cables past the SCSI backplane into the hot swap bay. (If you dont have any empty caddy's pick them up off ebay), just remember you cant just pull em out like you can with the SCSI's!) - or use one of the 5 1/2 media bays.

Plud the other ends into the appropriate controller card (as installed in the PCI bus).

Load up the OS, install drivers (if needed - these should come with the pci card(s), use the disk manager to initialise/first format the drives etc.

All done.

I have done this myself running a 2600, with 2X U320 72gb SCSI (on Raid) 1 x IDE CD/DVDRW in Media bay, DAT 27 SCSI (channel B) in the second media bay. 2x 146gb SAS on a DELL SAS pcix card (in 2 of the hot swap bays) and an old 160gb IDE HDD (Funilly enough theres a bit towards the back of the two fans on the SCSI backplane that if you press the 3 1/2 drive against seems to fit perfectly in this place and stay there! (I think thats fluke to be honest).

All done :)

I would check the manufacturers site first for the software.

Sometimes for a minimal charge they will send you a new disk if you call them.

No boot device means that the computer cannot find a drive that has a operating system files and therefore cannot boot up.
This usually means that the hard drive in the computer is faulty.
You need to get a new hard drive and install Windows on the hard drive, together with the drivers for the computer's installed devices and programs to get a working computer.

This drive is a SCSI hard drive. 9.1 GB SCSI ULTRA 2 68 PIN.

It needs a 68 pin Ultra-2 SCSI cable.

try dell support, driver downloads @ www.dell.com

That particular work station comes with both IDE and SCSI drive interface controllers. The IDE drive should be used for your OS. The SCSI drives for your data storage. Now, the issue is to get the SCSI to work in RAID_0 as I understand.

You iwll need a RAID controller such as Adaptec AHA-3940AU WD SCSI Host Controller, which may be found on eBay (used) for a very affordable price. The driver software may be downloaded directly from Adaptec, so I suggest you do that in the iterim peroid, and store drivers on a USB thumb drive.

Hope this helps you.

If you are installing a new hard drive, it is possible that you have not connected the cables correctly. Check if these are seated firmly in the corresponding pins.

Put the hard disk in, allow the OS to identify it, format the drive and you'll be all set.