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Dell Optiplex GX240 and 160GB HHD

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by quickshot, 2005/12/16.

  1. 2005/12/16
    quickshot Lifetime Subscription

    quickshot Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I have a Dell Optiplex GX240 small desktop running XP Pro Service pack 3 A02 BIOS, I have a 80GB installed and have a EZ GIG DT external HDD [USB] with a 160GB installed in it [Hitachi Deskstar 160GB IDE HDD 7200 rpm HDS722516VLAT80] it shows up in the device manager but not in My Computer. I have the internal as Cable Select and the external set as Master. It shows up in Belarc and in Everest programs also. My computer had a 20GB drive and I had a 80GB drive in the EZ GIG and cloned the drive and put the 80 in the computer and it works great, I had the 160GB my brother gave me so I put it in the EZ GIG.:confused:
    I want to use it for backup and storage. How???
     
    Last edited: 2011/10/12
    quickshot,
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  2. 2005/12/17
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    Click on Start->Run and type diskmgmt.msc

    Does the drive show up? Does it show up as "UNallocated?" If so, you'll need to right click and select create partition.

    ** If the drive has data on it that you need - STOP and don't do the above. **
     
    Steve R Jones,
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  4. 2005/12/17
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    quickshot Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    Yes it shows up and I have no data on it yet. What next?
    quickshot
     
    Last edited: 2011/10/12
    quickshot,
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  5. 2005/12/17
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    'Unallocated' = not partitioned or formatted. Just follow Steve's instructions ....
     
    PeteC,
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  6. 2005/12/19
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    quickshot Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I formated and now Windows Explorer recognizes it but I think it sees it as an extension of my hard drive and not as a removable drive-things work OK but did I do wrong by making it active?
     
    Last edited: 2011/10/12
    quickshot,
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  7. 2005/12/20
    mattman

    mattman Inactive Alumni

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    Setting a drive to active means that the BIOS (or Windows) should expect that an operating system could be installed there. The drive needs to be set as active when you want to install an OS to it.

    You want to use the drive for storage and backup, so it does not need to be set as active. If it is not set as active it will stop the BIOS and Windows from "searching" for an OS that they would expect to be there and just treat it as a storage drive.

    It is now blank, so you can do a lot of "experimenting" if you wish. You can remove the partition, make another one, remove that, make several partitions, remove those and finally make the partition(s) you want and format it (them).

    Matt
     
    Last edited: 2005/12/20
    mattman,
    #6

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