#Dell replacement hard drives install

My previous experience with connecting it directly to an XP machine was that it kept the machine from booting, but connecting it via USB after the machine was booted would let me see the drive and its partitions, but not their contents.ДЄt this point, I'm less concerned about the existing drive than I am about the inability of the Optiplex to see any drive.

I can see the contents of the System Reserved partition, but attempting to view the Local Disk partition locks up Windows Explorer. When plugged into a Windows 7 machine via USB, I can see both partitions on the Seagate ('System Reserved' and 'Local Disk'). The SATA DVD is recognized and the machine will boot from it. I have tried connecting the drive to different SATA connectors (which I turned on in the BIOS) to no avail. I even tried formatting it in another machine and then putting it back in the Optiplex. UBCD4Win booted from the DVD does not detect it, either.

#Dell replacement hard drives install

The drive shows up in the BIOS (as does the Seagate), but no Windows install program from XP Pro SP3 thru Win 7 pro will recognize there is even a drive there. I installed a used (smaller) drive in the machine for test purposes. Various diagnostics said the drive was either bad or missing entirely. The machine would start to boot and then blue screen and start over. The 2 TB drive has seemingly quit working.

It was a clean install, and had run quite smoothly. In its current iteration, the machine was running Windows 7 pro. The original was a SATA 160, which was replaced several months ago with a 2 TB Seagate. Dual core Pentium E2220 CPU, Intel 035 Express chipset (ICH9D0), Radeon HD 2400 video, 2 GB DDR2 RAM, 4 SATA connectors. Have a friend with an older (~2008) Dell Optiplex 755.