Does disabling hard drive in BIOS make it consume no power?

My 2 cents: I do believe Dells use CABLE SELECT on their systems. Do you have the jumpers set at CABLE SELECT on both drives??? And is the primary (MASTER) HD set at the END of the ribbon cable?

The "Slave" or Secondary goes in the middle. At least it does on my Dell.

The 200GB is new, the 80GB is old. I have the 200GB which is the primary connected on the black end (the end of the cable) and the 80GB connected on the gray end (middle which is before the black end)

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@ChuChuX5 wrote:
The 200GB is new, the 80GB is old. I have the 200GB which is the primary connected on the black end (the end of the cable) and the 80GB connected on the gray end (middle which is before the black end)

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As was asked, but not answered, do you have the jumpers set on BOTH drives as Cable Select?

What model Dimension is this?

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@ChuChuX5 wrote:
I just got my new 200GB hard drive a few days ago and since I wanted to transfer old stuff from old drive, I set new one as master and old as slave in Dell BIOS. For some reason, Dell won't get past the BIOS if I disconnect the slave, even if I installed Windows XP on the primary. Will slave still consume power and resources if I disabled it in the BIOS?

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Longshot, but when you say you disconnect the slave, are you also removing the power connector too? If you did not, try it.

There is no "CABLE SELECT" on jumpers which I can't find. Apparently I didn't need to ask the question, because right when I set Hard Drive to disabled I was able to take the 80GB out without it messing up. Thanks anyways...

OK, the jumpers should be those set of pins that nothing connects to. (I don't have a picture) Those set of pins should have a little clip connecting 2 pins together. Usually tweezers are needed (not always) to remove the clip, to then set it on the right set of pins.

There should be a diagram on the HD,(or came with the instructions) or you can get the diagram online from the manufacturer.