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December 24th, 2007 18:00

What Hard Drive is in Inspiron 531

I just ordered my new Dell Inspiron 531 (AMD x2 5000+) off Ebay, withouth the monitor. The hard drive in the case is a 320GB SATA, but I am wondering which hard drive company does DELL use. Seagate, WD, Maxtor, IBM, Hitachi or some other company. In my current system I have a Seagate 320GB which I like but it is the old fashioned hookup to the motherboard. What I figured I would do is give my old computer to friends and then use the big 320GB in the DELL as storage and buy another 80GB for the main drive in the Dell. I would like to use the same company so I can do a disk capture of the OS and transfer it to the new drive before wiping out and repartitioning the 320. I have heard some not so good things about Vista and before even replacing the old computer with the Dell, completely wipe the drive and do a fresh install of Windows XP. But I am going to do some research 1st. Thanks for any assistance. This is my 1st post on the Forums.

December 24th, 2007 18:00

Wow that was quick.......So in your honest opinion for this computer would it really matter on what 80GB I bought to use as my main drive. I would assume the Dell system disk or software I'll get can ghost everything over to the new main drive. Thanks

10 Elder

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46K Posts

December 24th, 2007 18:00

SFC RedRage

There is no one brand of hard drive installed in Dell computers, Dell uses several makes, I've had Dell systems, with Maxtor, Seagate and Western Digital hard drives.

Basically, you will not know the make until you receive the computer.

Note: The Inspiron or Vostro Series do not support IDE drives, only SATA.

For more information about the i531, see here. <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

Bev.


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Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.

9 Legend

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87.5K Posts

December 24th, 2007 18:00

IBM hasn't made hard drives in several years, and Maxtor no longer exists as a separate company, but Dell uses desktop drives from all four existing manufacturers of desktop drives - Seagate, WD, Samsung and Hitachi. You could get any of them - you won't know until you receive the system.

Message Edited by ejn63 on 12-24-2007 03:27 PM

December 24th, 2007 19:00

I am not going to put my Seagate 320 in the Dell. I thought they had one hookup on the mother board for my old one. Basically all I would be doing is copying my Music, Photos, and everything else over to the 320 in the Inspiron. If they dont have that kind of hookup, then I also assume the DVD/CD drive must be a SATA hookup too

10 Elder

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46K Posts

December 24th, 2007 19:00

SFC RedRage wrote:

'...then I also assume the DVD/CD drive must be a SATA hookup too..."

You are right, it is.

If you wish to use an IDE hard drive, then install it into a powered USB 2.0 IDE enclosure, similar to this

I used an IDE external enclosure with an Inspiron 530 and it works fine.

Bev.


===================================================
Please don't send me questions about your system by DCF Messenger.
Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.

December 24th, 2007 20:00

It would save me money.....Since after this anyways I would no longer need the EIDE drive because it would go back into this computer I am using now that will go to one my other children. They will fight over it because I built this system years ago and it is getting outdated anyways but still pretty darn good. I also have to realize my current DVD & CDRW drives are no longer any good....Thanks for all of your assistance. Now to figure out what brand motherboard is in this system will be my next project or is it the same as the hard drive, they use different ones

10 Elder

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46K Posts

December 24th, 2007 20:00

SFC RedRage

That's doable, but may take some time.

Have a happy Christmas and enjoy your new computer.

Bev.



===================================================
Please don't send me questions about your system by DCF Messenger.
Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.

December 24th, 2007 20:00

Thanks again for your assistance. I didnt realize that there were any motherboards without an IDE hookup. I guess if I dont want to purchase one of them drives I could transfer everything over with my 2GB thumb drive a little bit at a time.

9 Legend

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87.5K Posts

December 24th, 2007 21:00

The mainboards are custom units produced for Dell - Dell's largest supplier is Foxconn, but it has also used Mitac and others in recent years.
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