Dell hard drive help needed asap

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 28 Mar 2013 1:55 pm

My C drive died this morning and I got a new one installed. It's formatting now and hopefully there will no problems.

My question is regarding reinstalling the chipset drivers and drivers for onboard things like the video and soundcards. Do I still have to go through all that after getting Windows installed?

Pete Nicholls · Post by **Pete Nicholls** » 28 Mar 2013 2:19 pm

In most cases, yes. If you're lucky, Windows will have most of them.

Chris Dorch · Post by **Chris Dorch** » 28 Mar 2013 2:19 pm

More than likely, yes. However, Windows Update should have those drivers though it's generally considered to be better to get them from the manufacturer, in this instance- Dell.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 28 Mar 2013 2:29 pm

I remember having a problem one time, and Jack Stoner told me I had to take the Dell CD and reinstall all those drivers. I just can't remember what the problem was at the time. I guess I'll find out when Windows is done installing.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 28 Mar 2013 5:25 pm

Ok. It's kind of working. Here is something that is real strange. The new hard drive is set up as the 0 (zero) disk, and my second drive is set up as the 1 drive. Everything boots up fine, but when I would go into Windows Explorer, I only see the C: drive, which I assume to be the new drive with the operating system on it. I do not see another local disk, except disk I, which I thought might be my secondary drive. Nope. None of my files and folders are there. So by chance, I opened up the C drive, and it is actually opening my secondary drive. I would like the main drive to be the C: drive and my secondary drive to be the F: drive as I have some things (like website stuff in Dreamweaver) that needs to see the F: drive as the drive where the files are stored (although I can change those settings). Any way to change the letter designations?

Bryan Garvey · Post by **Bryan Garvey** » 28 Mar 2013 8:00 pm

Hi Richard

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you need to start all over again. You could keep on using it but it will cause you problems as the default installation of programs is normally "C:\Program Files" or "C:\Program Files (x86)". You can change drive letter names but the registry will still have your original installation defaults scattered everywhere. It is not worth it.
Unplug any extra drives and just re-install windows to the drive you want as "C". Once complete, plug your other drive back in.

Cheers
Bryan

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 29 Mar 2013 2:15 am

When you reinstall, only have the drive you want to install the OS on physically connected. If you have two or more drives it can get confusing on installing to the one you want.

Also, Win 7 will install most of the needed device drivers, but there may be some special Dell hardware drivers are need. The Dell sound driver is one that will be needed as Windows usually just installs the basic function "HD Audio Codec". Do not use a non-Dell sound driver as the Dell is customized for their hardware.

The Dell drivers can be accessed at www.support.dell.com use your service tag number to access the drivers. There is also a My Dell Downloads that will contain extra software such as CD/DVD burning software that you can download and install.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 29 Mar 2013 7:34 am

I seem to have it going now. I did disconnect the second drive and re-installed windows. I am re-installing Windows Xp as I can't afford $200 for Win7. I re-installed all the Dell drivers as I couldn't get internet access without installing the network drivers, and of course the sound card driver. I installed the chipset and video drivers also. I was able to rename my 2nd drive to F:. I needed that because I have website sites set up in Dreamweaver and the links are all relative to the F drive and I wasn't sure if they would update or I would have to re-define the sites.

All seems to be OK now, except a low battery voltage error on boot up, so I will hunt down anew battery and change it out.

Thanks for the heads up on the disconnecting the 2nd drive. I thought I did have it out of the system, but I guess not. That's what I get for thinking.