Hello -
I am working on a 3yr old (but thus far unused) Dell XPS720 with three Seagate ST3750640AS 750Gb drives, 4Gb memory & Win 7 Pro *32bit* (REALLY!). It has 6 SATA ports in it.
Several issues/questions:
1. Two of the drives are online (C: & D
. The 3rd one is offline due to a signature collision. Following is the info from Diskpart inquiry:
Port 0 - D: DiskID: 20000000
Port 1 - nada DiskID: 20000000
Port 2 - C: DiskID: C0923583
Note that the D drive was showing when I fired it up but had never even been formatted. Really been used a lot, eh?
I read two articles ...
http://www.howtohaven.com/system/change-disk-signature.shtml
- AND -
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/252982-32-external-signature-collision-change
that educated me on how to fix this issue - one via diskpart commands (1st url) and the other via just putting the offline drive online via the Admin Tools .../Storage/Disk Management prompts (2nd url).
However, since this is not my PC (the guy bought it new through the company he worked for & paid a small fortune for it, he says), I am proceeding with very great caution.
So:
A. Are there any concerns about what hexidecimal code can or should be loaded into the now offline drive (4 hex bytes)?
B. Once that Diskpart command is issued specifying a code, or the 'online' option is activated, what will the system do at that point as far as assigning a drive letter to that drive? Logic says I would like for it to be assigned the letter 'E', but 'E' is now assigned to one of the two DVD drives, along with 'F'.
Would a reboot put all three drives in order - C;, D:, E: - with the DVD drives then becoming 'F' and 'G'?
C. Is there any need or reason to change the code for 'D' drive (no data on it)?
2. This PC case has 4 drive bays (2 x 2 sideways), and they are stamped 0 & 1 on the left with 2 & 3 on the right. As seen in the listing above, the 'C' drive is now on Port 2 (and lives in Bay 2), and the 'D' drive is on Port 0 (and lives in Bay 0).
Is there any particular reason system-wise why the 'C' drive is now connected to Port 2, with the 'D' drive in Port 0? Or does it even matter to the system what port C drive lives on?
There is a fan mounted between the two sets of drive bays, so with the 'C' drive living in Bay 2, it does get direct air flow out of the fan (which pulls air through the Bays 0 & 1). That is the only physical reason I can think of as to why the 'C' drive is where it is.
3. One other unusual observation. Disk Management shows that Disk 0 (D drive) has a 100Mb System Reserved partition with the rest being for D drive. However, Disk 2 (C drive with the OS) has no System Reserved partition showing.
The MS COA sticker says the unit shipped with Win Vista Ultimate installed - but it has Win 7 Pro 32-bit on it now. Is it possible or likley that their IT people just wiped the old OS on what may have originally been drive 'C' on Port 0, and just flipped the drive letters around?
I do have some more questions/issues, but enough for now.
Any and all help here will be muchly appreciated.
Fred
I am working on a 3yr old (but thus far unused) Dell XPS720 with three Seagate ST3750640AS 750Gb drives, 4Gb memory & Win 7 Pro *32bit* (REALLY!). It has 6 SATA ports in it.
Several issues/questions:
1. Two of the drives are online (C: & D
. The 3rd one is offline due to a signature collision. Following is the info from Diskpart inquiry:Port 0 - D: DiskID: 20000000
Port 1 - nada DiskID: 20000000
Port 2 - C: DiskID: C0923583
Note that the D drive was showing when I fired it up but had never even been formatted. Really been used a lot, eh?
I read two articles ...
http://www.howtohaven.com/system/change-disk-signature.shtml
- AND -
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/252982-32-external-signature-collision-change
that educated me on how to fix this issue - one via diskpart commands (1st url) and the other via just putting the offline drive online via the Admin Tools .../Storage/Disk Management prompts (2nd url).
However, since this is not my PC (the guy bought it new through the company he worked for & paid a small fortune for it, he says), I am proceeding with very great caution.
So:
A. Are there any concerns about what hexidecimal code can or should be loaded into the now offline drive (4 hex bytes)?
B. Once that Diskpart command is issued specifying a code, or the 'online' option is activated, what will the system do at that point as far as assigning a drive letter to that drive? Logic says I would like for it to be assigned the letter 'E', but 'E' is now assigned to one of the two DVD drives, along with 'F'.
Would a reboot put all three drives in order - C;, D:, E: - with the DVD drives then becoming 'F' and 'G'?
C. Is there any need or reason to change the code for 'D' drive (no data on it)?
2. This PC case has 4 drive bays (2 x 2 sideways), and they are stamped 0 & 1 on the left with 2 & 3 on the right. As seen in the listing above, the 'C' drive is now on Port 2 (and lives in Bay 2), and the 'D' drive is on Port 0 (and lives in Bay 0).
Is there any particular reason system-wise why the 'C' drive is now connected to Port 2, with the 'D' drive in Port 0? Or does it even matter to the system what port C drive lives on?
There is a fan mounted between the two sets of drive bays, so with the 'C' drive living in Bay 2, it does get direct air flow out of the fan (which pulls air through the Bays 0 & 1). That is the only physical reason I can think of as to why the 'C' drive is where it is.
3. One other unusual observation. Disk Management shows that Disk 0 (D drive) has a 100Mb System Reserved partition with the rest being for D drive. However, Disk 2 (C drive with the OS) has no System Reserved partition showing.
The MS COA sticker says the unit shipped with Win Vista Ultimate installed - but it has Win 7 Pro 32-bit on it now. Is it possible or likley that their IT people just wiped the old OS on what may have originally been drive 'C' on Port 0, and just flipped the drive letters around?
I do have some more questions/issues, but enough for now.
Any and all help here will be muchly appreciated.
Fred
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