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    Inspiron 9400 - second hard drive?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by RooGee, Apr 25, 2008.

  1. RooGee

    RooGee Notebook Enthusiast

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    hey guys...

    i was just wondering if someone knows if it is possible to upgrade a Dell Inspiron 9400 with a second hard drive. if yes, what kind of hard drive is needed and... what else do i need to take into consideration?

    thanks for your help
     
    RooGee, Apr 25, 2008
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  2. elijahRW

    elijahRW Notebook Deity

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    Yes it's possible to do so. Take a look on ebay for inspiron 9400 hard drives.
    Even though you don't need one specifically for a 9400 I recommend it just to keep things safe-I've had bad times with notebook hard drives-.
    Once the HDD is replaced you'll need to reinstall your Operating System.

    Here's a decent hard drive on ebay

    http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-6...yZ158852QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
     
    elijahRW, Apr 25, 2008
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  3. RooGee

    RooGee Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks mate.

    Is it really necessary to reinstall the os as i do not have the disk. I received a friendly letter with a notebook from Dell advising that as the os is preinstalled they do not deliver discs anymore.
     
    RooGee, Apr 25, 2008
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  4. elijahRW

    elijahRW Notebook Deity

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    Ahh I see. Before you take out the old hard drive you'll need to use the current hard drive to make reinsall/recovery discs. I'm not sure how exactly you do this because all systems are different. Usually the notebook comes with a tool that creates them.
    The best thing to do is call dell and ask them to tell you how to make recovery or re-install discs on your inspiron 9400. Once you have them made you can put in a new hard drive and use the discs to put the operating system on the new hard drive.
     
    elijahRW, Apr 25, 2008
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  5. RooGee

    RooGee Notebook Enthusiast

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    sorry... let me just make sure we're talking about the same thing. what i understand of your response is that you think that i want to REPLACE my old HDD. i probably didn't write clear enough... i'm wondering if i can put a second one in there. ;)
     
    RooGee, Apr 25, 2008
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  6. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

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    You cannot install a second hard drive in an Inspiron 9400/E1705. There is only one hard drive bay on the right side of the machine (according to the service manual). On an aside, I actually found that pretty surprising given that most 17 inch notebooks let you have two drives, even three on some models.
     
    Commander Wolf, Apr 25, 2008
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  7. RooGee

    RooGee Notebook Enthusiast

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    so... what exactly are you saying... do you think there's space for a second drive? in other words, i have to connect the second drive to the first, in order to power and connect it?
     
    RooGee, Apr 25, 2008
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  8. Chrysaor

    Chrysaor Notebook Consultant

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    You can put a second harddrive in 9400/E1705, but you have to sacrifice the optical drive and get an enclosure for that bay (search ebay), and put the second harddrive there.
     
    Chrysaor, Apr 25, 2008
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  9. elijahRW

    elijahRW Notebook Deity

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    A simpler idea would be to get an external USB hard drive.
    Unless you really want it inside your computer. In that case you would want a hard drive for your cd/dvd bay area.
     
    elijahRW, Apr 25, 2008
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  10. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    As Chryasor mentioned, you can only have two harddrives in your laptop by sacrificing the cd drive.
    You can just remove your current harddrive and upgrade it to a larger faster drive.

    Having a usb harddrive will be very slow, since the usb hub cannot send more than 30mb/sec. A good internal laptop harddrive can do up to 70mb/sec, which is much faster than through a USB hub.

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Apr 25, 2008
    #10