With any of the SATA ports highlighted, does it give ON and OFF options? The SATA #'s are pre-assigned and don't go in the order we plug things in as sometimes expected.

For an extra HDD so I can have 2 OS's on one computer, I had to turn on all the SATA ports on mine. After I found it, I had to turn off SATA ports not in use. Remember to use Save & Exit after using ESC.

Since the HDD is brand new, I had to initialize it, or "create a simple volume," and the wizard in Win7 took me thru the initializing steps.

Not sure how familiar you are with initializing; if your 2nd HDD is brand new.  If you have more questions or need more details about anything, you're welcome to ask me or the forum.  Hopefully this helps.

Hi,

Thanks @bradthetechnut. Unfortunately I am away from work (travelling and then vacation) for the next 2 weeks and so will not be able to try your solution on this PC until I return. However, I will let you know how I get on when I do!

If you cannot figure out the connection of the inner SATA ports on the motherboard, you can also try connecting your SATA drive to the eSATA port on the back of your tower. Originally this port was made as a more efficient transfer method than USB (this was the idea before USB 3.0 was created, however).
The connection to this port may be a bit more of a burden since the port is outside of the chassis. It is still possible to keep the hard drive inside the chassis with the power supply cords, though. If you choose to try this, you will need to run the SATA cable through an opening in the chassis to be able to connect it to the back port on the tower (another thread suggested running it through one of the PCI Riser slots). I have not tried this out myself yet, but I plan to check it out in a bit. If you need a longer SATA cable, you can always buy another that will be long enough to reach this external port.
The eSATA port on the back of the tower, I believe, will be listed as "External SATA" in the BIOS drives list.

Judging from pictures, it seems that your motherboard does not have HDD ports. But if I'm wrong and it does, read below:
My Precision T7500 also has four HDD ports (0-3) on the motherboard that can support SATA drives. Not sure if the T5500 is the same, but if your motherboard has HDD ports, that could also be an option to add additional drives. They are technically SAS ports, but SAS ports can support SATA drives (however, it doesn't work the other way around!). My four HDD ports were not enabled by default - to do this, I had to turn on the SAS Controller in the BIOS. After enabling the SAS Controller, a reboot allowed my T7500 to recognize the SATA drives in the HDD ports and they appeared in the computer drive list as normal after Windows login.

Cheers.

@spotted_zebra

Did you have any luck in getting your 2nd HDD going?

@bradthetechnut

Sorry for the delay in replying - I haven't been in the office a  lot recently, but my wanderings(!) have ended now.

I tried enabling all the SATA drives (SATA-0, SATA-1, SATA-2, SATA-3, SATA-4 and External SATA) as you suggested:

Settings > Drives > Drives
I ticked the checkbox alongside each of the SATA-0, SATA-1, SATA-2, SATA-3, SATA-4 and External SATA drives.

Under (SATA-0):
Drive details:
* Drive ID  = ST35xxxx
* Capacity  = 500GB
* BIOS      = This drive is controlled by the AHCI BIOS

Under (SATA-1):
Drive details:
* Drive ID  = PLDS DVD+/-RW xxxx

Under (SATA-2):
Drive details:
* Drive ID  = Unknown

(SATA-3), (SATA-4) and (External SATA) have Unknown Drive ID, same as (SATA-2)

When rebooting: messages appear on the screen:
Drive 2 not found: SERIAL ATA, SATA-2
Drive 3 not found: SERIAL ATA, SATA-3
Drive 4 not found: SERIAL ATA, SATA-4

Interestingly, there is no complaint about the external SATA drive.

Pressing F1 to continue boots to the Operating system on SATA-0.

The second disk is not visible to the operating system, or to utilities like gparted.

@BlackbuckTwilightify

That is a very interesting suggestion - perhaps the external SATA port is working! I think I would need to drill a hole to be able to feed the SATA data cable through from the inside, while keeping the drive and its power cable inside the case. I would prefer not to do this, but it is an option.

If I knew the external eSATA port was working, it might be worth investing in a harddrive enclosure, putting the second harddrive in it, and proceeding on that basis.

------------------

I know that both hard drives work OK, so I tried a different experiment. I disconnected the optical drive and plugged its cables into the second hard drive. I needed to lay the case on its side and was unable close it because of the position of the second hard drive, but was able to boot OK (with both drives being visible in the Dell setup utility - of course the optical drive was not!) and gparted was also able to see the second hard drive.

This suggests that the motherboard slots for some of the higher-numbered SATA cables have been disabled. Or maybe it is a limitation of the BIOS (currently BIOS Revision A09).

Lastly, I took some photos in case they might help.

Hi @spotted_zebra,

You might remember I mentioned I didn't know if your HDD is brand new.  If it is, it needs initializing in Windows 7 or better.  Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management.  You should see your 2nd disk.  Right click on volume to "Initialize" or "Create a Simple Volume."  Format to NTFS and "Mark Partition as Active."  Afterwards, your HDD should show up in all the right places - Boot Menu, BIOS, and My Computer in your OS.

Control Panel - Device Manager, then click on your disk drives is also an option.  Right click on blank HDD to get the initialize option.  If "Initialize" doesn't show, the 1st route I gave is the best.

I couldn't see your pictures from my phone.  I still attached a screengrab of Computer Management (if the attachment works).  You can see both of my HDD's.  No sensitive info is exposed.

With the way this forum is formatted, sometimes I have to be signed out to see photos.

If an HDD isn't initialized, it won't work for anything, including just files, music, etc.

HI @bradthetechnut,

Thanks for your tips. The second hard drive is already formatted and partitioned. Unlike the first hard drive, it does not have an operating system on it (it should not need one) but otherwise it is similarly ready for use as a second drive.

The "experiment" I performed, where I disconnected the optical drive and plugged its connectors into the second hard drive, and it worked OK as a second hard drive, suggests the problem is caused by

a) the additional connectors, or

b) what they are connected to (the motherboard etc.) at the other end, or

c) there is a software limitation on the number of internal SATA ports that are available.

Although I do not plan to use the optical drive often, I would prefer to have the option of using it. Therefore, following @BlackbuckTwilightify's advice, I wish to explore whether the external SATA port could host the second hard drive.

Regarding the pictures of inside the case, it seems that they did not upload correctly - I cannot see them either! Sorry about that - I will try to find them again.

Thanks again!

Sorry to hear you're still having trouble with it.  I think what you meant to say is you plugged the optical drive into the HDD port?  Or is it worded as intended - You plugged the optical drive into the HDD?

We don't have the same motherboards, mine is an Optiplex.  I could take a photo of where I plugged in my 2nd HDD, but I don't think it would be of any help.  (I took photos of it previously.)

I Googled images of your motherboard to see if it would help me with any further ideas - no such luck.

Also, I'm sure you remembered - Once things are set, turn off ports not in use in BIOS so that you're not getting those error msgs. at startup.

Also, there might be a YouTube video on the subject.

Might @DELL-Alasdair R be able to help simplify?  I don't believe adding a 2nd HDD, already formatted (or initialized) and partitioned, should be such a complex.  Much appreciated if you can chime in with your Dell wisdom.

Like photos, the @, then the person's name, doesn't show unless I'm signed out.  Android 7