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This DIY guide explains how to install a second hard drive into your Dell Vostro 1700 or Inspiron 1720/1720. If your notebook came with only one hard drive installed, you can easily install a second one at home without taking your notebook to the service place.
This computer was built to accommodate two hard drives but you’ll have to purchase the following missing components:
1. 2.5″ SATA hard drive for notebook computers.
Which brand? It doesn’t really matter, you can use Toshiba, Western Digital, Hitachi or other brand, just make sure it’s a SATA (not IDE) drive.
Which size? You can use 120GB, 160GB or 200GB drives. Most likely your notebook will recognize a larger drive too.
Which speed? 5400RPM drives are cheaper and 7200RPM drive are faster, but more expensive. I would personally go with a 7200RPM drive.
2. Hard drive caddy connector kit with screws and connector.
Let’s say you installed a second drive but it doesn’t appear in “My Computer”.
If you are installing a NEW hard drive (drive that has not been formatted/partitioned), you may have to format/partition your new drive after you install it as a second drive in the notebook (or else you may not see the second hard drive when you boot up the notebook)
Here’s how you can do that:
1. Access “Control Panel” and go to “Administrative Tools”.
2. Access “Computer Management” and go to “Disk Management”.
3. Find your newly installed hard drive.
4. Create partition and formate the drive.
January 24th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Just a heads up that last step only works for vista and windows 7, You’ll need additional software for XP.
April 1st, 2009 at 9:39 pm
I tried your steps above but still could not see the new HD. I can see it when I get into setup. When I reinstalled my HDD1 the tech had me go into setup and switch RAID ON to the automatic detect/Raid on setting. Should I change this back? Will that mess up my new install as it warns in setup?
April 1st, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Darrell,
Most likely you didn’t see the new hard drive because it has to be partitioned and formatted before you can use it in Windows.
You can do that if you access the device manager and then go to the disk management. Your new hard drive should be in there. Right click on it and initialize the hard drive if it’s asking for it. After that create a partition and format with NTFS. When the hard drive is partitioned and formatted it should pop up in My Computer as a regular drive.
It depends on what you are trying to achieve by installing the second drive.
1. If you are trying to increase the storage space, you shouldn’t use RAID. In this case the second hard drive will be an additional storage.
2. If you are trying to make your laptop fail safe, you should use RAID. In this case the HDD 2 will be the exact copy of the HDD 1. All you do on your laptop will be written to both hard drives simultaneously. In this case you will not get any extra storage space, but if one of the hard drives fails, the laptop will work with only one hard drive and all your personal data will be safe.
I assume you want to increase the storage space, right?
1. Turn off the RAID function.
2. Start your laptop and access the disk management utility in the device manager.
3. Initialize the new drive if needed. Partition and format the drive.
Now you should be able to use it.
June 26th, 2009 at 4:19 am
I have the same computer (Vostro 1700) and consider installing a secondary hdd to enable raid-1, but I can’t seam to find that option either in bios or in software (vista ultimate). Is this a case of dell having disabled this feature (since the motherboard should support it), or do I have to update some drivers/bios?
November 16th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Im just curious, any sata hd will go into the caddy and plug right into the laptop? I’m asking, cuz i have no idea. The power cable is also onboard this caddy? Thanks for your info.
November 16th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Wayne,
Pretty much any SATA hard drive should work.
It’s not a cable, it’s a connector. You put this connector on the hard drive before connecting it to the motherboard.
May 31st, 2010 at 11:30 am
I’ve looked around and it says that the hdd caddys are different for bay 1 and for bay 2 which is rather annoying as Bay 2 caddys seem to be much more expensive.
Is this the case?
July 13th, 2010 at 12:50 am
Excellent tutorial. How do I find out how big (GB) a second drive my dell will recognise though? Would be good to know this before purchase.