I want to add an IDE hard drive to my dimension E520 but it appears i cant connect it to the motherboard. Is it possible?

Test all leads that attach to your hard drive including electrical extensions,IDE,SATA

the leads from your MOTHERBOARD TO YOUR HARD DRIVE make sure they have a secure connection and are not faulty or just replace them they could be faulty

make sure all leads that are attached to your drives dvd\cd 3 1/2 inch floppy have secure connections and are not faulty even the electrical extensions or just replace them they could be faulty a computer needs its connections to continue its cycle and have an end so any faulty leads will end up with a computer error

even something as small as a faulty electrical extension or fan lead can cause you problems

computers need all of the data and electrical current to travel through every working device and to have an end to be able work properly

motherboard and a hard drive any leads between them will fail before your motherboard or your hard drive if its a flat ribbon 40 pin type IDE replace it this will be the first to fail

check all electrical power input and extensions make sure they are securely seated even the cd/dvd floppy drives need to have current go through make sure these drives are working

also check the Cmos battery and computer RAM modules make sure they are securely seated with no dust built up or in the sockets on some motherboards cmos batteries are soldered in

check you CPU make sure its securely seated and has thermal grease

hope it helps

One bad lead can cause a computer to continue on a cycle or to shutdown or fail to detect your hard drive
Test the leads that attach to your ((hard drive from the motherboard)) or replace all the leads that attach to your hard drive including electrical extensions + IDE,SATA and the ones that attach from your ((motherboard to hard drive))
make sure all leads that are attached to your drives dvd\cd 3 1/2 inch floppy have secure connections and are not faulty even the electrical extensions or just replace them they are probably old and faulty a computer needs its connections to have an end so any faulty leads will end up with a computer error


hope this helps

Test your PSU or replace it if your power supply units fan is not working your PSU is faulty

One bad lead can cause a computer to continue on a cycle or to shutdown or fail to boot

Test all leads that attach to your hard drive including electrical extensions,IDE,SATA

the leads from your motherboard to your hard drive make sure they have a secure connection and are not faulty or just replace them there probably old and faulty

make sure all leads that are attached to your drives dvd\cd 3 1/2 inch floppy have secure connections and are not faulty or just replace them they are probably old and faulty ?
hope this helps

Go buy an IDE hard drive of whichever size you want, and connect it to the IDE cable that your current drive is connected to inside the computer. If you don't want to reinstall windows, you'll have to either purchase a separate IDE cable and connect the new drive to another IDE port on your motherboard (IDE cables are the thin, flattned cables that are fairly wide) If your current IDE cable has a freed up connection, ensure that your drives are jumpered properly with the master/slave options that should be printed on the drive itself, with a diagram. Your main drive (34GB) should be the master, the new one set to slave - this will keep the computer booting off of your current hard drive. It may seem intimidating, but installing a new hard drive is easy once you open up the computer and start comparing parts, looking for your hard drive ports and power supply cables. Just make sure the IDE cable and the power supply cable are firmly attached to the new hard drive when you install it.(power supply cable usually has a white tip, with four loosely bound wires leading to it) I hope this helps!

I assume your new computer has IDE controller on the motherboard.
Yes you can install your old hard drive into your new computer as a Slave hard drive.
If the old hard drive is installed on the 2nd IDE controller and it is the only device on the controller then the jumper and be master or slave, but connect the hard drive at the last connector on the IDE cable.

Never put the CD on IDE 1
The IDE hard drive should always be alone on the first IDE channel.
CD-ROM drives can slow down the transfer rates and cause other screwups, and so they should always be on IDE2 or as high as possible (Add in Cards)

Try this Boot to the BIOS

press ALT+E (single Beep)
ALT+F another beep
ALT+B system will reboot and re-detect drives

once done, you should be able to install XP on HDD

Yes, the motherboard should support that size drive with no problems. You will have to reinstall windows using the discs that dell sent you originally. Be aware the drivers for dell can be tricky to reinstall.

Yes, it is possible to do so. Adding a DVD is pretty much the same for most PCs. I suggest getting an 80-wire cable. The simplest solution is to replace the existing CD drive and cable with a new 80-wire cable and a DVD drive. You'll have to get drivers for it as well as software to use it (if the drive doesn't come with any). If you want to add it and use the existing CD, then you'll need to open the case, add the 80-wire cable (in addition to the existing cable) into the second IDE cable connector on the motherboard. Check these instructions from Dell. (Note they suggest connecting it to the existing cable, but that may or may not be possible.) Go to:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim2400/en/sm_en/drives.htm

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB Hard Drive
goes for about 180 bucks and it a IDE PATA Drive I do belive since your dimensions 2300 motherboard 3T237 is only IDE and does not have SATA

your motherboard can also handle 1 gig of ram so if you havent maxed out your motherboard yet I would highly suggest it. Ram for it wont cost you much either.

I would add the newer drive as a secoundary drive since I am sure that your operating system is pre loaded.

or you can also add external drives to your system as well for more storage as well and they are starting to come down in price as well. you have options it all depends what ya wanna do with it.