Dell Dimension XPS 410 with Seagate hard drive problem

[lastlib]

5. It varies from machine to machine....

... On boot-up, look for a screen to tell you how to got into system settings. It may be the F1 key, or F2, or F10 key--hold it down for a couple seconds, and it should take you into system settings. There should be a setting in there for hard drives. Again, the particulars vary, but you should be able to see if the machine is recognizing the second device.

Another possibility (and I'm not real familiar w/ Vista) is to check in Start>Programs, see if you have an Admin tools or System Info app, or an Event Log. Any of those might tell you more about what the specific error is, and give you more of a lead on how to fix. Without seeing your machine directly, I can't say exactly what to look for, but these tools may help.

Another (remote) possibility: is the second drive set as a slave drive? The only way to tell is to go inside the machine, and look at the jumper on the second drive--you may have to disconnect it completely, but see if the jumper is in the slave position. If it's set wrong (master or....) then it wouldn't have worked correctly from day one. If it has ever worked right, then this isn't the problem.