What hard drives are in my Dell XPS 8100?

[LMC91]

Hi, I know this isn't a Mac, sorry about that, but I thought there would be people here that could help me.

My PC is a Dell Studio XPS 8100, it has two drives, C (with the OS), and D with all my data. The C drive is 60gb and the D drive is 2TB. Even with installing my programs on D, a certain amount of data still goes into C, and at this point it's pretty much out of space. Same problem happened 3 years ago, I wiped the PC in hope of merging the partitions, but no luck. I think this was just a stupid hard drive setup from Dell at the time

Since I was planning on wiping my PC and starting over, I thought it might be a good idea to upgrade to an SSD. What I would like to find out though is how many hard drives are in this PC, and what the sizes of each are? What I'm hoping is that I got this small 60gb drive, that I can replace with an SSD, and still have my 2TB drive.

The reason I'm confused is because I'm reading two different things -

Right clicking My Computer > Manage > Disk Management, I can see my hard drive information:

Disk 0 - (D 1800.00GB

Disk 1 is split into 3 partitions - a small one at 86mb, RECOVERY at 9.90gb, OS (C 53.03gb.

But when I turn on my PC, during boot up, before Windows, it seems to say two drives at around 930gb. So I'm confused what my set up is when it comes to hard drives. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

 

[bradl]

Here's what you can do.

On the bottom of the laptop or the back of the machine, you should see a sticker from Dell that has a service tag on it. should be a combination of 7 letters and numbers. Take that number, and plug it into the "Enter a Service Tag or Express Service Code" form at http://support.dell.com. That should come back with the make and model of your machine.

When it comes up, click on system Configuration, then original configuration, then the drop down arrow for components. That should show you everything that was put in your machine, down to the number of screws used.

Give that a shot.

BL.

 

[macenied]

Hi, I know this isn't a Mac, sorry about that, but I thought there would be people here that could help me.

My PC is a Dell Studio XPS 8100, it has two drives, C (with the OS), and D with all my data. The C drive is 60gb and the D drive is 2TB. Even with installing my programs on D, a certain amount of data still goes into C, and at this point it's pretty much out of space. Same problem happened 3 years ago, I wiped the PC in hope of merging the partitions, but no luck. I think this was just a stupid hard drive setup from Dell at the time

Since I was planning on wiping my PC and starting over, I thought it might be a good idea to upgrade to an SSD. What I would like to find out though is how many hard drives are in this PC, and what the sizes of each are? What I'm hoping is that I got this small 60gb drive, that I can replace with an SSD, and still have my 2TB drive.

The reason I'm confused is because I'm reading two different things -

Right clicking My Computer > Manage > Disk Management, I can see my hard drive information:

Disk 0 - (D 1800.00GB

Disk 1 is split into 3 partitions - a small one at 86mb, RECOVERY at 9.90gb, OS (C 53.03gb.

But when I turn on my PC, during boot up, before Windows, it seems to say two drives at around 930gb. So I'm confused what my set up is when it comes to hard drives. Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Use the Windows device manager to check the physical disks.

 

[LMC91]

Here's what you can do.

On the bottom of the laptop or the back of the machine, you should see a sticker from Dell that has a service tag on it. should be a combination of 7 letters and numbers. Take that number, and plug it into the "Enter a Service Tag or Express Service Code" form at http://support.dell.com. That should come back with the make and model of your machine.

When it comes up, click on system Configuration, then original configuration, then the drop down arrow for components. That should show you everything that was put in your machine, down to the number of screws used.

Give that a shot.

BL.

Thank you very much, bradl. It states 'HARD DRIVE : 2TB(2X1TB) SERIAL ATA RAID', not what I wanted to see, but at least I finally know it's made up of two 1TB drives. I knew about the support page, but honestly didn't know or see the System Configuration button.

Thanks macenied, I think that's where I got my information I posted at the start, it states there that Disk 0 is 1800GB, and Disk 1 is split into 3 partitions, the total being 63.02GB.

I'm confused why Windows is telling me it's a different set up, as if it's a small 60gb drive, and a 2TB drive. The D drive is even one big 1.75TB partition. Back when I tried to merge my C and D together 3 years ago, I thought it wasn't working because it was two seperate drives, it must not be, also someone on the Dell's forum said that they couldn't be merged unless using 3rd party software. Now I suppose I got to see where to go from here with the SSD upgrade, since I guess I'll be losing some storage.

 

[macenied]

Thank you very much, bradl. It states 'HARD DRIVE : 2TB(2X1TB) SERIAL ATA RAID', not what I wanted to see, but at least I finally know it's made up of two 1TB drives. I knew about the support page, but honestly didn't know or see the System Configuration button.

Thanks macenied, I think that's where I got my information I posted at the start, it states there that Disk 0 is 1800GB, and Disk 1 is split into 3 partitions, the total being 63.02GB.

I'm confused why Windows is telling me it's a different set up, as if it's a small 60gb drive, and a 2TB drive. The D drive is even one big 1.75TB partition. Back when I tried to merge my C and D together 3 years ago, I thought it wasn't working because it was two seperate drives, it must not be, also someone on the Dell's forum said that they couldn't be merged unless using 3rd party software. Now I suppose I got to see where to go from here with the SSD upgrade, since I guess I'll be losing some storage.

Hi, you are welcome. The RAID ( striped ) you have combines the two 1 TB harddisks to one 2 TB drive ( basicly a very nice and fast setup ). This 2 TB drive is then divided into a 60 GB and a 1.75 TB partition. You can get rid of the 2 partitions and have only one by a clean Windows install which allows you to re-partition the RAID. Do not use any Dell recovery for this. After the clean install you reinstall the Dell drivers.

 

[LMC91]

Hi, you are welcome. The RAID ( striped ) you have combines the two 1 TB harddisks to one 2 TB drive ( basicly a very nice and fast setup ). This 2 TB drive is then divided into a 60 GB and a 1.75 TB partition. You can get rid of the 2 partitions and have only one by a clean Windows install which allows you to re-partition the RAID. Do not use any Dell recovery for this. After the clean install you reinstall the Dell drivers.

Ah, I see, thanks for the explanation. Think I'll have to go about doing that at the very least, when you say to clean install Windows without Dell's Recovery, do I not need to use their Recovery to reinstall Windows 7? Though I did come across a guide recently that was to allow users to do a clean install without the bloat.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164

Is that recommended? Had this PC 5 years too, if I upgrade to an SSD, I take it that will mean I'd have an SSD plus only one 1tb drive? or can I keep both drives there and an SSD?

 

[macenied]

Ah, I see, thanks for the explanation. Think I'll have to go about doing that at the very least, when you say to clean install Windows without Dell's Recovery, do I not need to use their Recovery to reinstall Windows 7? Though I did come across a guide recently that was to allow users to do a clean install without the bloat.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164

Is that recommended? Had this PC 5 years too, if I upgrade to an SSD, I take it that will mean I'd have an SSD plus only one 1tb drive? or can I keep both drives there and an SSD?

I don't know if this computer can handle 3 harddisks / SSD's. If you upgrade to SSD I'd consider upgrading to Windows 10 too, thus it will be a bigger excersise anyways. Check the Dell forums and make sure someone did already what you plan to do. It's always good to know that it can be done .

 

[LMC91]

I don't know if this computer can handle 3 harddisks / SSD's. If you upgrade to SSD I'd consider upgrading to Windows 10 too, thus it will be a bigger excersise anyways. Check the Dell forums and make sure someone did already what you plan to do. It's always good to know that it can be done .

Honestly don't think someone did it for this PC when reading the Dell forums, though I think they managed to do it with newer models of the computer. Not to worry though, considering I had this thing 5 years, I might just restart it, and continue using it with the fixed partition set up without an SSD, and then eventually get a new PC, since I'll have newer technology and USB3.0 and stuff. I had planned to upgrade to Windows 10 after a while when some of the launch bugs have been fixed, but I was a bit worried when I heard about how Windows 10 has all these privacy issues I hear about. Thanks again for your time and help.

 

[macenied]

Honestly don't think someone did it for this PC when reading the Dell forums, though I think they managed to do it with newer models of the computer. Not to worry though, considering I had this thing 5 years, I might just restart it, and continue using it with the fixed partition set up without an SSD, and then eventually get a new PC, since I'll have newer technology and USB3.0 and stuff. I had planned to upgrade to Windows 10 after a while when some of the launch bugs have been fixed, but I was a bit worried when I heard about how Windows 10 has all these privacy issues I hear about. Thanks again for your time and help.

You are welcome