Dell Dimension XPS 50 Reference Manual page 63

EIDE hard-disk drives must be physically formatted, partitioned, and logically format-
ted before they can be used to store data. Every hard-disk drive purchased from Dell
is physically formatted before it is sent to you.
For the Microsoft Windows 98 and Windows 2000 operating systems, all drives use a
single partition with the 32-bit file allocation table (FAT32) file system. For the
Windows NT operating system, all drives have a 2-gigabyte (GB) primary partition that
uses a 16-bit file allocation table (FAT16) file system and a secondary partition format-
ted in the Windows NT file system (NTFS).
If you ever have to partition and logically format an EIDE hard-disk drive, use the pro-
gram(s) provided by the operating system.
To use small computer system interface (SCSI) devices in your Dell computer, you
must have a SCSI host adapter card, which comes with its own SCSI cable. This cable
can be used to attach a variety of SCSI devices (hard-disk drives, tape drives, and so
on). The SCSI host adapter configures the devices attached to it as one subsystem—
not as independent devices.
Although SCSI devices are installed essentially the same way as other devices, their
configuration requirements are different.
For details on configuring a SCSI subsystem, refer to the documentation that came
with the SCSI devices and/or the host adapter card. The following subsections offer
some general guidelines.
Each device attached to a SCSI host adapter card, as well as the card itself, must have
a unique SCSI ID number from 0 to 7 . The SCSI host adapter card is typically config-
ured as SCSI ID 7 . The boot hard-disk drive must be configured as SCSI ID 0. Any
other SCSI devices attached to the SCSI host adapter card can be configured for any
SCSI IDs from 1 to 6. Refer to the documentation for each device for instructions on
configuring its SCSI ID.
NOTE: SCSI ID numbers do not have to be assigned sequentially, and devices do not
have to be attached to the cable in order by ID number.
support.dell.com Installing Drives 3-17