About Serial Ata (Sata) Drives; General Drive Installation Guidelines - Dell XPS 630i Service Manual

About Serial ATA (SATA) Drives

Your computer supports up to four serial ATA hard drives and two serial ATA
optical drives. SATA drives provide the following benefits by transferring data
using serial technology and flexible cables that are thinner and longer than
IDE cables:
• Improved cable routing facilitates more efficient airflow inside the chassis.
• Compact cable connectors save space on the system board and on the hard
drive, allowing for more efficient utilization of space inside the chassis.

General Drive Installation Guidelines

SATA drives should be connected to connectors labeled "SATA" on the system
board. IDE drives should be connected to the connectors labeled "IDE."
When connecting a SATA cable, hold the cable by the connector at each end
and press firmly into the connector. When disconnecting a SATA cable, hold
the cable by the connector at each end and pull until the connector detaches.
1
2
1 SATA data cable
3 SATA drive
When you connect two IDE devices to a single IDE data cable and configure
the devices for the cable select setting, the device attached to the last
connector on the data cable is the primary device or the boot device, and the
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Drives
2 SATA data connector (on the
system board)
3