Dell OptiPlex E1 User Manual
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parameters of a hard-disk drive, based on a table recorded in the system's BIOS.
To choose a setting for each category, press
keyboard or use the left- or right-arrow key to cycle through the following options:
Auto (use this setting for all EIDE devices from Dell)
Off
User 1 or User 2
A specific drive-type number
NOTE:
Operating systems that bypass the system BIOS may not obtain optimum hard-disk drive performance.
EIDE Devices
For EIDE hard-disk drives, the system provides an automatic drive-type detect feature. To use this feature for Primary Drive 0,
highlight the Primary Drive 0 category and type a (for automatic); to use it for Primary Drive 1, highlight the Primary Drive 1
category and type a. In each case, the category setting changes to Auto. After the system reboots, the System Setup program
automatically sets the correct drive-type number and parameters for each drive.
Before installing a new EIDE hard-disk drive, also check the documentation that came with the drive to verify that all jumper
settings on the drive are appropriate for your configuration.
If You Have a Problem
If the system generates a drive error message the first time you boot your system after installing an EIDE drive, it may mean that
your particular drive does not work with the automatic drive-type detect feature. If you suspect that your problem is related to drive
type, try entering your drive-type information in one of the following ways.
If You Know the Drive-Type Number
Use the drive-type number you found in the documentation that came with the drive, or if the drive was installed by Dell when you
purchased your system, access the Manufacturing Test Report from the Dell Accessories folder.
To set the drive-type number in the System Setup program, highlight the appropriate drive category (Primary Drive 0 or Primary
Drive 1) and type the correct drive-type number. If you prefer, you can press the right- or left-arrow key to increase or decrease,
respectively, the drive-type number until the correct one is displayed.
If You Do Not Know the Drive-Type Number
The Drive 0 and Drive 1 categories display the following five parameters for each drive:
Drive Type is the drive-type number for the selected hard-disk drive.
Capacity (automatically calculated by the system) indicates the number of millions of bytes of storage provided by the drive.
Cylinders is the number of logical cylinders.
Heads indicates the number of logical heads in the drive.
Sectors is the number of logical sectors per track.
If none of the supported drive types match the parameters of your new drive, you can enter your own parameters. To do so,
highlight the Drive 0 category and type u to display User 1. You can then use the right- or left-arrow key to switch between the
User 1 and User 2 settings (only two user-defined drive types are allowed). Then press the
parameter fields in succession, and enter the appropriate number for each field.