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July 19th, 2023 19:00
Inspiron 3910, can't find hard drive inside?
I own an Inspiron 3910 desktop PC and I bought a new internal hard drive (with more space) to replace my current C: drive. I cloned my existing C: drive to it so the next step is to remove my current C: drive. I have the PC case open and according to the picture of the hard drive location for this type of PC (https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-ca/inspiron-3910-desktop/inspiron-3910-service-manual/removing-the-hard-drive?guid=guid-25d91950-c131-4f1d-9a95-9b0b5a9f68f5&lang=en-us) it should be on the front side of the PC near the top. But when I look inside the PC I don't see the hard drive there. I snapped the front piece of the case off just in case it was behind the metal but it's not there. I'm looking all over and I don't see the C: drive anywhere.
Obviously there is a C: drive - I am using this PC right now, and the This PC program shows it's there. Am I crazy? Why can't I see my C: drive inside my PC?
Chino de Oro
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July 20th, 2023 14:00
To answer your question, yes, you can simply remove the SSD and when you boot the system up, it will recognized the new cloned HDD as drive C:
As for the benefits, a 2.5" sata SSD can perform 4 - 5 times faster than a spinning HDD. An M.2 nvme SSD (on motherboard) can perform up to 20 times faster than a spinning HDD.
As for the draw back, SSD is more expensive than HDD per capacity. But you can install 2TB or 4TB of SSD when needed.
Users are upgrading from HDD to SSD, you are on other hand are switching SSD to HDD.
One TB of nvme should be sufficient to hold all applications. It would be benefit to you to keep using the nvme drive and adding 2.5" sata SSD for games drive and large capacity spinning HDD for data. Apps and games can load at the fast speed as possible while music, movie can play at constant slow speed.
Only able to assist to solve your issue and provide information valuable to you. The preference and choice are still yours.
Chino de Oro
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8.1K Posts
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July 19th, 2023 21:00
Check on the motherboard to see if you may have an SSD instead. This is the location and installation/removal process
Hornacek
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July 20th, 2023 10:00
First, every PC I have ever had has had the typical HDD (i.e. 5.5 * 4" drive) in it. I have never had a PC with an SSD instead. Before this I wouldn't have been able to tell you what an SSD looked like, or where you would find it inside a PC.
But yes, it appears as if my PC has this type of drive in it. It looks like it's the one in the second set of photos in the link you sent me - more like 2230 and not 2280.
So my question is - can I remove this SSD and hook up the new HDD to be my new C: drive? This may be a simple question but I have never dealt with an SSD before so I'm unsure how to proceed.
I already have another HDD installed (as my
The SSD is only 1TB and my new drive is 2TB which is why I wanted to make this switch. Should I stick with the SSD? Are there benefits to it over a HDD - more than hard drive space?
Hornacek
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July 20th, 2023 21:00
Cost isn't an issue. I had 1 2TB HDD as my drive and recently replaced it with an 8TB HDD drive. So now I have a 2TB HDD that I'm not using - at first I thought I could add it as a second extra drive (E:) but then I thought that since my C: is only 1TB that I could replace my C: drive with this extra 2TB which has twice the space.
But you're right - my current C: drive is only about 1/3 full - I have all my Documents, Videos, Pictures, Videos on my drive - so my C: drive just has my programs and applications on it. So even though the SSD is only 1TB there's plenty of free space on it, and replacing it with a 2TB HDD probably wouldn't make much of a difference, and the extra 1TB would just be empty space.
I think I'll just leave the SSD as my C: drive and keep the 2TB in a drawer in case I ever need an extra drive. Thanks for answering my questions, you were very helpful.
Chino de Oro
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8.1K Posts
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July 20th, 2023 23:00
You are welcome and I think you made a good choice.