Dell still uses cable select on some models.  I have an 8250 that does.  I am not sure about the most recent ones, but master/slave may not work on your model.  If not, set the jumpers for cable select, which means the slave is attached to the middle plug and the master to the end plug.

>As I understand it, you are trying to copy files from your hard drive to
>your Dell in order to free up space on your hard drive and/or so that you
>can reformat your hard drive and not lose important data.
>
>You have two ways of installing your hard drive (I will call it HD) into
>your Dell.  You can put it on the same cable as the Dell hard drive.  You
>will need to set the jumpers on the HD to "slave"  (remember to change them
>back when you are done!!!), and you need to set the jumper on the Dell hard
>drive to "master."  If there is a cd on the cable and you remove it, the
>Dell will already be set to master.  The other way is to hook up your HD to
>the secondary channel, if it is not in use.  You could use the cable from
>your other computer.  Set the HD as a single drive.  This way is easier.
>Make sure the line on the edge of the cable is connected to pin 1 on both
>the motherboard and the HD.
>
>Now, if your bios see both drives, you should be able to boot into Windows
>on your Dell and go to Windows Explorer and see both drives listed, although
>the drive letters may be changed, temporarily.  (Your Dell hard drive should
>still be C:)
>
>If you  have never done this before, it may be daunting, but you will learn
>how to do it quickly enough.  Then you will know how to do it in the future.
>
>Once you can see both drives in  the Dell, you can start copying files.  Do
>not use DOS.  It is much easier to do in Windows.  (I assume that you have
>Windows on your Dell.)   In Windows Explorer you hold the shift key down and
>left-click on a file or directory and, holding the key down, move the cursor
>over to the C: drive and then release the mouse button.  (Drag and drop.)
>This should copy the file or directory from the hard drive to the Dell hard
>drive.  Because you held the shift key down, the old file will be deleted.
>(If your just wanted to copy the file, you would hold down the ctrl key,
>instead.)  Practice with a few unimportant files first and see if they work.
>(I think this will work in My Computer, too, but I use Explorer.)
>
>I think that this should do what you want.
>
>In my earlier post, I said that reformmating your hard drive should be a
>last resort, and  probably not necessary.  I still think that.  But, if you
>want to create a little space on the drive, it probably will not hurt
>anything and **may** solve your problem.  Please be mentally prepared for
>continued problems, however.  Consider that you are "paying your dues," in
>learning how the insides of the computer work. :) :)  Most of the people
>that contribute to the list have suffered countless hours trying to get
>stuff to work - and learning in the process.  That's why we are sharing our
>knowledge with you - so it won't take you so long.  Good luck.  (It is a
>real feeling of accomplishment when you finally get everything working!)
>
>Dean Kukral
>
>PS:  the DOS commands for looking at the directory  are: dir /p if I
>remember correctly.  The slash comes before the "p" and is opposite of the
>slash in the path.  I always used to forget that, too.  The command for copy
>is a little more difficult to use.   Something like,
>
>copy myfile c:\myfile
>
>It is much easier to drag and drop in Windows!
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Venkat Viswanathan
>Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2005 10:28 PM
>Subject: [PCBUILD] win98 se problem
>
>My non working pc (in which I do not have space to reload win98se and which
>I am trying to do by creating space)has a quantum fireball hdd of 4 gig and
>partitioned into "c" and "d" of equal capacity.  win os resides on "c". My
>dell has a maxtor HDD model 1c6a-1efc of 7 gig and all of it in a single
>logical drive "c".
>
>I took your input and connected the dell maxtor as slave and the quantum as
>master. bios showed as such. saved and exited. but while loading os i got an
>"invalid system disc error" and inspite of 2/3 ctrl/alt/del same error.
>
>so I powered off and connected the maxtor as primary master and quantum as
>slave and booted up. when I double clicked "my computer" it showed "c"
>"d",and "e" and also the floppy and dvd player in the dell.  but the problem
>now is that logical drive "d" which is my logical drive c in the non working
>pc has got the windows application icon whereas "c" and "e" have got the
>storage disk icons.
>
>when I double click "c",and "e" both show all my data and programs but if I
>double click "d" I get a msg saying I need autorun.exe program to run this
>drive and asks me where to find it!  when I went into dos mode and typed
>D:\DIR P\ I get a msg saying "volume in drive d has no label and volume
>serial is 1c6a-1efc. If I simply type D:\dir it scrolls up like lightning
>and I can see only the last 8/10 files!
>
>

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