Ok, I've got an older-ish Dell (Dimension 4700 if that helps any) with SATA 1.5 capabilities, and just got a 1TB SATA 3.0 WD drive as a gift, but my BIOS doesn't recognize it. I've confirmed the drive is working (installed it on my boyfriend's much better, much newer machine with no problems) and I know all my cables and slots are working (have another SATA 1.5 drive installed where I was going to put the new one). So all my research so far points to the fact that my BIOS just isn't able to support the newer SATA 3.0 - even though in most cases it is backwards compatible, it would appear I have one of those systems that is the exception. I tried changing the jumper settings to restrict the 3.0 to 1.5 as instructed on WD's support site, but no joy. (The only option left is to call their support, which is hard because I sleep in the hours they're open...)
Considering this is a stock Dell with integrated everything on the motherboard and not much room for expansion, is there any hardware I can add that will allow me to use this drive? Motherboard & BIOS configs are not really my strong points, so I'm a little ignorant when it comes to these bits.
I've tried to answer the question myself, but I can only find info on items to buy without being able to tell if they will help me, so I'm asking the experts.
