I am attempting to utilize a Dell Optiplex 360 (Bios A02) for a real-time deployment target. It contains a Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive; however, there are not any options in the BIOS to select compatibility or AHCI modes (as other Dell computers have had) and the LabVIEW 2009 USB utilities are unable to detect a valid hard drive. The requirements for Desktop PCs document (http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/8239?OpenDocument#h32) provides some suggestions though none of them, short of installing a Parallel ATA (PATA) drive, seem applicable.
Dell has a way of making things that don't conform to industry standards. Like motherboards, power supplies, etc... If you don't want to stick in a PATA drive, then an alternative is to stick in a SATA controller card. They're usually around $20.