got an older compaq ipaq intel pentium III computer, 256 mb RAM, MS
Windows XP SP2 w/ Seagate internal hard drive of 8455 mb, C drive total
space is 7.85 gb & free space is 1.1 gb. i gotta have more space fast
& can't afford new pc at moment. am thinking about buying one of
following external hard drives on sale: 1)Maxtor Shared Storage Drive
w/ 200 gb for $93 or 2) a Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 w/ 200 gb
for $80, or 3) see if I can remove the Seagate internal hard drive &
install a larger hd. one computer shop wasn't sure this older compaq
tower can handle an upgraded internal hard drive.
anyone know if this computer is capable of running a newer faster
internal hard drive or would i be better off adding an external hard
drive mentioned above? any preference on which Maxtor above would work
best?
also i read one gent's horror story about downloading maxtor's cd for
the new external hard drive.
would the maxtor external hard drive work ok w/out downloading their
cd? thanks!!!!!!!!!!
<curiousitygeorge@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1168124574.198465.188830@q40g2000cwq.googlegr oups.com...
>
> got an older compaq ipaq intel pentium III computer, 256 mb RAM, MS
> Windows XP SP2 w/ Seagate internal hard drive of 8455 mb, C drive total
> space is 7.85 gb & free space is 1.1 gb. i gotta have more space fast
> & can't afford new pc at moment. am thinking about buying one of
> following external hard drives on sale: 1)Maxtor Shared Storage Drive
> w/ 200 gb for $93 or 2) a Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 w/ 200 gb
> for $80, or 3) see if I can remove the Seagate internal hard drive &
> install a larger hd. one computer shop wasn't sure this older compaq
> tower can handle an upgraded internal hard drive.
>
I've recently updated a few compaq p-III's and went from 6 gig to 20 gig
drives.
It was no problem at all...but I don't know the upper limit.
If the driver is larger than the BIOS can handle...
a cheap PCI controller will usually do the trick.
(or even the drive overlay software)
BTW: An external drive should be easy enough to do
*however* unless you have USB2 (or IEE1394) the USB1 transfer time will be
too
slow to be of much use!
>
> BTW: An external drive should be easy enough to do
> *however* unless you have USB2 (or IEE1394) the USB1 transfer time will
be
> too
> slow to be of much use!
>
>
Oh, I forgot to mention...
if you add an internal drive as a *second* drive...
bios support is not a problem...
If the bios properly identifies the drive...then leave it at that...
but if the bios does not recongnize the drive or if the bios "chokes"
merely *disable* that chaneel in the bios. VIZ: set it to 'none'
The opertaing system ...using disk management will properly see the drive.
This is not speculation or theory...I've done it a number of times.
philo, the compaq tower is very tight w/ no shelf space to add a second
hard drive inside so how do i find out if 1) a new replacement internal
hard drive will run ok in the compaq tower & which internal hard drives
would work properly?, and 2) if i have usb2?---did i understand
correctly that if i don't have usb2 that an external hard drive wont be
of much use as it will be incredible slow? thanks!
> >
> > BTW: An external drive should be easy enough to do
> > *however* unless you have USB2 (or IEE1394) the USB1 transfer time will
> be
> > too
> > slow to be of much use!
> >
> >
>
> Oh, I forgot to mention...
> if you add an internal drive as a *second* drive...
> bios support is not a problem...
>
> If the bios properly identifies the drive...then leave it at that...
> but if the bios does not recongnize the drive or if the bios "chokes"
> merely *disable* that chaneel in the bios. VIZ: set it to 'none'
>
> The opertaing system ...using disk management will properly see the drive.
>
> This is not speculation or theory...I've done it a number of times.
>
> My hobby is fixing up old machines!
That old computer's motherboard BIOS CANNOT recognize a harddrive larger
than 10 GB. You would be wasting your money to buy a larger drive.
--
DaveW
----------------
<curiousitygeorge@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1168124574.198465.188830@q40g2000cwq.googlegr oups.com...
>
> got an older compaq ipaq intel pentium III computer, 256 mb RAM, MS
> Windows XP SP2 w/ Seagate internal hard drive of 8455 mb, C drive total
> space is 7.85 gb & free space is 1.1 gb. i gotta have more space fast
> & can't afford new pc at moment. am thinking about buying one of
> following external hard drives on sale: 1)Maxtor Shared Storage Drive
> w/ 200 gb for $93 or 2) a Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 w/ 200 gb
> for $80, or 3) see if I can remove the Seagate internal hard drive &
> install a larger hd. one computer shop wasn't sure this older compaq
> tower can handle an upgraded internal hard drive.
>
> anyone know if this computer is capable of running a newer faster
> internal hard drive or would i be better off adding an external hard
> drive mentioned above? any preference on which Maxtor above would work
> best?
>
> also i read one gent's horror story about downloading maxtor's cd for
> the new external hard drive.
> would the maxtor external hard drive work ok w/out downloading their
> cd? thanks!!!!!!!!!!
>
<curiousitygeorge@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1168127894.525046.7510@s80g2000cwa.googlegrou ps.com...
> philo, the compaq tower is very tight w/ no shelf space to add a second
> hard drive inside so how do i find out if 1) a new replacement internal
> hard drive will run ok in the compaq tower & which internal hard drives
> would work properly?, and 2) if i have usb2?---did i understand
> correctly that if i don't have usb2 that an external hard drive wont be
> of much use as it will be incredible slow? thanks!
> > >
> > > BTW: An external drive should be easy enough to do
> > > *however* unless you have USB2 (or IEE1394) the USB1 transfer time
will
> > be
> > > too
> > > slow to be of much use!
> > >
> >
Unless someone added a USB2 card or a Firewire card...that machine would
just have
USB1.
To install a USB2 card would not be hard to do...and it would not cost much.
OTOH: If you want to install the drive internally and you only have room for
one drive
I'd play it safe and not get too large of a drive (I don;t know the bios
limit on that machine but most p-III's should be able to support at least an
80 gig drive...probably even larger)
....but even if you wanted to get a drive
larger than what the bios could support...an inexpensive PCI controller
would allow you to use it
"DaveW" <somewhere@zero.org> wrote in message
news:es2dnSaA44CepD3YnZ2dnUVZ_riknZ2d@comcast.com. ..
> That old computer's motherboard BIOS CANNOT recognize a harddrive larger
> than 10 GB. You would be wasting your money to buy a larger drive.
>
>
That's not true...
the ones I was working on took a 20 gig drive with no problem...(and some of
them were just p-II's)
but what the actual limit it varies
> the compaq tower is very tight w/ no shelf space to
> add a second hard drive inside so how do i find out if
> 1) a new replacement internal hard drive will run ok in the
> compaq tower & which internal hard drives would work properly?,
There isnt any easy way on the drive size supported except trying it.
It may be possible to work out what drive size it will take if you
can list the exact model number details off the plate at the back.
It should accept a drive of less than 32G, and should accept one
bigger than that if it doesnt have an Award bios. There may be a
problem with drives over 127G, but you may not care about that.
> and 2) if i have usb2?---did i understand correctly that if i don't have usb2
> that an external hard drive wont be of much use as it will be incredible slow?
Yes, and its very unlikely to have USB2.
And I wouldnt use either Maxtor external even if you did add a
USB2 card, they are very poorly designed and dont cool the
drives adequately and Maxtor drives dont like running hot as well.
>>> BTW: An external drive should be easy enough to do
>>> *however* unless you have USB2 (or IEE1394) the USB1 transfer time
>>> will be too
>>> slow to be of much use!
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Oh, I forgot to mention...
>> if you add an internal drive as a *second* drive...
>> bios support is not a problem...
>>
>> If the bios properly identifies the drive...then leave it at that...
>> but if the bios does not recongnize the drive or if the bios "chokes"
>> merely *disable* that chaneel in the bios. VIZ: set it to 'none'
>>
>> The opertaing system ...using disk management will properly see the
>> drive.
>>
>> This is not speculation or theory...I've done it a number of times.
>>
>> My hobby is fixing up old machines!
>
>got an older compaq ipaq intel pentium III computer, 256 mb RAM, MS
>Windows XP SP2 w/ Seagate internal hard drive of 8455 mb, C drive total
>space is 7.85 gb & free space is 1.1 gb. i gotta have more space fast
>& can't afford new pc at moment. am thinking about buying one of
>following external hard drives on sale: 1)Maxtor Shared Storage Drive
>w/ 200 gb for $93 or 2) a Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 w/ 200 gb
>for $80, or 3) see if I can remove the Seagate internal hard drive &
>install a larger hd. one computer shop wasn't sure this older compaq
>tower can handle an upgraded internal hard drive.
Your system has only USB1, it would be very very slow to use
an external HDD.
I suggest getting a new, smallish PATA drive. Before
installing it, see if there is a bios update for the system
and if so, update the bios - even if it doesn't mention
anything about larger HDD support, as they may fail to
mention it.
Put the new HDD in the system (sitting next to it if no
space, this is temporarily for the next steps). See what
size the bios reports, if it can't see the full capacity
then use the capacity limit jumper on the drive which limits
it to 32GB. If the system only has ATA33 support (which you
don't mention, a P3 era system could have ATA33, 66, or 100)
then you might consider adding a PCI ATA133 controller card,
or not - we can't know how much money you want to sink into
parts you might not reuse later, nor how likely you might be
to reuse a PATA133 controller card (they can be handy to
turn old systems like this into fileservers later, except
yours seems to not have enough internal drive mounting to do
so unless you have a few 5.25" bays you could use for that
later if desired).
After seeing the whole drive capacity or limiting it to 32GB
(and then seeing 32GB detected), clone the old drive to the
new one, then remove the old drive.
>
>anyone know if this computer is capable of running a newer faster
>internal hard drive or would i be better off adding an external hard
>drive mentioned above? any preference on which Maxtor above would work
>best?
Sure it can run even the newest PATA drive, it just can't
see the entire capacity so you'd limit the capacity as
needed. On the one hand, this might suggest buying a drive
barely larger than 32GB as new stock, but on the other hand,
buying a much larger drive would make it more useful later,
if moved to a different system (and faster, newer model
drives will be faster accessing that first 32GB of space
than an old one would be, and with only 256MB of memory
running WinXP you may find the system is quite often using
the pagefile a lot, HDD performance will matter).
I wouldn't get an external for this use, except if you want
an external for other reasons, you could (for the time
being) pull the drive out of the external (providing the
manufacturer didn't seal the external case closed) and put
the bare drive in the system, then later when you want to
use the drive for something else and retire the system (or
buy another HDD) you can put it in the enclosure. The main
thing you won't want is to be regularly using an enclosure
over USB1.1 the system supports.
>
>also i read one gent's horror story about downloading maxtor's cd for
>the new external hard drive.
>would the maxtor external hard drive work ok w/out downloading their
>cd? thanks!!!!!!!!!!
Sure, the CD is probably their Onetouch software (Or
similar) which essentially allows pressing a button on the
enclosure to make a backup. It will work as an external
drive with no software.
>> got an older compaq ipaq intel pentium III computer, 256 mb RAM, MS
>> Windows XP SP2 w/ Seagate internal hard drive of 8455 mb, C drive
>> total space is 7.85 gb & free space is 1.1 gb. i gotta have more
>> space fast & can't afford new pc at moment. am thinking about
>> buying one of following external hard drives on sale: 1)Maxtor
>> Shared Storage Drive w/ 200 gb for $93 or 2) a Maxtor Basics
>> Personal Storage 3200 w/ 200 gb for $80, or 3) see if I can remove
>> the Seagate internal hard drive & install a larger hd. one computer
>> shop wasn't sure this older compaq tower can handle an upgraded
>> internal hard drive.
> Your system has only USB1, it would be
> very very slow to use an external HDD.
Not expensive to add USB2 or eSATA tho.
> I suggest getting a new, smallish PATA drive.
No point in getting smallish. Whats best value makes
a lot more sense and do the obvious if it ends up being
limited at 127G, use a biosed hard drive card to fix that.
> Before installing it, see if there is a bios update for the system
> and if so, update the bios - even if it doesn't mention anything
> about larger HDD support, as they may fail to mention it.
> Put the new HDD in the system (sitting next to it if no
> space, this is temporarily for the next steps). See what
> size the bios reports, if it can't see the full capacity
> then use the capacity limit jumper on the drive which limits
> it to 32GB. If the system only has ATA33 support (which you
> don't mention, a P3 era system could have ATA33, 66, or 100)
> then you might consider adding a PCI ATA133 controller card,
> or not - we can't know how much money you want to sink into
> parts you might not reuse later, nor how likely you might be
> to reuse a PATA133 controller card (they can be handy to
> turn old systems like this into fileservers later, except
> yours seems to not have enough internal drive mounting to do
> so unless you have a few 5.25" bays you could use for that
> later if desired).
> After seeing the whole drive capacity or limiting it to 32GB
> (and then seeing 32GB detected), clone the old drive to the
> new one, then remove the old drive.
>> anyone know if this computer is capable of running a newer faster
>> internal hard drive or would i be better off adding an external hard
>> drive mentioned above? any preference on which Maxtor above would
>> work best?
> Sure it can run even the newest PATA drive, it just can't
> see the entire capacity so you'd limit the capacity as
> needed. On the one hand, this might suggest buying a drive
> barely larger than 32GB as new stock, but on the other hand,
> buying a much larger drive would make it more useful later,
> if moved to a different system (and faster, newer model
> drives will be faster accessing that first 32GB of space
> than an old one would be, and with only 256MB of memory
> running WinXP you may find the system is quite often using
> the pagefile a lot, HDD performance will matter).
> I wouldn't get an external for this use, except if you want
> an external for other reasons, you could (for the time
> being) pull the drive out of the external (providing the
> manufacturer didn't seal the external case closed) and put
> the bare drive in the system, then later when you want to
> use the drive for something else and retire the system (or
> buy another HDD) you can put it in the enclosure. The main
> thing you won't want is to be regularly using an enclosure
> over USB1.1 the system supports.
Doesnt cost much to add USB2 or eSATA tho.
>> also i read one gent's horror story about downloading
>> maxtor's cd for the new external hard drive. would the
>> maxtor external hard drive work ok w/out downloading their cd?
> Sure, the CD is probably their Onetouch software (Or
> similar) which essentially allows pressing a button on the
> enclosure to make a backup. It will work as an external
> drive with no software.
curiousitygeorge@hotmail.com wrote:
> got an older compaq ipaq intel pentium III computer, 256 mb RAM, MS
> Windows XP SP2 w/ Seagate internal hard drive of 8455 mb, C drive total
> space is 7.85 gb & free space is 1.1 gb. i gotta have more space fast
> & can't afford new pc at moment. am thinking about buying one of
> following external hard drives on sale: 1)Maxtor Shared Storage Drive
> w/ 200 gb for $93 or 2) a Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 w/ 200 gb
> for $80, or 3) see if I can remove the Seagate internal hard drive &
> install a larger hd. one computer shop wasn't sure this older compaq
> tower can handle an upgraded internal hard drive.
>
> anyone know if this computer is capable of running a newer faster
> internal hard drive or would i be better off adding an external hard
> drive mentioned above? any preference on which Maxtor above would work
> best?
>
> also i read one gent's horror story about downloading maxtor's cd for
> the new external hard drive.
> would the maxtor external hard drive work ok w/out downloading their
> cd? thanks!!!!!!!!!!
You got one of those microscopic jobs? I've put up to an 80GB hdd in
one of these. I'm not sure where the limit is, exactly. But it works
with 80GB. There's a common limit at 137GB.
The thing with the external option is USB1.1 is gonna be SLOW.
External is probably better, because the hardware limit may apply. But
if you can live with an 80gb internal.... that would be 10X your
present storage.
philo wrote:
> <curiousitygeorge@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1168127894.525046.7510@s80g2000cwa.googlegrou ps.com...
> > philo, the compaq tower is very tight w/ no shelf space to add a second
> > hard drive inside so how do i find out if 1) a new replacement internal
> > hard drive will run ok in the compaq tower & which internal hard drives
> > would work properly?, and 2) if i have usb2?---did i understand
> > correctly that if i don't have usb2 that an external hard drive wont be
> > of much use as it will be incredible slow? thanks!
> > > >
> > > > BTW: An external drive should be easy enough to do
> > > > *however* unless you have USB2 (or IEE1394) the USB1 transfer time
> will
> > > be
> > > > too
> > > > slow to be of much use!
> > > >
> > >
>
> Unless someone added a USB2 card or a Firewire card...that machine would
> just have
> USB1.
> To install a USB2 card would not be hard to do...and it would not cost much.
>
> OTOH: If you want to install the drive internally and you only have room for
> one drive
> I'd play it safe and not get too large of a drive (I don;t know the bios
> limit on that machine but most p-III's should be able to support at least an
> 80 gig drive...probably even larger)
> ...but even if you wanted to get a drive
> larger than what the bios could support...an inexpensive PCI controller
> would allow you to use it
>
>
If he has the machine i think he has, there's no PCI slots. Only USB.
DaveW wrote:
> That old computer's motherboard BIOS CANNOT recognize a harddrive larger
> than 10 GB. You would be wasting your money to buy a larger drive.
Says Who? I've upgraded the old celeron 500Mhz models as far as 80GB,
512MB RAM. And there is a Bios upgrade available for these that lets
you upgrade the processor to at least a 1GHz p3 (133 mhz FSB) or a
1.1Ghz celeron, perhaps a bit beyond.
On Sun, 7 Jan 2007 14:56:28 +1100, "Rod Speed"
<rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote:
>kony <spam@spam.com> wrote
>> curiousitygeorge@hotmail.com wrote
>
>>> got an older compaq ipaq intel pentium III computer, 256 mb RAM, MS
>>> Windows XP SP2 w/ Seagate internal hard drive of 8455 mb, C drive
>>> total space is 7.85 gb & free space is 1.1 gb. i gotta have more
>>> space fast & can't afford new pc at moment. am thinking about
>>> buying one of following external hard drives on sale: 1)Maxtor
>>> Shared Storage Drive w/ 200 gb for $93 or 2) a Maxtor Basics
>>> Personal Storage 3200 w/ 200 gb for $80, or 3) see if I can remove
>>> the Seagate internal hard drive & install a larger hd. one computer
>>> shop wasn't sure this older compaq tower can handle an upgraded
>>> internal hard drive.
>
>> Your system has only USB1, it would be
>> very very slow to use an external HDD.
>
>Not expensive to add USB2 or eSATA tho.
>
Agreed, though one can get a 120+GB internal drive for about
$30-40 AR these days, it could almost double the cost for a
decent eSATA, and a USB2 will still be significantly slower
than an internal.
>> I suggest getting a new, smallish PATA drive.
>
>No point in getting smallish. Whats best value makes
>a lot more sense and do the obvious if it ends up being
>limited at 127G, use a biosed hard drive card to fix that.
By smallish I meant 250GB or less, not some teeny 20GB
thing. The idea here was that there's not a lot of useful
return spending a lot of money to keep a system that old
running.
>
>Doesnt cost much to add USB2 or eSATA tho.
Of course not, but it doesn't cost much to upgrade the
memory over 256MB (if it'll support more, which practically
everything P3 era did), or several other areas when talking
about a machine that old... but these parts may be money
down the drain that could be put towards something else.
I'd get the eSATA card before a USB2 if either, since it'll
be more useful on the next new(er) system.
>
>>> also i read one gent's horror story about downloading
>>> maxtor's cd for the new external hard drive. would the
>>> maxtor external hard drive work ok w/out downloading their cd?
>
>> Sure, the CD is probably their Onetouch software (Or
>> similar) which essentially allows pressing a button on the
>> enclosure to make a backup. It will work as an external
>> drive with no software.
>
>But maxtor external drives are steaming turds.
There are smellier things... plenty of people use them fine,
regardless of how trendy it is to bash Maxtor. Regardless,
an external drive enclosure and USB2 card is more $ than I'd
spend just to get more storage on a modestly endowed P3 era
system.
On 6 Jan 2007 20:58:08 -0800, "paulmd@efn.org"
<paulmd@efn.org> wrote:
>
>DaveW wrote:
>> That old computer's motherboard BIOS CANNOT recognize a harddrive larger
>> than 10 GB. You would be wasting your money to buy a larger drive.
>
>Says Who? I've upgraded the old celeron 500Mhz models as far as 80GB,
>512MB RAM. And there is a Bios upgrade available for these that lets
>you upgrade the processor to at least a 1GHz p3 (133 mhz FSB) or a
>1.1Ghz celeron, perhaps a bit beyond.
Remember that DaveW is our strongest "start over from
scratch" advocate. The curious part is where he got the
"10GB" figure since it's never been the limit on anything.
>"DaveW" <somewhere@zero.org> wrote in
>news:es2dnSaA44CepD3YnZ2dnUVZ_riknZ2d@comcast.com :
>
>> That old computer's motherboard BIOS CANNOT recognize a harddrive larger
>> than 10 GB. You would be wasting your money to buy a larger drive.
>>
>
>There are BIOS upgrades for all the older motherboards that will recognize
>very large hard drives. My old PII recognizes 250 gig drives.
Many yes, but not all. Manufacturers with better support
like Asus or Intel are far more likely to support over 32GB
than some... though it might've already supported over 32GB
from the factory and the bios would only be needed for post
128GB support.
love2kvetch@soupyisgreat.org wrote:
> "DaveW" <somewhere@zero.org> wrote in
>
>> That old computer's motherboard BIOS CANNOT recognize a harddrive
>> larger than 10 GB. You would be wasting your money to buy a
>> larger drive.
>
> There are BIOS upgrades for all the older motherboards that will
> recognize very large hard drives. My old PII recognizes 250 gig
> drives.
You can also get PCI or ISA cards that provide the bios upgrade for
just the HD access. No worries about a bad flash. I have one
somewhere around here. From day 1 the IBM bios has had a method of
searching and installing bios extensions.
--
Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
<http://cbfalconer.home.att.net>
The most common BIOS limitations are 8 GB and 128 GB (for internal drives that the BIOS must recognize, not for USB). Since your hard drive is just under 8 GB it is possible that the BIOS has a 8 GB limit, but since it is a Pentium 3 I think the limit is probably 128 GB. If there is a 8 GB limit you can upgrade the BIOS to recognize drives larger than 8 GB and it is likely that you could also upgrade to go beyond the 128 GB limit.
I don't use external drives but I know several people that use them and think they are great. You can use the drive without installing the Maxtor software, which is mainly for automatic backups. As others have noted, an external drive will be very slow with USB 1.
curiousitygeorge@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> got an older compaq ipaq intel pentium III computer, 256 mb RAM, MS
> Windows XP SP2 w/ Seagate internal hard drive of 8455 mb, C drive total
> space is 7.85 gb & free space is 1.1 gb. i gotta have more space fast
> & can't afford new pc at moment. am thinking about buying one of
> following external hard drives on sale: 1)Maxtor Shared Storage Drive
> w/ 200 gb for $93 or 2) a Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 w/ 200 gb
> for $80, or 3) see if I can remove the Seagate internal hard drive &
> install a larger hd. one computer shop wasn't sure this older compaq
> tower can handle an upgraded internal hard drive.
>
> anyone know if this computer is capable of running a newer faster
> internal hard drive or would i be better off adding an external hard
> drive mentioned above? any preference on which Maxtor above would work
> best?
>
> also i read one gent's horror story about downloading maxtor's cd for
> the new external hard drive.
> would the maxtor external hard drive work ok w/out downloading their
> cd? thanks!!!!!!!!!!
kony <spam@spam.com> wrote
> Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote
>> kony <spam@spam.com> wrote
>>> curiousitygeorge@hotmail.com wrote
>>>> got an older compaq ipaq intel pentium III computer, 256 mb RAM,
>>>> MS Windows XP SP2 w/ Seagate internal hard drive of 8455 mb,
>>>> C drive total space is 7.85 gb & free space is 1.1 gb. i gotta have
>>>> more space fast & can't afford new pc at moment. am thinking
>>>> about buying one of following external hard drives on sale: 1)Maxtor
>>>> Shared Storage Drive w/ 200 gb for $93 or 2) a Maxtor Basics
>>>> Personal Storage 3200 w/ 200 gb for $80, or 3) see if I can remove
>>>> the Seagate internal hard drive & install a larger hd. one
>>>> computer shop wasn't sure this older compaq tower can handle an
>>>> upgraded internal hard drive.
>>> Your system has only USB1, it would be
>>> very very slow to use an external HDD.
>> Not expensive to add USB2 or eSATA tho.
> Agreed,
Maybe not if paulm is right and it doesnt even have any pci slots.
In that case it would still be better to get a decent sized drive
and use a bios overlay to fix the 32G problem if it has one.
> though one can get a 120+GB internal drive for about $30-40
> AR these days, it could almost double the cost for a decent
> eSATA, and a USB2 will still be significantly slower than an internal.
Yeah, internal would normally be better value for a dinosaur,
particularly if you arent running one of the NT/2K/XP family
and can use a bios overlay if its got a 32G drive size
problem and the bios cant be flashed to fix that.
>>> I suggest getting a new, smallish PATA drive.
>> No point in getting smallish. Whats best value makes
>> a lot more sense and do the obvious if it ends up being
>> limited at 127G, use a biosed hard drive card to fix that.
> By smallish I meant 250GB or less, not some teeny 20GB thing.
OK, I assumed you meant as small as is buyable new now.
Guess thats still 40G.
> The idea here was that there's not a lot of useful return
> spending a lot of money to keep a system that old running.
Sure, just wouldnt call 250G smallish. And there is no good reason
not to buy what is best value and reuse it in the replacement.
>> Doesnt cost much to add USB2 or eSATA tho.
> Of course not, but it doesn't cost much to upgrade the
> memory over 256MB (if it'll support more, which practically
> everything P3 era did), or several other areas when talking
> about a machine that old... but these parts may be money
> down the drain that could be put towards something else.
Sure, but USB2 costs peanuts to add if its got a pci slot.
> I'd get the eSATA card before a USB2 if either, since
> it'll be more useful on the next new(er) system.
I'd do it because eSATA is much more viable than USB2,
much better speed, which matters if its the main data
drive, and you can monitor the drive temp etc trivially
which is important with an external drive used full time.
>>>> also i read one gent's horror story about downloading
>>>> maxtor's cd for the new external hard drive. would the
>>>> maxtor external hard drive work ok w/out downloading their cd?
>>> Sure, the CD is probably their Onetouch software (Or
>>> similar) which essentially allows pressing a button on the
>>> enclosure to make a backup. It will work as an external
>>> drive with no software.
>> But maxtor external drives are steaming turds.
> There are smellier things... plenty of people use them fine,
Only those that dont use them fulltime. Thats not what he plans to do.
> regardless of how trendy it is to bash Maxtor.
Nothing to do with trendy, everything to do with the
shit house thermal design of maxtor external enclosures.
In spades when their drives dont like running hot.
> Regardless, an external drive enclosure and USB2 card is more $ than I'd
> spend just to get more storage on a modestly endowed P3 era system.
Maybe, depends on what he wants to do for backup on the replacement system.
The USB2 card costs peanuts if its got a pci slot.
> The most common BIOS limitations are 8 GB and 128 GB
> (for internal drives that the BIOS must recognize, not for USB).
Nope, the 32G limit is just as common.
> Since your hard drive is just under 8 GB it is possible
> that the BIOS has a 8 GB limit, but since it is a
> Pentium 3 I think the limit is probably 128 GB.
Could be 32G.
> If there is a 8 GB limit you can upgrade the BIOS to recognize
> drives larger than 8 GB and it is likely that you could also upgrade
> to go beyond the 128 GB limit. I don't use external drives but I know
> several people that use them and think they are great. You can use
> the drive without installing the Maxtor software, which is mainly for
> automatic backups. As others have noted, an external drive will be
> very slow with USB 1.
> curiousitygeorge@hotmail.com wrote:
>>
>> got an older compaq ipaq intel pentium III computer, 256 mb RAM, MS
>> Windows XP SP2 w/ Seagate internal hard drive of 8455 mb, C drive
>> total space is 7.85 gb & free space is 1.1 gb. i gotta have more
>> space fast & can't afford new pc at moment. am thinking about
>> buying one of following external hard drives on sale: 1)Maxtor
>> Shared Storage Drive w/ 200 gb for $93 or 2) a Maxtor Basics
>> Personal Storage 3200 w/ 200 gb for $80, or 3) see if I can remove
>> the Seagate internal hard drive & install a larger hd. one computer
>> shop wasn't sure this older compaq tower can handle an upgraded
>> internal hard drive.
>>
>> anyone know if this computer is capable of running a newer faster
>> internal hard drive or would i be better off adding an external hard
>> drive mentioned above? any preference on which Maxtor above would
>> work best?
>>
>> also i read one gent's horror story about downloading maxtor's cd for
>> the new external hard drive.
>> would the maxtor external hard drive work ok w/out downloading their
>> cd? thanks!!!!!!!!!!
On Mon, 8 Jan 2007 10:01:13 +1100, "Rod Speed"
<rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote:
>Mike Walsh <spamscks@netrox.net> wrote:
>
>> The most common BIOS limitations are 8 GB and 128 GB
>> (for internal drives that the BIOS must recognize, not for USB).
>
>Nope, the 32G limit is just as common.
>
Fortunately most drives even have a 32GB capacity limitation
jumper so one doesn't have to buy a much slower,
older/smaller drive to deal with the situation, and such
drives can be just as cheap too... seems like it was about
$30 after rebate for the last 160GB drive I bought for an
older system.
kony <spam@spam.com> wrote
> Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote
>> Mike Walsh <spamscks@netrox.net> wrote
>>> The most common BIOS limitations are 8 GB and 128 GB
>>> (for internal drives that the BIOS must recognize, not for USB).
>> Nope, the 32G limit is just as common.
> Fortunately most drives even have a 32GB capacity limitation jumper
Yep, because that was so common.
> so one doesn't have to buy a much slower,
> older/smaller drive to deal with the situation,
> and such drives can be just as cheap too...
> seems like it was about $30 after rebate for the
> last 160GB drive I bought for an older system.
dinosaur pc: external or update internal hd? 
Linear Mode
