Need new hard drive

danjara

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I need a new drive for my comp but don't know which one to get? Does it matter what mobo I have or can I buy anyone I want? And what do I do with the info on my old ones. Have two drives one at 15 gigs and the other at 25 gigs. How do I transfer info from old drives to new one?
 

MadModMike

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I need a new drive for my comp but don't know which one to get? Does it matter what mobo I have or can I buy anyone I want? And what do I do with the info on my old ones. Have two drives one at 15 gigs and the other at 25 gigs. How do I transfer info from old drives to new one?

What motherboard do you have?

When you buy your new hard drive, you must determine if you want your OS on that drive, or to just use it as space. Make sure the connector is right, it's either SATA or PATA (IDE). When you put the drives in, make sure you have enough open ports (connectors) and than Windows will recognize the drives and you can see all your data.

~~Mad Mod Mike, fixin' the world 1 rig at a time
 

danjara

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I'm not sure, this is an old rig from girlfriend and just had it updated last year from a friend of hers. How do I find out?
 

MadModMike

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I'm not sure, this is an old rig from girlfriend and just had it updated last year from a friend of hers. How do I find out?

Is it a brand? Like a Compaq, HP, etc.? Eitherway, go to www.CPUID.org, download "CPU-Z", and click the "Motherboard" tab inside the program, should tell you everything.

~~Mad Mod Mike, fixin' the world 1 rig at a time
 

danjara

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And another thing if I want to put the OS on this drive, how do I do that? Don't have any disks for OS as it was put there by friend of hers so don't have license. What do u recommend, keep OS on current drive which is the 15gig one that only has 5 gigs left on it and use new one for space or transfer all on new hard drive. Most likely get anything from 100 gigs and up.
 

joefriday

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You should have no problems in buying a new hard drive. If your motherboard can recognize the 25 GB hdd, then it should not be a problem when purchasing a newer drive. ATA 133/100 are backwards compatible with older motherboards, so don't worry about that aspect.

One thing to note is that if your computer is still running windows 98, it will only recognize up to a 70 GB partition.

for transfer of operating system, you can use a backup program, such as Norton Ghost version 9, which can be found on the Norton system works 2003 CD (can be had on ebay for under $15). Make an image of the OS drive, and then transfer that image onto your new drive.
 

MadModMike

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And another thing if I want to put the OS on this drive, how do I do that? Don't have any disks for OS as it was put there by friend of hers so don't have license. What do u recommend, keep OS on current drive which is the 15gig one that only has 5 gigs left on it and use new one for space or transfer all on new hard drive. Most likely get anything from 100 gigs and up.

The esteemed "JoeFriday" is here, I'm sure he can take care of everything!

Or Not: Yea, keep the OS on that drive, since you don't have the copy and I don't think you want to go illegal....yet ;).

Put that 2nd drive on as data, after you download CPU-Z from www.cpuid.org and tell me the motherboard, than I can tell you what drive to buy.

~~Mad Mod Mike, fixin' the world 1 rig at a time
 

joefriday

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It's okay MMM, I've taken care of his problem. :wink: (See edit in my previous post about using Norton Ghost). Putting the operating system on the new drive will noticeably speed up your computer as well.
 

MadModMike

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Running XP Pro with Office 2003 and all the trimmings.

Again....getting beside the crap that Joe is throwing on the table....download that program and tell me what motherboard you have.

~~Mad Mod Mike, fixin' the world 1 rig at a time
 

danjara

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it doesn't tell me the manufactuer, it just says model:p4I45D chipset:Intel i845D. Under Bios it says Brand: American Megatrends Inc. Version: P1.20
 

joefriday

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getting beside the crap that Joe is throwing on the table

Grade-A quality crap mind you. Crap worth its weight in gold. 8)

That's a P4 chipset. It most likely does not have any integrated SATA ports, so unless you want to buy an add-in card, ATA (IDE) is your only route. It supports UDMA 100 speeds. ATA 133 (Maxtor) specs will also work fine as it'll just operate at UDMA 100.

I would recommend a Seagate hdd, as they have the best warranty at 5 years , and are some of the quietest and most reliable drives on the market. Western Digital and Maxtor are also fine brands, but have less warranty.
 

MadModMike

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it doesn't tell me the manufactuer, it just says model:p4I45D chipset:Intel i845D. Under Bios it says Brand: American Megatrends Inc. Version: P1.20

Looks like it's an ASRock board, alot of ASRock boards had that chipset from what I can find. Comes with 2 IDE and no SATA, get a IDE 200GB Western Digital Drive and attach it to a free IDE Cable, if all of them are in use, you'll have to remove one, or buy a PCI-IDE card for about $20 at your local computer store, or online.

~~Mad Mod Mike, fixin' the world 1 rig at a time
 

danjara

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hey thanks guys I really appreciate it, but another question I have is if I plan to change my optical drives does it matter which one I buy? Do I need any special connections? Looking to upgrading my CD writable drive to DVD Dual layer writable drive and my 3.5 floppy to a 3.5 floppy with media card reader.
 

MadModMike

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hey thanks guys I really appreciate it, but another question I have is if I plan to change my optical drives does it matter which one I buy? Do I need any special connections? Looking to upgrading my CD writable drive to DVD Dual layer writable drive and my 3.5 floppy to a 3.5 floppy with media card reader.

As long as the DVD is IDE (Probably) you're fine, and I haven't seen too many "variations" in Floppy connectors, so you're good on that front. There may be some extra connectors with the Media Reader Thingy, but the manual should describe it.

~~Mad Mod Mike, fixin' the world 1 rig at a time
 

danjara

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hey guys it's me again, just another question about my memory, currently running on 512mb sticks. Can I upgrade to 1gb sticks any limitations?
 

joefriday

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According to Intel's specs, two 1 gb sticks shoulds work. However, remember the the i845 chipset will only run the ram at DDR 266 speeds, so pc3200 DDR will not perform any better in this system than pc2700 ram (or pc2100 ram for that matter).
 

joefriday

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It doesn't really matter, as either will (probably) work. I don't want to scare you away entirely from pc3200 ram. It may make sense to buy pc3200 ram if you think you may build a computer in the future that would still use DDR ram, such as a 939 socket Athlon 64. If you plan to wait a while though (a couple years), then by all means buy whatever you find to be cheaper, whether that be pc2100, pc2700, or pc3200.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820161679

This memory is the cheapest pc3200 I found on newegg. It's only ~1.50 more per stick than pc2700 of the same brand. You could save ~$3 on ram by going with the pc2700, but I think that you'll save more in the long run by getting pc3200, as it will have a better resale once you decide to sell it in the future.