7 replies to this topic

[burtman]

It may sound obvious, but I have a 80Gig Hd that I want to add to my 250Gb system, but I can't.

Sounds simple (and it may be), but my current system has a DVD-+RW, DVD/CD-R, multi-memeory cards, etc.

anyway, I wanna add the drive so I can use it as a 'games' drive.

The current drive is (apparently) a Serial ATA drive (and it looks as if there is another 3 connections [that look like firewire connections] on the motherboard)

And ..
1 ATA slot - split between my DVD RW, and CDRW.

Now, there is prob a lot more info that I have no idea about.

I have a spare slot for this HD, but not sure to fit it. I have the knowledge, but not the noho !

[lokoike]

burtman, on Mar 1 2006, 07:49 PM, said:

The current drive is (apparently) a Serial ATA drive

A few questions:

1. Is the "current drive" referring to the new 80 GB drive or the already installed 250 GB drive? If the 80 GB drive that you want to add is Parallel ATA, then it will be pretty easy to install. All you really have to do is connect it and make sure your BIOS is set to auto-detect it. If it is a Serial ATA drive, you will probably have to install drivers first (which should've come on a disk).

Quote

(and it looks as if there is another 3 connections [that look like firewire connections] on the motherboard)

Most likely SATA ports. If they are small and kind of rectangular, that is what they are. The only place that you will have Firewire 400/800 ports is on the back of your mobo, with all of the other ports (USB, PS/2, video, audio, etc.).

Quote

And ..
1 ATA slot - split between my DVD RW, and CDRW.

Really? Only 1? You should have 2 (Primary and Secondary), as well as a smaller one for a floppy drive. Check again and see if you can locate another PATA port (should be located close to the one you are already using). If you use both slots, you can have a pair of Master drives and Slave drives (4 PATA drives altogether).

Let me know what you find out.

[burtman]

lokoike, on Mar 2 2006, 08:10 AM, said:

A few questions:

1. Is the "current drive" referring to the new 80 GB drive or the already installed 250 GB drive?

The current drive is the already installed 250Gb drive.

lokoike, on Mar 2 2006, 08:10 AM, said:

If the 80 GB drive that you want to add is Parallel ATA, then it will be pretty easy to install. All you really have to do is connect it and make sure your BIOS is set to auto-detect it.

Yea, I've does that before a looong time ago, and it generally was simple (except if u've a really old machine and try to put a drive > 20gb on it - BIOS just ignores it completey !) Anyway ...

lokoike, on Mar 2 2006, 08:10 AM, said:

Most likely SATA ports. If they are small and kind of rectangular, that is what they are.

Thanks - that confirms it. My HD has one cable going into one, and the other 3 are bunched around it.

lokoike, on Mar 2 2006, 08:10 AM, said:

You should have 2 [ATA slot] (Primary and Secondary), as well as a smaller one for a floppy drive.

I checked again, and there is actually only one (with a smaller one for a floppy beside it) !

This is the first machine I've used with a serial HD, and that was what confused me. Now it looks like it's the freaking motherboard

Can you get ATA splitters ? Or would that just confound the issue ?


Sure hope that computer shop does refunds


Thanks lokoike for your advice. (Don't spose you'd like to buy a nearly new 80 gig HD ?)

B.

[lokoike]

burtman, on Mar 2 2006, 09:24 AM, said:

Can you get ATA splitters ?

I've never heard of such a thing. Even if they did exist, I can see two problems with such a thing off the top of my head:

1. Your mobo wouldn't really know how to recognize it, as that would mean you would have multiple masters/slaves on one cable, (although perhaps setting all of the drives to "Cable Select" would remedy this)

2. That would majorly lessen your bandwidth, which means a slower computer; your cable would be trying to send twice as much data. And given the already measely (well not really measely) bandwidth of a Parallel ATA cable, you would lose more performance than you could potentially gain.

Quote

Thanks lokoike for your advice. (Don't spose you'd like to buy a nearly new 80 gig HD ?)

B.

Hmm... Now this 80 GB is Parallel right? If so... $15.

I just bought a pair of 200 GB drives (although only one is actually for me), so about half a terabyte of storage is pretty good for now. So I would only get that drive if it was really cheap. Sorry.

Now if it is Serial... feel free to PM me. That, I would be interested in.

[burtman]

lokoike, on Mar 3 2006, 06:49 AM, said:

I've never heard of such a thing.

Neither have I - just asked in jest. One word springs to mind - 'bottleneck'; just as you explained.

$15 ??? I paid about 60 for it !!

I aim to be the first person in work to have a terabyte personal machine (purely so I can claim to do so !!)
Going up in 80 gig chunks isn't gonna do it though ! Anyway I might need a new motherboard anyhow

Wonder what is the (current) physical maximum HD size a PC can deal with ? Jeez, just thought about defragging a terabyte of data - eeeech !!

[lokoike]

burtman, on Mar 3 2006, 08:05 PM, said:

Neither have I - just asked in jest. One word springs to mind - 'bottleneck'; just as you explained.

$15 ??? I paid about 60 for it !!

I aim to be the first person in work to have a terabyte personal machine (purely so I can claim to do so !!)
Going up in 80 gig chunks isn't gonna do it though ! Anyway I might need a new motherboard anyhow

Wonder what is the (current) physical maximum HD size a PC can deal with ? Jeez, just thought about defragging a terabyte of data - eeeech !!

Yeah, I know that it is worth more than $15, but that is all it would be worth to me (unless it is SATA).

And the biggest HD designed for personal computers that I have ever seen is the 500 GB Hitachi Deskstar 7 K500. So I'm thinking if you get 4 of those, you should be good to go. Say a terabyte for movies and another terabyte for everything else. Seems like a modest amount.

[Eldmannen]

There are like 3-4 other manufacturers who have 500 gb disks.
But the Hitatchi desktar was a well performer.
The Maxtor was the suckiest 500 gb drive tested.

Review: http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.as...cookie%5Ftest=1

[gunner]

There are numerous sata drives out there. I just ordered a sata dvd drive for the same reason. I can connect 2 HDs, but no DVD. Right now I have the hd and dvd on the same IDE, which sucks big time.