Hello,
I have a very old desktop. It was built in 1997 or '98. It's a 266Mhz Celeron processor. It's a real beauty! I also picked up an old laptop, which isn't much better.
I've been picking up parts for these things, and my computer-stuff-confidence has been growing as I make these machines more capable. (FWIW, I'm posting from a friend's place, so I'm not on either of those machines.) However, I'm at a point at which I want to buy stuff that I can use in a real build. That leads me to the question of a new and big drive.
I was looking at a 2T hard drive with 64M of cache for a desktop on ebay. Could I put this in my old computer and then swap it into the desktop that I'll be building when that project is ready for a hard drive?
Any advice that I should know?
Thanks everyone. This site has been heaven sent for a computer illiterate like me.
Choosing a new desktop hard drive
-
circularL7
- Posts: 112
- Joined: Sat 02 Feb 2013, 07:26
Thank both of you! That's the kind of info that I need. It's a very wide and flat cable; twenty-eight pins seems to ring a bell.
I would conclude that since the motherboard receptacle has been changed over the years, when I choose a motherboard for my future build, I'm not going to find a new board that will be compatible with the drive that I get to accompany the old board. Is that the case?
Would I be right to also guess that I should just start my build rather than trying to build on the old machine while I learn about building?
I would conclude that since the motherboard receptacle has been changed over the years, when I choose a motherboard for my future build, I'm not going to find a new board that will be compatible with the drive that I get to accompany the old board. Is that the case?
Would I be right to also guess that I should just start my build rather than trying to build on the old machine while I learn about building?
If you're in OZ, i'd be happy to send you an HDD of similar vintage to suit your antique.. i have a few lying comatose around the place 
I wouldn't be trying to put a square peg (current model drive) into a round hole (such an old round hole as your unit)....not only because of the incompatibilities, but imo it'd be better to trial-and-error an old drive for build-practice and save the juicy new one for your good machine.. my 0.2c' worth..
Cheers
I wouldn't be trying to put a square peg (current model drive) into a round hole (such an old round hole as your unit)....not only because of the incompatibilities, but imo it'd be better to trial-and-error an old drive for build-practice and save the juicy new one for your good machine.. my 0.2c' worth..
Cheers
[i][color=Green][size=92]The mud-elephant, wading thru the sea, leaves no tracks..[/size][/color][/i]
-
Dewbie
Circular, if you're in the States, and can put up with an 80gb or 120gb drive... I'll gladly help out. Just pay the shipping, which will be less than $10 for sure. (I prefer Paypal, but there are other ways I can do it.)
Also -- IDE/PATA is 40 pins, 2 rows of 20. Floppies are 34 pins, two rows of 17. Most modern drives are "missing" a pin ("keyed" is the term) in both cases. That won't affect anything -- it's always an electrical-ground pin anyways.
The exception to the 40pin rule is notebook/laptop hard drives -- those are 44pin (two rows of 22) because the extra four pins are for power! But those drives have a different pitch (pin spacing) on the connector -- 2mm instead of 2.54mm/0.1". So they need a cable adapter to fit in a desktop (and brackets -- they're physically smaller).
Also -- IDE/PATA is 40 pins, 2 rows of 20. Floppies are 34 pins, two rows of 17. Most modern drives are "missing" a pin ("keyed" is the term) in both cases. That won't affect anything -- it's always an electrical-ground pin anyways.
The exception to the 40pin rule is notebook/laptop hard drives -- those are 44pin (two rows of 22) because the extra four pins are for power! But those drives have a different pitch (pin spacing) on the connector -- 2mm instead of 2.54mm/0.1". So they need a cable adapter to fit in a desktop (and brackets -- they're physically smaller).
I think you can get a sata-2 refurbished 120gb solid-state disk for round and about $65.- from http://www.outletpc.com who are right here in Vegas. They are also partnered with Amazon.com
you can pickup a bidirectional SATA to IDE 3.5" or IDE to SATA adapter on ebay for just a few dollars, delivered to your door.
That might be worth a try.
That might be worth a try.
[b]Carolina:[/b] [url=http://smokey01.com/carolina/pages/recent-repo.html]Recent Repository Additions[/url]
[img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ahfade8q4def1lq/signbot.gif[/img]
[img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ahfade8q4def1lq/signbot.gif[/img]
I've heard nothing but bad news about those. I hear they like to corrupt data.
I might consider one for an optical drive, but I'd be quite skittish about even that.
Look, guys -- he's got a couple choices.
(1) IDE hard drive from me for shipping -- cheap, and I test and ship carefully. It would cost him $10 at the absolute most, and I really don't see costs hitting even that.
(2) IDE hard drive from eBay -- risky, more so if you don't know what to avoid. This will run your wallet at least $10, likely more.
(3) IDE hard drive from eg Newegg or Amazon -- very expensive indeed!
(4) Upgrading his system in some sort of profound way.
All this talk about SATA is confusion and nothing more. There are two problems with SATA --
(1) his computer doesn't support it to begin with, and never will or should.
(2) anything that will enable him to use a SATA drive will either prevent booting from that drive (PCI SATA controller) or will possibly corrupt his data (IDE-SATA adapter). It will also cost actually more money than just getting a used IDE drive off eBay.
eBay? Really? Yes. My main system (a second-hand Dell Inspiron 6400) has an eBay drive in it. If I need a hard drive (not entirely common) it comes from eBay. There's a few tricks to it. Here they are --
(1) Searching for the drive is simple. eBay speaks pidgin English. So a good search string for circular would be (eg) 160 ide desktop -- assuming he wants a 160gb drive.
(2) Set the options on eBay's selection side-panel to "Buy It Now" and "US Only". Set the sorting option to "Price + Shipping: lowest first" (you may need to enter your ZIP or postal code here).
(3a) Any listing AT ALL that reads "as is" or "for parts only" or anything even vaguely like that is a listing for a drive that does not work, as are listings with a condition of "For Parts or Not Working" (careful -- some crafty folks are putting these in the "Used" category, which is WRONG). If the listing reads "controller card" then it is for a part of the drive, not the whole drive. These drives and parts are essentially worthless.
(3b) Any listing AT ALL that reads "password" or "passworded" or "locked" refers to a drive that needs special technical knowledge (or an unknown password from an unknown person) to make useful. These drives are also worthless -- the unlock service tends to be at least $30 and --from what I understand-- does not always work!
(3c) Therefore: AVOID ANY LISTING THAT READS "as is" "for parts only" "controller card" "password" "locked drive" ETC. YOU ARE OTHERWISE BEGGING TROUBLE TO COME KNOCKING AT YOUR DOOR.
(4) READ THE LISTING. This should be obvious, but it isn't always. Searching for 200 ide desktop pulls up both 20gb and 200gb drives. I really don't think I want a 20gb drive for the same price as a 160gb drive! (They both seem to run about $10.)
If I were right now buying circular a replacement drive from eBay, I would get one of these (assuming he's in the States)... price is listed as item+shipping...
1 - 160gb Seagate - $12+$6.15 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/320919508367
2 - 200gb Seagate - $20+$6.15 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/321102384543
3 - 320gb Maxtor - $23+$5 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/370795183833
Given the choice, I'd pick the Maxtor behind Door #3. Absolute TONS of space and for a remarkably good price.
Oh, right. One other thing. BRAND DOESN'T MATTER. Really! Western Digital and Maxtor and Seagate and Fujitsu and Hitachi and --if you are looking at really old drives-- IBM and Conner and Quantum (remember them?) are all essentially the same. Any problems you might have with one brand are more attributable to luck or karma or fate or coincidence or a wrathful deity than they are to one manufacturer churning out junk.
There are two exceptions -- VERY early IBM Deskstar drives got the nickname "IBM Deathstar", and for a very good reason Also worth avoiding is GS Magic brand junk -- but AFAIK they only make "Microdrives" -- hard drives the size and shape of a CompactFlash card (or similar). In this case, we need to worry about... neither.
Of note... I have a Quantum ProDrive ELS from early 1992 -- excepting one bad sector, it still works. It got its five years (or more) of hard use, and its' still kickin'! (That drive was in my mother's computer when she was running an agricultural nonprofit organization in the early-to-mid 1990s. Then she went to lawschool -- and I used that box for another three or four years.) The only major problem with it (really!) is that it's an 85mb drive. By the way... Quantum no longer makes anything. IIRC they were assimilated by either Maxtor or Seagate. Doesn't matter. They're old history at this point.
I might consider one for an optical drive, but I'd be quite skittish about even that.
Look, guys -- he's got a couple choices.
(1) IDE hard drive from me for shipping -- cheap, and I test and ship carefully. It would cost him $10 at the absolute most, and I really don't see costs hitting even that.
(2) IDE hard drive from eBay -- risky, more so if you don't know what to avoid. This will run your wallet at least $10, likely more.
(3) IDE hard drive from eg Newegg or Amazon -- very expensive indeed!
(4) Upgrading his system in some sort of profound way.
All this talk about SATA is confusion and nothing more. There are two problems with SATA --
(1) his computer doesn't support it to begin with, and never will or should.
(2) anything that will enable him to use a SATA drive will either prevent booting from that drive (PCI SATA controller) or will possibly corrupt his data (IDE-SATA adapter). It will also cost actually more money than just getting a used IDE drive off eBay.
eBay? Really? Yes. My main system (a second-hand Dell Inspiron 6400) has an eBay drive in it. If I need a hard drive (not entirely common) it comes from eBay. There's a few tricks to it. Here they are --
(1) Searching for the drive is simple. eBay speaks pidgin English. So a good search string for circular would be (eg) 160 ide desktop -- assuming he wants a 160gb drive.
(2) Set the options on eBay's selection side-panel to "Buy It Now" and "US Only". Set the sorting option to "Price + Shipping: lowest first" (you may need to enter your ZIP or postal code here).
(3a) Any listing AT ALL that reads "as is" or "for parts only" or anything even vaguely like that is a listing for a drive that does not work, as are listings with a condition of "For Parts or Not Working" (careful -- some crafty folks are putting these in the "Used" category, which is WRONG). If the listing reads "controller card" then it is for a part of the drive, not the whole drive. These drives and parts are essentially worthless.
(3b) Any listing AT ALL that reads "password" or "passworded" or "locked" refers to a drive that needs special technical knowledge (or an unknown password from an unknown person) to make useful. These drives are also worthless -- the unlock service tends to be at least $30 and --from what I understand-- does not always work!
(3c) Therefore: AVOID ANY LISTING THAT READS "as is" "for parts only" "controller card" "password" "locked drive" ETC. YOU ARE OTHERWISE BEGGING TROUBLE TO COME KNOCKING AT YOUR DOOR.
(4) READ THE LISTING. This should be obvious, but it isn't always. Searching for 200 ide desktop pulls up both 20gb and 200gb drives. I really don't think I want a 20gb drive for the same price as a 160gb drive! (They both seem to run about $10.)
If I were right now buying circular a replacement drive from eBay, I would get one of these (assuming he's in the States)... price is listed as item+shipping...
1 - 160gb Seagate - $12+$6.15 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/320919508367
2 - 200gb Seagate - $20+$6.15 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/321102384543
3 - 320gb Maxtor - $23+$5 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/370795183833
Given the choice, I'd pick the Maxtor behind Door #3. Absolute TONS of space and for a remarkably good price.
Oh, right. One other thing. BRAND DOESN'T MATTER. Really! Western Digital and Maxtor and Seagate and Fujitsu and Hitachi and --if you are looking at really old drives-- IBM and Conner and Quantum (remember them?) are all essentially the same. Any problems you might have with one brand are more attributable to luck or karma or fate or coincidence or a wrathful deity than they are to one manufacturer churning out junk.
There are two exceptions -- VERY early IBM Deskstar drives got the nickname "IBM Deathstar", and for a very good reason
Also worth avoiding is GS Magic brand junk -- but AFAIK they only make "Microdrives" -- hard drives the size and shape of a CompactFlash card (or similar). In this case, we need to worry about... neither.Of note... I have a Quantum ProDrive ELS from early 1992 -- excepting one bad sector, it still works. It got its five years (or more) of hard use, and its' still kickin'! (That drive was in my mother's computer when she was running an agricultural nonprofit organization in the early-to-mid 1990s. Then she went to lawschool -- and I used that box for another three or four years.) The only major problem with it (really!) is that it's an 85mb drive. By the way... Quantum no longer makes anything. IIRC they were assimilated by either Maxtor or Seagate. Doesn't matter. They're old history at this point.
-
Bruce B
Nostalgia - How I Remember the Past
BIOS limitations. Yuky memories configuring bigger drives than what the computer was designed to configure. Adaptor cards. EZ-Drive software. Even that was not always enough.
1997 - I'd be pleasantly surprised if the BIOS would configure 32GB. I'd be totally shocked if it could manage > 132GB. I wouldn't be surprised of 8.3 GB was its limit.
Presently I would like to ask starhawk if the 80GB drive he has has a jumper to convert it to a 32GB drive or anything on it at all that says 32GB
~
BIOS limitations. Yuky memories configuring bigger drives than what the computer was designed to configure. Adaptor cards. EZ-Drive software. Even that was not always enough.
1997 - I'd be pleasantly surprised if the BIOS would configure 32GB. I'd be totally shocked if it could manage > 132GB. I wouldn't be surprised of 8.3 GB was its limit.
Presently I would like to ask starhawk if the 80GB drive he has has a jumper to convert it to a 32GB drive or anything on it at all that says 32GB
~
I have plenty of drives the ones I have more than one or two of tend to be between 10 and 80 gb in capacity.
Funny thing is that at the time the 10gb drives were made there wasn't nearly as much standardization in terms of capacities -- they're all about 10gb but I don't think there are many that are exactly 10gb
So it goes like this:
~10gb
20gb
30gb
40gb
60gb
80gb
100gb
120gb
160gb
200gb
250gb
320gb
400gb
500gb
600gb
750gb
1000gb (1tb)
1500gb (1.5tb)
2000gb (2tb)
3000gb (3tb)
I think that's as high as it goes right now. I don't pay much attention to TB hard drives as I haven't the money for them.
The ones I have go from, as I say, ~10gb to 80gb. I have one or two 120gb drives and one 160gb drive -- but I'm not selling the 160gb model, for sure. Heck, I'm not sure if I can /find/ it!
the ones I have more than one or two of tend to be between 10 and 80 gb in capacity.Funny thing is that at the time the 10gb drives were made there wasn't nearly as much standardization in terms of capacities -- they're all about 10gb but I don't think there are many that are exactly 10gb
So it goes like this:
~10gb
20gb
30gb
40gb
60gb
80gb
100gb
120gb
160gb
200gb
250gb
320gb
400gb
500gb
600gb
750gb
1000gb (1tb)
1500gb (1.5tb)
2000gb (2tb)
3000gb (3tb)
I think that's as high as it goes right now. I don't pay much attention to TB hard drives as I haven't the money for them.
The ones I have go from, as I say, ~10gb to 80gb. I have one or two 120gb drives and one 160gb drive -- but I'm not selling the 160gb model, for sure. Heck, I'm not sure if I can /find/ it!
-
circularL7
- Posts: 112
- Joined: Sat 02 Feb 2013, 07:26
Hey guys,
Thank you all! Currently, there are two hdd's in my machine: the original 6g and a 40g that I picked up. They're IDE. The 2t that I was looking at was SATA. I didn't know about the difference.
Star, extra thanks for all that info. It's a great help. I don't know what I want to do yet, so I'll get back to you on the offer.
I've been looking at computer stuff, and that machine is really weak. It's so old (how old is it?) that the processor is an abacus. It's so old (how old is it?) that the power supply is a water wheel. It's so old (how old is it?) that the serial number was engraved with hammer and chisel.
I'm playing with it to learn about computers, and it's been wonderful for that. But is it silly to keep it around as a server for my data when I upgrade?
Thank you all! Currently, there are two hdd's in my machine: the original 6g and a 40g that I picked up. They're IDE. The 2t that I was looking at was SATA. I didn't know about the difference.
Star, extra thanks for all that info. It's a great help. I don't know what I want to do yet, so I'll get back to you on the offer.
I've been looking at computer stuff, and that machine is really weak. It's so old (how old is it?) that the processor is an abacus. It's so old (how old is it?) that the power supply is a water wheel. It's so old (how old is it?) that the serial number was engraved with hammer and chisel.
I'm playing with it to learn about computers, and it's been wonderful for that. But is it silly to keep it around as a server for my data when I upgrade?
-
sickgut
- Posts: 1156
- Joined: Tue 23 Mar 2010, 19:11
- Location: Tasmania, Australia in the mountains.
- Contact:
ebay got lotsa ide or sata to SD or MicroSD card converters aswell.....Geoffrey wrote:you can pickup a bidirectional SATA to IDE 3.5" or IDE to SATA adapter on ebay for just a few dollars, delivered to your door.
That might be worth a try.
a class 10 32GB SD card is a poor mans SSD
lots of gamers, specially online gamers use a SSD for the speed, tey might have windows installed on it and just one game they play regularly or they might just have a few games installed on it. This gives an advantage when the system is loading a new level, people with SSD's generally spawn a few seconds quicker than people with normal HDD's. Some games this makes a difference, some it doesnt depending on how often they access the HDD. http://www.battlefield.play4free.com players notice an advantage with SSD, they spawn before anyone else and are already flying the best helicopter and have killed 4 or 5 people before everyone else without SSD's actually spawn.
I personally go with external equipment where possible. Even with a desktop.... fair enough, get an internal HDD but just get a cheapo small one, or the smallest SSD (SSD could be used in a laptop as well if you get a 2 or 2.5")...... You see the next computer you buy may be a laptop and then you would kick yourself for spending hard earned money on something you cant use on your new computer....
I buy external USB HDD enclosures that are the 2.5" laptop kind that require no extra power and i buy the laptop HDD's. Also i buy external DVD burner/ drives (i got a few desktop ones i use with a IDE to USB convertor, they need separate power tho, and this ties up a plug on your power socket/ power point. External sound card with RCA in and outputs isnt expensive a low end almost professional recording quality one is like $60.... external TV capture thingy..... all these you can keep nearly forever and you can use on desktop and laptop. Get a good USB hub that has its own power tho. USB 2.0 is fast...... USB 3.0? damn man.... that is really really really fast. There is no performance loss going external. USB 2.0 is a little slower than IDE or SATA internal, but USB 3.0 is so fast that i swear you will not notice any difference compared to internal....
This is the kind of thing i do, im not into high end stuff, more about saving money and avoiding buying the same thing 2 or 3 times in 2 or 3 years.
-
Dewbie
circularL7 wrote:
Have a look at my 6.4.
There are four Puppies installed, plus an ext2 for sandbox / storage, plus swap...
You can do a lot with 6G.Currently, there are two hdd's in my machine: the original 6g and a 40g that I picked up.
Have a look at my 6.4.
There are four Puppies installed, plus an ext2 for sandbox / storage, plus swap...
- Attachments
-
- GParted.png
- (24.27 KiB) Downloaded 104 times