Old PC...New Hard Drive

[tuNaB2nroB]

I have an old Sony Vaio (from '97) still runs very well, however I've started running out of room on my hard drive. I have 2 drives on there. The one with the OS is 5 gigs, and the other one is 15gigs, I'm considering buying a new Hard drive, however I do not know which would be the better choice, and also are all hard drives generally compatible w/ all pc's ???

can someone help?

 

[3chordcharlie]

for a pc that old, you will probably run into a storage limit on the size of the drive... Since your 15gig drive works, I *think* the next limit was around 37gb (someone else will know what the limit is), so you should probably be looking for a 30-40gig drive if you decide to buy one...

 

[Matt155]

I would just pick up a 40g drive and use that as my main(C) drive and use your 15 gig as data or backup drive. All IDE drives are compatible with most pcs, it justl won't be as fast as with newer mother boards.
You didn't mention what operating system you are using. You should be able to pick up a 40g for less thans $50 bucks, try to get a 7200 rpm drive if you can, check the hot deals section. Also unless you plan on reloading you OS, you can completely copy your 5g drive to the new 40g drive using third party software like drive image or acronis trueimage.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you get a 40 MB you'll probably need to either:
(a) set a jumper on it to make it pretend to be just a 32 GB drive, -or-
(b) use software from the drive manufacturer website to add support for >32 GB (I.v never trusted this approach), -or-
(c) use a drive controller PCI card from Promise, etc. This would support up to 120 GB with no hassles for about $25-35 (FS/FT forum would be a little cheaper)

 

[JavaMomma]

I just did what you are looking to do. I picked up a 40GB 7200 Western Digital drive with an 8MB buffer (3yr warranty).

I have yet to install it but I am sure it will work just fine.

 

[Abhi]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
If you get a 40 GB you'll probably need to either:
(a) set a jumper on it to make it pretend to be just a 32 GB drive, -or-
(b) use software from the drive manufacturer website to add support for >32 GB (I.v never trusted this approach), -or-
(c) use a drive controller PCI card from Promise, etc. This would support up to 120 GB with no hassles for about $25-35 (FS/FT forum would be a little cheaper)