geting a new hard disk. got some questions

aznfs · Post by **aznfs** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 5:03 pm

madmag9999 wrote:ata 133 is better. but maxtors suck. get a western digital or seagate.

funny i have all those brands in my computer or connected to it at least

40gb maxtor
40gb seagate
200gb western digi

madmag9999 · Post by **madmag9999** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 5:06 pm

i have a maxtor as well and im not satisfied at all. its the 5th one they had to send it to me

and klinky had problems with them to if i remember correctly. i really like westerndigitals and seagates are ok.

aznfs · Post by **aznfs** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 5:18 pm

madmag9999 wrote:i have a maxtor as well and im not satisfied at all. its the 5th one they had to send it to me and klinky had problems with them to if i remember correctly. i really like westerndigitals and seagates are ok.

i hope i dont have any prolems with my maxtor cause its my boot drive
though ive had it for several years now and nothing seems to be wrong with it

shirohamada · Post by **shirohamada** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 11:51 pm

if you get a new nobo, one that have serial ATA is nice, i do, and its mighty fast, not the 10k rpm raptor though.

bum · Post by **bum** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 11:59 am

ive heard that the difference between ata100 and ata133 isnt realy noticable.

my 20GB maxtor drive has bein running fine for the beter part of 3 years, though il probaly sell it to some guy for $20-$40 once i put in my new hard disk

oh and, i got my mobo just as sata compatible mobo's were being intruduced, and mine didnt have sata, which sux. then again, sata150 probaly isnt much faster than pata100

Zero · Post by **Zero** » Sat Jul 17, 2004 9:27 pm

oldwrench wrote:Your new drive should come with installation software, just follow the instructions and you should be ok.

It shouldn't. HD's don't need software because all the drivers and software required is in your BIOS system. As for re-installing XP, it's not required but it can be tricked into creating partitions for you. When you get to the "Install destination" screen, create two partitions of whatever size (Be sure to leave the buffer space) and format them. No sweat.

-Zero

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 7:50 am

Depending on when your motherboard was made, you might have a BIOS that can't handle a large drive. But that's doubtful. Most newer motherboards support drives larger than 137GB and the ones that don't support drives up to 137GB or may even have a BIOS upgrade available.

The BIOS doesn't exactly contain any drivers. It just contains information that describes the drive. Windows has support for most onboard IDE controller cards on the market. Your computer talks to the drive through the controller card/chip.

XP, might have a drive install wizard. I don't have XP, so if you want to try the wizard then do what Zero said. Otherwise you can go to Administrative Tools in your control panel. Then to Computer Management|Disk Management. You should see the new drive listed in there. Right click it and choose "Create Extended Partition". Have it use ALL the space on the drive. Once it's created the Extended Partition. Right click again and choose "Create Logical Drive". Set it up to use half the space and check the box for "quick format". Then repeat the process for te other partition. You should be set.

I don't know why your swap method projects would suddenly get scrambled? So long as you use an extended partition your drive letters shouldn't change.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 12:48 pm

klinky wrote:The BIOS doesn't exactly contain any drivers. It just contains information that describes the drive.

Not true. It scans the drive for whatever information is required by CMOS and then procides to transfer that info to whatever the OS is. So in essence, it has a driver in it, but not for what either of us were thinking of.

klinky wrote:Windows has support for most onboard IDE controller cards on the market.

Careful, that's an oxymoron. But I have yet to see a board made within the last year that doesn't contain on-board IDE. But that's for another day.

-Zero

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 3:44 am

Wrong!

First 'CMOS(complementary metal-oxide semiconductor)' is a way of creating digital circuits. CMOS on a computer is in refernece to a small amount of memory, usually powered by a batter, that holds configuration information from within the BIOS. This includes things such as HDD info, boot order, integrated component. It does not "require" anything.

The BIOS does allow for low-level access to the hard drive. The drive windows provides programmers with an easier way to access the drives as well as a way of fleshing out extended features of the controller card on the motherboard. Onboard motherboard manufactuers conform to the standard drivers included with windows for IDE access. However, things such as RAID controllers or add-in IDE controller cards do not. So you need to use a driver designed for them or else windows will not recognize them.

Most motherboard manufactuers decided that there was no point in making people use an extra controller when hard drives became a standard feature, so they moved that logic on to the board itself. That doesn't mean suddenly a driver is no longer needed.

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 3:47 am

proof-read++ kids

Drivers provide programmers with an easier way to access the drives as well as a way of fleshing out extended features of the controller card.