Resolved hard drive upgrade Compaq Evo

Hi,

I have a Compaq Evo D510 with a very slow 40gb drive. The drive options are described as this on the HP site:

20-GB 5400 rpm SMART III Ultra ATA/100 (e-pc only)
20-GB 7200 rpm SMART III Ultra ATA/100
40-GB 5400 rpm SMART III Ultra ATA/100
40-GB 7200 rpm SMART III Ultra ATA/100
80-GB 5400 rpm SMART III Ultra ATA/100
80-GB 7200 rpm SMART III Ultra ATA/100
36-GB 10,000 rpm Ultra3 SCSI (CMT and SFF only)
Adaptec 29160 SCSI Controller (CMT and SFF only)

What I want to know is if I am limited to using one of the above drives with it or can I ignore the "SMART III" bit and just make sure I get an "Ultra ATA/100 ".
I really would like to get a drive with more than 80gb if possible.

Also, is it possible for me to get a scsi adapter and then use a scsi drive on this old boat? Would I get better i/o performance using a larger external drive through the usb port?

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee

 

Hi Jim,
I believe that you can go bigger with your hard drive, the list that you are referring to is in my opinion the list of hard drives available from Compaq.
When you go down on the page from Compaq to "After Market Options" you see a list of bigger hard drives.

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11349_div/11349_div.html

Go down the page to after market options and have a look in Hard Drives & Controllers.
hawk22

 

Do I just need to look for a disk drive that is "Ultra ATA/100" or are there other considerations? For example would this drive work?

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee

 

You may have some issues with larger drives due to BIOS restrictions*, but if you don't mind losing a few GB's from the 160 GB drive then there's no reason that it won't work. In short yes look for a 3.5" ATA drive (SATA or SCSI won't do you any good at all).

*Older BIOS may not be able to use over 128GB's. But it'd have to be an old system which doesn't have a BIOS update.

 

Thanks Wildfirae. So ATA (and 3.5 ") is all I need to keep in mind? The other thing I was considering was if the E-IDE will play nicely iwth my IDE? I take it it will just throttle down and not take advantage of the 'Enhanced' part?

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee

 

Don't worry about that, you have an e-ide port