is it worth putting 5-yr old HDD into new computer as 2nd HDD?

My new computer has an 80GB Maxtor hard drive; old computer (purchased in 2001) has a 40GB Seagate hard drive, whose "SMART" status Belarc reports as 'healthy'. I've been thinking about adding the old HDD to the new computer as a second hard drive, with the intention of using it for backup images (of the 'Ghost' or Acronis 'True Image' type), but today I came across something online that said hard drives over 4-5 years old are at the end of their life expectancy.
As long as the old HDD is okay, is it still worth trying to install it as a second? I don't feel a need to go out and buy a brand new second HDD, as I already have an 80GB external one - I just like the idea of having an additional internal HDD (as well as the thought of trying my hand at something hardware-related!).
If I do go ahead and use the old HDD as planned, and it should fail in the next year or two, would that put my primary HDD at risk too?
Thanks!

 

Hi Rebecca,

As long as the old HDD is okay, is it still worth trying to install it as a second?
IMO yes. If it still works - sure.

If I do go ahead and use the old HDD as planned, and it should fail in the next year or two, would that put my primary HDD at risk too?
Chances of that are really low if any. I can't think of how a failure of a non boot drive would cause any problems for the boot drive.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi Christer,

I have a Dell of that vintage - 2001, runs ATA100/133 drives.

One factor is whether the current computer's drive is a SATA drive and whether SATA/ATA can be mixed. Not familiar with SATA.

If the old drive can't run internally, then it can be put into a HD cage and connected thru a USB port.

Regards - Charles

 

How do I find out the ATA numbers?
Belarc shows the following for the old HDD:
ST340823A [Hard drive] (40.02 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 5EF0M576, rev 3.39, SMART Status: Healthy
I did a google search for ST340823A, but the results that specifically mention ATA are mostly preceded by a "U5" (i.e., U5 ST340823A). Seems to me, though, that it might be ATA100...

Just saw Charles' post, which prompts me to ask, how do I determine if my current hard drive is SATA or ATA? I'll go look an my invoice from Dell, but in the meantime, is there a way to determine it using Belarc or Windows Explorer or something?

 

Christer
Have you checked the web site of the manufacturer of that drive? I know Maxtor makes a utility that you can use to set the UDMA mode of it's drives. It gives no choices but rather automatically sets the mode to the highest the drive is capable of (assuming there's not another one on the same cable that's slower). I remember using it a couple years ago and from what I read about it I was under the impression that the mode the drive runs at was set right within the drive itself. I could be wrong but that's the impression I got. You might check to see if there's such a utility available. I don't know if Maxtor's worked only on their drives or not.

Rebecca
Sorry about this. I'm not trying to hijack your thread but thought I might be of some help to Christer so I thought I'd mention it. Again, sorry.

 

Hi Rebecca,

There is a link to the installation instructions on that specification webpage Christer posted. It may give you some help.

The utility for changing the UDMA mode of a Hitachi is the "Feature Tool ".
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
The UDMA mode that is set at startup can be read from the Configuration screen (if there is a "splash screen" at startup, you need to check the manual for how to disable it...sometimes press the Esc key). You should be able to press the Pause/Break key to read the configuration screens one at a time...Pause/Enter/Pause/Enter etc.
The BIOS needs to be set to "full" POST, not "quick" POST to reset changed hardware.
Some BIOSes have a menu "Identify Hard Disk Drive ". The drive may not be set properly unless this is run.
This a Seagate troubleshooter:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/howto/atau66_tshoot.html
Note that some older motherboards will not run UDMA mode 4/5 on the secondary controller.

Matt
BTW, the computer I am using has a 30GB Maxtor and a 6.5GB Quantum. They are set as Master/Slave on the primary IDE controller. The Maxtor is running at UDMA 5, the Quantum at UDMA 2. The Maxtor is actually ATA 133 (UDMA 6), but the motherboard was made before ATA 133 and only runs ATA 100.

 

Hello Christer,
Sorry for the delay too! Have not been well (brain function at around 25% )

You should get aquainted with the different types of BIOS (the main ones are AMI or Award). There can be a setting (usually buried in the menus) to set "Quick POST ". What this does is not to identify and allocate resources to hardware, it just uses the same allocation as the previous startup. You need to disable this setting for the BIOS to scan all the hardware looking for changes. This setting is USUALLY disabled, although I have come across some machines where it appears to be set as default. You will probably be able to tell by "Quick POST" not giving a POST beep, it will boot straight to the OS. If you hear a beep it is probably doing "full" POST.

Again, there can be settings in the BIOS for IDE that do not appear in the main screen (the configuration settings menu). You need to look through the sub-menus, for example "Identify Hard Disk Drives" is usually one of the last menu items (before Save and Exit, etc).

I have not heard of setting the UDMA mode in the BIOS before, only by using utilities like the Maxtor and Hitachi tools we have mentioned.

Running the BIOS menu "Load Setup Defaults" should be the same as removing the CMOS battery.

When working on a computer that is new to me, the first thing I do is read through the motherboard manual. If there are any relevant BIOS settings, they will be listed under all the menu headings, it saves searching through each of the menus and sub-menus in the BIOS. If I need any guidance, I use
http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=1 to explain the different settings.

Matt

 

That's for sure, Rebecca. I sure wouldn't put any mission-critical data on the drive.

You might want to run some utility on the old drive that flags and isolates bad sectors. Drive failure usually starts being visible as the frequent occurrence of bad sectors. But at that age, drive failure could simulate starting a car's engine with no oil in it.

The idea of using another drive for ghost images is an excellent one. I still use Norton Ghost but my images (even compressed) are getting MASSIVE (1GB+). There have been times when I went to restore an image and Norton Ghost simply errored out and would not accept the image (for no apparent reason) but most times it has worked.

Gary

 

Thanks, Gary!
I ran "Disk Investigator" the last time I had my old computer fired up (the one with the hard drive in question) - I can't remember the specifics of its scan, but I do remember it saying there were no bad sectors.
Now I just have to get up the courage to open up my new computer and study its anatomy, to see if I think I can pull off the addition of a second HDD in there!