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new slave hard drive

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by onefinger, 2007/05/06.

  1. 2007/05/06
    onefinger

    onefinger Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I want to fit a slave hard drive to increase my memory on my 2001 Packard Bell i media 5109 computer. I have a pentium 4 processor 1.9 GHz with 512 mb RAM and running Windows XP with SP2. Will this put too much strain on my system or will it help, not to have everything on my master 40 Gb hard drive? I intend to partition the new hard drive. I was thinking of a 160 Gb, 7200 r.p.m. 8mb cache drive, but do not know if I can use the most up to date SATA hard drive on my old system? I think my original drive is PATA. If I can, are the 40 pin connectors the same on the SATA drives or do I need an adaptor? The ribbon on my motherboard is connected to the primary I.D.E. connector & has an unused 40 pin connector on it for the slave hard drive. Also is there a limit to ammont of memory I can add or is 160 Gb o.k? I would appreciate anyone's advice. This is the 1st time I have done this. Thank you.
     
    onefinger,
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  2. 2007/05/06
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    No offence, but let's straighten out one point first :) .....

    Memory is your RAM - you are talking of storage or hard drive capacity. A common misconception.
    No and No - the only proviso is that your power supply (PSU) has enough in hand to power the drive - almost certainly.
    From your description and the age of the computer it is highly unlikely that you could install a SATA drive. The controller technologies - and connections to the motherboard are different. Stick with PATA.
    Set the jumper on the new drive to Slave, connect to the ribbon cable, connect a power lead - should be some spare in the case - and away you go :) 160 Gb is fine - go larger if you need to, but I suspect that that will not be necessary as 160 Gb is 4x your current drive capacity.
     
    PeteC,
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  4. 2007/05/06
    onefinger

    onefinger Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    thank you PeteC for your information. It is much appreciated. The only other thing I forgot to mention is: what are the best makes in internal hard drive? Thank you also for correcting me about it not being memory I am after, but storage. I feel I have enough info. to go ahead and buy now. :) regards onefinger.
     
    onefinger,
    #3
  5. 2007/05/06
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Not a lot to choose between the major players - each user has their favourite or their tale of drive failure :)

    My current choice is for Hitachi, Samsung or Western Digital.

    If you want further info., reviews look at http://www.storagereview.com/
     
    PeteC,
    #4
  6. 2007/05/13
    onefinger

    onefinger Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    :) Just to let you know the outcome: I bought a Western Digital WD1600JB Caviar SE 160 Gb ATA/100 hard drive with 8Mb cache from e-buyer, a good price @ £40, but even cheaper by using Google checkout, bringing price to £30. I bought a new ATA66/ATA100 ribbon cable to join them to the motherboard. I fitted drives in yesterday and initialised new drive, then partitioned and formatted using computer management console and partition wizard. Everything working very well. I installed an older Fifa game in my 1st Drive, D, and it played well. The only small problem, if it is one, is when my son presses W whilst playing the game an audible beep is heard coming from the tower, same sound as sticky keys.:confused: I wondered if any of you knows why it is doing this. Thank you to PeteC for sorting out my previous question.
     
    onefinger,
    #5
  7. 2007/05/13
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Glad to hear it went well and thanks for the update :)

    Is W a legitimate keystroke in the game - if not the beep is may be signalling that an invalid key has been struck.
     
    PeteC,
    #6

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