My Gateway PC needs an extra hard drive

[JohnCM]

I have a Gateway Essential 933C with a Flex-ATX case running Windows
ME. The 20GB hard drive that came with it is nearly full, and I need
to either replace the current hard drive, add a new internal hard
drive, or an external hard drive.
The problem with replacing the existing drive would be moving all the
files over to the new drive without having system errors. I've heard
methods, but they sound terribly complicated and time consuming.
I figured I'd add an externa HD that plugs into one of the USB ports.
Thing is, I have USB 1.1 and some have said that between the HD,mouse,
and printer the external HD would be very slow. USB 2.0 is alot
faster, and I thought I'd just add a USB 2.0 card into one of the
empty PCI slots in the back.
But a tech at Gateway informed me that I could not install a USB 2.0
card without screwing up my existing USB ports.
And that there's no room in my Flex-ATX case for an extra hard drive.
Internals are cheaper, generally from $50-$100 in the 80GB range which
is what I'm looking for. Externals cost more, generally $120-$150 for
80GB, and then I'll have to add on the cost of a USB 2.0 card.
My PC is almost 5 years old but I've found no need to replace it.
However, it seems getting more space in this thing will be major work,
at least according to the techs at Gateway.
But with less than 1GB I have less virtual memory (my PC has 128mb
RAM) and so it's been stalling alot lately.
I seem to get contradicting advice. I'd prefer to just add a hard
drive to my PC, but I am still confused about the best and cheapest
way to do so.

 

[Grinder]

I have a Gateway Essential 933C with a Flex-ATX case running Windows
ME. The 20GB hard drive that came with it is nearly full, and I need
to either replace the current hard drive, add a new internal hard
drive, or an external hard drive.
The problem with replacing the existing drive would be moving all the
files over to the new drive without having system errors. I've heard
methods, but they sound terribly complicated and time consuming.
I figured I'd add an externa HD that plugs into one of the USB ports.
Thing is, I have USB 1.1 and some have said that between the HD,mouse,
and printer the external HD would be very slow. USB 2.0 is alot
faster, and I thought I'd just add a USB 2.0 card into one of the
empty PCI slots in the back.
But a tech at Gateway informed me that I could not install a USB 2.0
card without screwing up my existing USB ports.
And that there's no room in my Flex-ATX case for an extra hard drive.
Internals are cheaper, generally from $50-$100 in the 80GB range which
is what I'm looking for. Externals cost more, generally $120-$150 for
80GB, and then I'll have to add on the cost of a USB 2.0 card.
My PC is almost 5 years old but I've found no need to replace it.
However, it seems getting more space in this thing will be major work,
at least according to the techs at Gateway.
But with less than 1GB I have less virtual memory (my PC has 128mb
RAM) and so it's been stalling alot lately.
I seem to get contradicting advice. I'd prefer to just add a hard
drive to my PC, but I am still confused about the best and cheapest
way to do so.

You should be able to copy your existing hard drive to a new one, en
masse, with a drive imaging program like Norton's Ghost. Basically, you'll:

1) Hook up a new larger hard drive as a slave.

2) Partition the new drive and copy the old drive to one of the partitions.

3) Take out the old hard drive, and set the new one as a master.

 

[Michael Culley]

I have a Gateway Essential 933C with a Flex-ATX case running Windows
ME. The 20GB hard drive that came with it is nearly full, and I need
to either replace the current hard drive, add a new internal hard
drive, or an external hard drive.
The problem with replacing the existing drive would be moving all the
files over to the new drive without having system errors. I've heard
methods, but they sound terribly complicated and time consuming.
I figured I'd add an externa HD that plugs into one of the USB ports.
Thing is, I have USB 1.1 and some have said that between the HD,mouse,
and printer the external HD would be very slow. USB 2.0 is alot
faster, and I thought I'd just add a USB 2.0 card into one of the
empty PCI slots in the back.
But a tech at Gateway informed me that I could not install a USB 2.0
card without screwing up my existing USB ports.
And that there's no room in my Flex-ATX case for an extra hard drive.
Internals are cheaper, generally from $50-$100 in the 80GB range which
is what I'm looking for. Externals cost more, generally $120-$150 for
80GB, and then I'll have to add on the cost of a USB 2.0 card.
My PC is almost 5 years old but I've found no need to replace it.
However, it seems getting more space in this thing will be major work,
at least according to the techs at Gateway.
But with less than 1GB I have less virtual memory (my PC has 128mb
RAM) and so it's been stalling alot lately.
I seem to get contradicting advice. I'd prefer to just add a hard
drive to my PC, but I am still confused about the best and cheapest
way to do so.

Best thing to do is buy another internal HDD and ditch the one you've got.
You can simple copy windows ME to another drive using windows explorer. I've
never tried it with ME but it's worked for me plenty of times with win95 and
98. You'll get an error on the swap file but I think it will automatically
create that anyway. Here's the steps:

Unplug the CDRom and plug the new HDD into the CDRom cable and power. No
need to bolt it in, just leave it sitting there.
Start your computer up.
Format the new drive in windows explorer. Make sure you mark it as a system
disk.
Copy everything over, best to do it a directory at a time in case you get
errors.
Shutdown.
Put the new HDD in place of the old one and plug the CD back in.
Boot up.

Although I think grinders suggestion to use Ghost is much better but this
way you don't have to purchase ghost.

Regards,
Michael

 

[yak]

I have a Gateway Essential 933C with a Flex-ATX case running Windows
ME. The 20GB hard drive that came with it is nearly full, and I need
to either replace the current hard drive, add a new internal hard
drive, or an external hard drive.
The problem with replacing the existing drive would be moving all the
files over to the new drive without having system errors. I've heard
methods, but they sound terribly complicated and time consuming.
I figured I'd add an externa HD that plugs into one of the USB ports.
Thing is, I have USB 1.1 and some have said that between the HD,mouse,
and printer the external HD would be very slow. USB 2.0 is alot
faster, and I thought I'd just add a USB 2.0 card into one of the
empty PCI slots in the back.
But a tech at Gateway informed me that I could not install a USB 2.0
card without screwing up my existing USB ports.
And that there's no room in my Flex-ATX case for an extra hard drive.
Internals are cheaper, generally from $50-$100 in the 80GB range which
is what I'm looking for. Externals cost more, generally $120-$150 for
80GB, and then I'll have to add on the cost of a USB 2.0 card.
My PC is almost 5 years old but I've found no need to replace it.
However, it seems getting more space in this thing will be major work,
at least according to the techs at Gateway.
But with less than 1GB I have less virtual memory (my PC has 128mb
RAM) and so it's been stalling alot lately.
I seem to get contradicting advice. I'd prefer to just add a hard
drive to my PC, but I am still confused about the best and cheapest
way to do so.

Buy a retail version of a Western Digital drive. Hook it up as a slave
to your existing drive. Leave it hanging outside the case for now if you
need to. Western Digital drives come with a little program that will
copy all your files onto the new drive so you can ditch the old one and
go on your merry way as if nothing happened (I know WD has this, others
might as well, if you want to check). Then make the new one master and
replace the old one.


Or, if you rather, you could get a Firewire card and stick that in
there. Skip the shoddy Gateway USB conflict crap altogether. Then you
could just get an external Firewire drive. More expensive, but probably
easier.

And then never buy another Gateway.

heh...

 

[kony]

Buy a retail version of a Western Digital drive. Hook it up as a slave
to your existing drive. Leave it hanging outside the case for now if you
need to. Western Digital drives come with a little program that will
copy all your files onto the new drive so you can ditch the old one and
go on your merry way as if nothing happened (I know WD has this, others
might as well, if you want to check). Then make the new one master and
replace the old one.

Agreed, that is the best solution, though all the major
manufacturer's ATA drives can be used interchangably (no
need to get Western Digital), if the "little program" isn't
packaged with the drive it can be downloaded from their
respective website.

If the drive is larger than 120GB the OP might consider
updating the motherboard bios to ensure that large drive
(48bit LBA) support is present, if Gateway has such a bios
update available at all... is something that would be good
to check prior to purchasing the drive.

 

[Grinder]

Buy a retail version of a Western Digital drive. Hook it up as a slave
to your existing drive. Leave it hanging outside the case for now if you
need to. Western Digital drives come with a little program that will
copy all your files onto the new drive so you can ditch the old one and
go on your merry way as if nothing happened (I know WD has this, others
might as well, if you want to check). Then make the new one master and
replace the old one.


Or, if you rather, you could get a Firewire card and stick that in
there. Skip the shoddy Gateway USB conflict crap altogether. Then you
could just get an external Firewire drive. More expensive, but probably
easier.

I minor caveat to mention here: Your case does not take full-height PCI
cards, so you'll have to get a smaller (half-height?) faceplate for any
card you hope to install. (You can bend and cut a regular one to your
needs, but it's not for the faint of heart.)

 

[JohnCM]

Agreed, that is the best solution, though all the major
manufacturer's ATA drives can be used interchangably (no
need to get Western Digital), if the "little program" isn't
packaged with the drive it can be downloaded from their
respective website.

If the drive is larger than 120GB the OP might consider
updating the motherboard bios to ensure that large drive
(48bit LBA) support is present, if Gateway has such a bios
update available at all... is something that would be good
to check prior to purchasing the drive.

It does sound like the best option. My new HD would probably be 80GB.
If the new HD comes with a program to copy old stuff to the new drive,
it'd probably be the best idea.

 

[Ralph Mowery]

It does sound like the best option. My new HD would probably be 80GB.

If the new HD comes with a program to copy old stuff to the new drive,
it'd probably be the best idea.

Go to the Maxtor site and download their program . Think it is called
Maxiblast. Other companies have the same type of program. YOu can just
leave the new drive hanging on the side of the case being careful that
nothing is shorted out. YOu set your computer to boot off the floppy and
follow the simple directions on the program. Mainly just tell it which
drive to copy from and to. In about an hour or less it will be done and you
can remove the origional drive and install the larger drive inits place.
Set the computer to boot off the hard drive again and you are done. Takes
very little of your time as once it starts it is automatic. I juse replaced
a bad 40 gb drive that was half full of data with an 80 gb drive and it took
about 1.5 hours for the data to copy. It was not from the bad drive but
from a duplicate 40 gb drive that I have a copy of the drive that is in the
computer just incase something like this is needed.

 

[Christo]

I have a Gateway Essential 933C with a Flex-ATX case running Windows
ME. The 20GB hard drive that came with it is nearly full, and I need
to either replace the current hard drive, add a new internal hard
drive, or an external hard drive.
The problem with replacing the existing drive would be moving all the
files over to the new drive without having system errors. I've heard
methods, but they sound terribly complicated and time consuming.
I figured I'd add an externa HD that plugs into one of the USB ports.
Thing is, I have USB 1.1 and some have said that between the HD,mouse,
and printer the external HD would be very slow. USB 2.0 is alot
faster, and I thought I'd just add a USB 2.0 card into one of the
empty PCI slots in the back.
But a tech at Gateway informed me that I could not install a USB 2.0
card without screwing up my existing USB ports.
And that there's no room in my Flex-ATX case for an extra hard drive.
Internals are cheaper, generally from $50-$100 in the 80GB range which
is what I'm looking for. Externals cost more, generally $120-$150 for
80GB, and then I'll have to add on the cost of a USB 2.0 card.
My PC is almost 5 years old but I've found no need to replace it.
However, it seems getting more space in this thing will be major work,
at least according to the techs at Gateway.
But with less than 1GB I have less virtual memory (my PC has 128mb
RAM) and so it's been stalling alot lately.
I seem to get contradicting advice. I'd prefer to just add a hard
drive to my PC, but I am still confused about the best and cheapest
way to do so.

get a copy of norton GHOST 9 and d a copy drive, it works grest, copies the
entire contents of one drive to another.

try it out.

 

[Ralph Mowery]

get a copy of norton GHOST 9 and d a copy drive, it works grest, copies the
entire contents of one drive to another.

try it out.

While Ghost works fine, just to copy the dirve the FREE programs from the
drive makers do a fine job and are simple to use.
No need to buy the Ghost program just for a one time use.

 

[JohnCM]

While Ghost works fine, just to copy the dirve the FREE programs from the
drive makers do a fine job and are simple to use.
No need to buy the Ghost program just for a one time use.

Well I got a Western Digital 80GB internal drive today from Circuit
City. After rebates, it'll only cost me $40!
It comes with programs to copy the drive. I'll probably install it
over the weekend.