New Hard Drive - suggestions please...

[Dirtbag1402]

Hi,

I have an HP Pavilion PC (model a1210.uk) with an AMD processor. Not the greatest bit of kit I ever purchased but fine for it's original intension.....

.....due to a software problem (lost SYSTEM32 directory), I am considering buying a new hard drive so I can build it up and get the wife back onto Facebook and the kids back onto Cbeebies websites. The original disk is an 80Gb Seagate Barracuda ATA 7200.7 (IDE 3.5") 7200rpm, 2Mb item, 40 pin IDC connector. HP have 'tested' disks upto 120Gb capacity, and hence "the PC does not support up to 160 GB of Hard Drive".

I can't understand why, say a 160Gb hard drive would cause problems - as I was considering a Hitachi 160GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 8MB Cache from Ebuyer. But the HP spiel has kinda thrown me.

Advise please? Should I follow HP's advice and stick to a replacement drive below 120Gb, or can I safely go higher? If I should stick to a lower capacity drive, is something like a Seagate ST380815AS 80GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 8MB Cache a good buy (and compatible?)

Thanks in advance to the help. You're talking to a relative PC ludite so please be gentle )

regards

DB

 

[Adywebb]

Reading some reviews of this at Dabs HERE shows some having added 250GB HD's - so I would say higher than 120GB would be fine.


Its probably just 'HP speak' saying they have only tested up to that and anything over is down to you.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Hi,

Here is the spec for the motherboard thats in your PC, i can't see any reason why it wouldn't support any Hard Drive.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00378480&dlc=en&lc=en&cc=us#

Can anyone else???

Some cheap Hard Drives to consider.

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/80GB+Hitachi+SATA2+Hard+Disk+?productId=30350

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/320GB+Maxtor-Seagate+SATA2+7200+?productId=26506

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...TA-2+P7K500+Hard+Drive-+16MB+?productId=31456

 

[Dirtbag1402]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies - I appreciate the help. Especially the links. Whilst my opinion of the Pavillion a1210.uk isn't perhaps the best (freezing, ages to boot up and load Windows) - other seem to think it's an OK bit of kit.

OK, so I'm gonna purchase an additional HD. Question is - how do I then add the disk to my chassis to make it the primary HD (remember - I'm a ludite in PC things). The original seagate drive is connected to the motherboard with a flat ribbon wire and another white 4 pin connector that routes to the mains power inlet (red, black and yellow wires). This red, black and yellow feed has additional 4 pins sockets daisy chained to it as well as black connectors - I'm only guessing but I assume these are to power and connect additional drives right?

maybe I should just pay a PC engineer to sort it - but then where's the fun/learning in that!?

regards

DB

 

[Waynos_Face]

If you make the new Hard drive your primary then you will need to install the Operating System on it (messy if you don't know what you are doing)

Is there any reason why you can't keep the old one??? You have enough connections on the motherboard to do it.

Adding a Hard drive is very easy,

the connections you talk about, flat ribbon is called IDE this transfers the data on the hard drive,

the white one with 4 pins is a molex power lead, this powers the Hard drive as you might have guessed.

IDE Hard Drives are cheap but a bit old now, you can get a nice new SATA one for a few £££ more.

Once you get a new hard drive it will need to be formatted, it is easy to do, do you have windows XP?

 

[Dirtbag1402]

If you make the new Hard drive your primary then you will need to install the Operating System on it (messy if you don't know what you are doing)

Is there any reason why you can't keep the old one??? You have enough connections on the motherboard to do it.

Adding a Hard drive is very easy,

the connections you talk about, flat ribbon is called IDE this transfers the data on the hard drive,

the white one with 4 pins is a molex power lead, this powers the Hard drive as you might have guessed.

IDE Hard Drives are cheap but a bit old now, you can get a nice new SATA one for a few £££ more.

Once you get a new hard drive it will need to be formatted, it is easy to do, do you have windows XP?

I have Windows XP - but I understand the baseline XP software (i.e. without SP2) build fails to recognise disk > 180Gb?

I've been considering this: Seagate ST3320620A 320GB Hard Drive 7200RPM 16MB Cache. I've read some reviews that suggest it has returned 75Mb/s and 15ms random access time - equivalent to some SATA drives. Whilst PC is mainly used for internet access and storage of docs, pics, videos (as a primary, backup will (once fixed) be to a WD My Book using Acronis 11).

As the old disk isn't toasted - it's just has a busted Windows XP install - my plan is to build a new drive with Windows XP (and make it my primary boot drive) and move the current disk up a slot to be a secondary drive. Or to remove it and get someone to see if they can repair/crack into it to get our files off first. Either way - it'll become a 2nd disk.

Issue as I see it is: Windows XP installation CD's (below SP2) can't 'see' the full size of a drive if it's over 160Gb?

What's your opinion/advise?

Regards

Dale

 

[Waynos_Face]

Well you can get the 320GB Hard drive, install it in your PC and then install XP on it.

Then install XP SP3, http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsxp/sp3/default.mspx

once this has been updated restart one last time then goto

Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management

From here you can repartition the rest of the hard drive to keep it seperate from the Operating System or you can add it to the rest of the Hard Drive, upto you.

hope this helps

 

[Dirtbag1402]

Hi Wayne,
you've been really helpfull - if I lived nearer B'ham I'd ask if you wanted to earn a crate of beer to help me sort this PC out!

No doubt I'll be in touch when I've started to do this (simple) job and began the head scratching!

Regards

DB

 

[Abarbarian]

It would help you if you watched this.

 

[Abarbarian]

When you do get sorted. Make sure that only you have a administrator account and everyone else has a limited account.

 

[Waynos_Face]

Hi Wayne,
you've been really helpfull - if I lived nearer B'ham I'd ask if you wanted to earn a crate of beer to help me sort this PC out!

No doubt I'll be in touch when I've started to do this (simple) job and began the head scratching!

Regards

DB

How did you figure out my real name???

Thanks for the offer of the beer but you will see when you get your hard drive that its so easy to do.

I forgot to mention, the 320GB Hard Drive is SATA, this is not a problem as your motherboard will support this and has the connections.

However you will require some extra cables to fit it.

I have added two pictures, the first picture is of the Hard Drives in my second PC, do you see the light blue cable? This is a SATA data lead that plugs into the motherboard.

On the second picture are two cables the longer one is the same SATA data cable, the smaller one is a SATA power cable, the power cable will plug into the white 4 pin connection (molex) you have and the other end will plug into the hard drive.

You need both of these cables, if you wish PM me your address and i will send you these as i have lots of spares, i don't charge as i have lots of jjiffy bags and stamps as well.

 

[Dirtbag1402]

When you do get sorted. Make sure that only you have a administrator account and everyone else has a limited account.

Me (and wife) are the only ones with an admin account and not even my 3 year old can type 'fart' as the password. I suspect - if they are indeed responsible for said carnage - that wife forgot to swap the account over when she let 'em loose. That's if they are to blame and not wife herself......

 

[Dirtbag1402]

I forgot to mention, the 320GB Hard Drive is SATA, this is not a problem as your motherboard will support this and has the connections.

However you will require some extra cables to fit it.

I have added two pictures, the first picture is of the Hard Drives in my second PC, do you see the light blue cable? This is a SATA data lead that plugs into the motherboard.

On the second picture are two cables the longer one is the same SATA data cable, the smaller one is a SATA power cable, the power cable will plug into the white 4 pin connection (molex) you have and the other end will plug into the hard drive.

You need both of these cables, if you wish PM me your address and i will send you these as i have lots of spares, i don't charge as i have lots of jjiffy bags and stamps as well.

I didn't think the Seagate ST3320620A 320GB Hard Drive was SATA? Thought it was plain old ATA? I must pay more attention. Looking at the pics of the cables - I can see now on my motherboard where they go. Wondered what the sockets were for.....

I have another threas going on the Windows XP side of this Forum. I can use Ubuntu ISO disk to sort/fix/get my data alegedly. If this is succesful, my plan is now to

1). Get all my data off
2). Rebuild my current 80Gb disk with Windows XP (and just the OS - nothing more)
3). Purchase additional drive (one mentioned above) for storing data/files/stuff.
4). Use WD My Book and Acronis to take backup image of 2). once patched up and has all my default AV stuff on it
5). Use WD My Book and Acronis to take regular backups of 2nd drive with all our unk on it.



I think this is a plan of sorts. Keeping OS and data seperate seems a good move to me.

If the drive I'm gonna buy does need the cables as you've stated, then not having to figure out "wot I need" would be helpful. I will PM you my addy, and as long as these cables aint expensive items (and you're happy to send them) then again - it's really appreciated. I'm almost welling up

BTW - the inside of your PC - wow. Very clean. When I saw the dust and ****e inside my chassis I slapped the wife. Clearly not doing the housework and dusting enough! Honestly! Disgusting!

She'll not do it again!



regards

DB

 

[Waynos_Face]

Hi,

My fault mate the HDD you said you were looking at is ATA, again my dault i thought you meant the one i posted a link to as its cheaper and better.

Yeah so if you decide to get the SATA one then i will send you the cables, no they ain't exspensive and i have a ton of them.

Slapping the wife for the PC being dirty, awesome.

Thanks for the comments on the Pc, its a newish case and i painted it black inside so not a lot of dirt shows up, plus dust is an understated PC killer, so i clean it once a month.

 

[Dirtbag1402]

The link you posted for the 320Gb SATA drive -

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/320GB+Maxtor-Seagate+SATA2+7200+?productId=26506


Being SATA (and cheaper) is a better buy then I assume. If so - this is what I'll go for. I can't PM you - I don't seem to have permission to do so yet. Is this something the forum admins need to setup?

I'm sooo glad I found this site. The help with finding a suitable drive, connecting it up (and education about the inside of 'the box'). The help with repairing and getting my data back. Bloody brilliant. Hats off to one and all. If I fix the PC - hell - I might even get a favour off wifey!! She misses Facebook. I'm happy to leave PC busted for the time being....ironing and washing piles going down daily

Question: I'm using my work laptop with only a poxy DVD-ROM drive. If I wanted to connect this laptop to my pooped PC and use the DVD burner in it - is this possible? I have software to do the burn on laptop - ust how would I connect and detect the DVD drive in the knackered PC??

Cheers

DB

 

[Madxgraphics]

I can't PM you - I don't seem to have permission to do so yet. Is this something the forum admins need to setup?

Read this thread..

 

[Waynos_Face]

I believe you would need an external DVD drive that connects via USB, don't think its possible to use the one in your pc via the laptop.

Might be wrong but i doubt it.

 

[Abarbarian]

Once you get the pc working again you could connect the laptop to the pc with a network cable and use the dvd burner in the pc.

 

[Dirtbag1402]

Once you get the pc working again you could connect the laptop to the pc with a network cable and use the dvd burner in the pc.

Ah! But therein lies the problem. I need to burn an Ubunti iso CD in order to fix the broken PC. I was going to try and use the laptop to 'hijack' the DVD burner in the busted PC.

But problem resolved - borrowed laptop off a mate and burnt the CD there