I needed some geeky help...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chakolate
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Chakolate

and several of you responded with great helpful hints. So far, things
look good. The Win2KPro installed properly on the second hard drive,
most of my data transfer went smoothly, and I'm a fairly happy camper.
Thanks!

Now I have a second hardware question, one that I've looked for the
answer to and got lost in too much information. I'm thinking that the
next time Woot offers a 250G HD for $50 I should get it, but I don't know
if I'd have to upgrade my power supply for such a big drive. Original
equipment is a 60G drive, and when it failed I put in a 20G drive
(beggars can't be choosers, don't ask). Will removing the 60 G and
putting in a 250 G overwhelm my system?

One problem with trying to look for answers to geeky questions on google
is that there is a hyoodge amount of stuff to wade through. :-p

Thanks in advance,

Chak
 
and several of you responded with great helpful hints. So far, things
look good. The Win2KPro installed properly on the second hard drive,
most of my data transfer went smoothly, and I'm a fairly happy camper.
Thanks!

Now I have a second hardware question, one that I've looked for the
answer to and got lost in too much information. I'm thinking that the
next time Woot offers a 250G HD for $50 I should get it, but I don't know
if I'd have to upgrade my power supply for such a big drive. Original
equipment is a 60G drive, and when it failed I put in a 20G drive
(beggars can't be choosers, don't ask). Will removing the 60 G and
putting in a 250 G overwhelm my system?

One problem with trying to look for answers to geeky questions on google
is that there is a hyoodge amount of stuff to wade through. :-p

Thanks in advance,
Click to expand...
A larger drive won't consume any more power - but at 250G your
computer's bios might not be up to date enough to recognise it.
The manual for the motherboard ( you can download it from the
manufacturer's site ) might tell you what the largest drive the board
can handle is, and you might be able to update the bios if necessary.

Regards,
 
Chakolate said:
but I don't know if I'd have to upgrade my power supply
Click to expand...
Some people may like to know how much wattage you have.
250G HD
Click to expand...
Motherboard bios will probably object.
Install an add-in controller card, rather than an overlay program.
The quickest, surest fix is to install an ATA/66 card or whatever is
required for your drive (about $20 USD)
My computer doesn't recognize my new larger hard drive
http://www.md4pc.com/questions/58.htm
 
Even with if the bios sees it....
XP only with SP1 can see drives more than 137 GB, I doubt that win2k can
unless they
have made a service pack for that also...
 
John said:
Even with if the bios sees it....
XP only with SP1 can see drives more than 137 GB, I doubt that win2k can
unless they
have made a service pack for that also...
Click to expand...

If you want to be able to read all of a big hard drive without
partitioning it, and you have Windows XP you can download Service Pack
1 which has support for something called "48-bit Logical Block
Addressing". This feature knocks down the NTFS 137 GB barrier on XP.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/servicepacks/sp1/
Windows 2000 uses a different patch (SP2) to enable the 48-bit LBA
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305098
If you're thinking of buying a hard drive larger than 137GB, take some
time to make sure your system can handle it. You may actually be better
off with two smaller drives. Think about how long it takes to
defragment a little 32GB drive, then imagine 220GB!
 
I think you can help me - where in heck can you buy a 250Gig HD for a mere
$50
I''ll take two!!
Rgds
Pete
 
(e-mail address removed) skrev:
You may actually be better
off with two smaller drives. Think about how long it takes to
defragment a little 32GB drive, then imagine 220GB!
Click to expand...

This is one of the reasons why some people like to divide their drives
into multiple partitions. Defragging a 32 GB partition on a 220 GB drive
does not take more time than formatting a single 32 GB drive.

Besides, two drives consumes more power and makes more noise than one
drive. I should know, I have a total of five drives running on my desk
this very moment ;o)
 
You have added an extra PCI controler card to get up to five (plus one cd I
presume?)
If yes, is it an ide or sata card... and do you boot from that? Whats it
brand..?

thanks
 
This is one of the reasons why some people like to divide their drives
into multiple partitions. Defragging a 32 GB partition on a 220 GB
drive does not take more time than formatting a single 32 GB drive.
Click to expand...

Okay, but is Win2KPro capable of partitioning a 250GB drive in the first
place?

I wouldn't mind having a few partitions to work with, but I'd want to
keep them to a size that will backup nicely to a DVD. :-)

Chak
 
I think you can help me - where in heck can you buy a 250Gig HD for a
mere $50
I''ll take two!!
Click to expand...

Woot.com - a deal a day. They start at midnight, CST, offering one item,
and when it's gone, it's over. You wait until the next day. They offer
a Western Digital Caviar 250 GB drive for $49.99 plus (I think) $5 S&H.

If you don't woot, you should. Excellent bargains pop up there all the
time.

Chak
 
Okay, but is Win2KPro capable of partitioning a 250GB drive in the first
place?
Click to expand...
I wouldn't mind having a few partitions to work with, but I'd want to
keep them to a size that will backup nicely to a DVD. :-)
Click to expand...

On a 250gb drive, with single sided DVDs, that's not doable. Even on
double sided DVDs it's a little out of reach.
 
Woot.com - a deal a day. They start at midnight, CST, offering one item,
and when it's gone, it's over. You wait until the next day. They offer
a Western Digital Caviar 250 GB drive for $49.99 plus (I think) $5 S&H.
Click to expand...

Gee, you got me excited there for a minute. But just for a minute.
Now, if they were offering a *good* 250gb drive ...
 
On a 250gb drive, with single sided DVDs, that's not doable. Even on
double sided DVDs it's a little out of reach.
Click to expand...

Obviously I wouldn't be able to get the whole drive on a DVD, but if I
partition in convenient sizes, I ought to be able to get a whole
partition on one. Then I just keep the things I need backed up in that
partition.

Chak
 
Obviously I wouldn't be able to get the whole drive on a DVD, but if I
partition in convenient sizes, I ought to be able to get a whole
partition on one. Then I just keep the things I need backed up in that
partition.
Click to expand...

On a 250gb drive, you'd need about 59 partitions for a 4.3gb DVD.
That's drives C:-Z: and????? (You need 35 more letters.)
 
On a 250gb drive, you'd need about 59 partitions for a 4.3gb DVD.
That's drives C:-Z: and????? (You need 35 more letters.)
Click to expand...

Nuh-uh. I'd need two or three 4.3 GB partitions, and the others lumped a
little more. I don't really need 250 GB, I'm only considering that one
because the price is right. And this is a ways in the future, if ever.

Chak
 
Chakolate skrev:
Okay, but is Win2KPro capable of partitioning a 250GB drive in the first
place?
Click to expand...

With SP2, yes. If you install pre-SP2 Win2K you will only be able to
partition the first 128 GiB of the drive, the rest will have to wait
until you have installed SP2.

If you need to format it all during installation you can make a
slipstreamed Win2K installation CD with SP4 integrated. Such a CD can
easily be made with http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html
 
Okay, but is Win2KPro capable of partitioning a 250GB drive in
the first place?

I wouldn't mind having a few partitions to work with, but I'd
want to keep them to a size that will backup nicely to a DVD.
:-)

Chak
Click to expand...

microsoft.public.win2000.general
 
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