large external drive OK?

[Jo-Anne Naples]

I have a 5-year-old Dell desktop computer running Windows XP SP3. I want to
buy my first external hard drive and have my eye on an Iomega 500 GB drive.
One of the reviewers of this drive at Amazon said that it wouldn't work with
her older computer, which is about the same age as mine. The reviewer asked
at a local computer store and was told that in general the large external
drives don't work with older computers. (My internal drive is only 50 GB, as
I recall.)

Is that indeed the case?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[Al Dykes]

I have a 5-year-old Dell desktop computer running Windows XP SP3. I want to
buy my first external hard drive and have my eye on an Iomega 500 GB drive.
One of the reviewers of this drive at Amazon said that it wouldn't work with
her older computer, which is about the same age as mine. The reviewer asked
at a local computer store and was told that in general the large external
drives don't work with older computers. (My internal drive is only 50 GB, as
I recall.)

Your old Dell may be USB1 and slow as sh*t for backup. I backup about
8GB via USB1 and it's painful.

You also need some backup software. I like Acronis True Image but it
doesn't work with some old USB hardware. Do a backup and a read-back
test before you pay for any backup software.

Dell had a batch of computers of that vintage that had USB problems. I
found this when a client asked me why his HP laser wouldn't work. I
found out that his machine had a "known problem". The fix was to buy
a USB PCI card for $50, so it wasn't a disaster.


You could use a PCI USB2 card in your machine to speed up the backup.

 

[JS]

What the Model number for your Dell?
Some PC's in of this vintage may not support 48 Bit LBA
(drives larger than 137GB).

You can verify if your PC does or does not support large drives (48Bit LBA)
using Belarc Advisor: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
Note: Belarc identifies the IDE/ATA control (part number) on your
motherboard,
you then need to Google this part number to find if the controller/chipset
identified by Belarc supports 48Bit LBA.

Also there is: HD Tune, run and then click on the 'Info' tab,
is there a check mark in the 48Bit-address box
http://www.hdtune.com/

As for the USB Bus, version 1.x is way to slow for external hard drives.
Solution is a PCI USB 2.x card.

JS

 

[Paul]

I have a 5-year-old Dell desktop computer running Windows XP SP3. I want to
buy my first external hard drive and have my eye on an Iomega 500 GB drive.
One of the reviewers of this drive at Amazon said that it wouldn't work with
her older computer, which is about the same age as mine. The reviewer asked
at a local computer store and was told that in general the large external
drives don't work with older computers. (My internal drive is only 50 GB, as
I recall.)

Is that indeed the case?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

USB2 enclosures should be backward compatible with USB 1.1 ports on an
older computer. Since the enclosure is supplied by Iomega and you're not
building the enclosure from parts at home, Iomega will have ensured
that the controller chip inside the enclosure, is compatible with
48bit LBA. There have been some USB enclosure chips, which don't support
large hard drives (and the size limits are weird numbers, not consistent
with a 28bit LBA 137GB limitation, either). But since you're buying a pre-made
external disk product, the manufacturer will have checked that.

Operating in USB 1.1 mode will be slow, no doubt about that. The
transfer rate with such a port, would be 1MB/sec or so.

I have read of a couple USB devices, where the claim is, they
will only run in USB2 mode. I have trouble believing that, but
mention that purely as a data point. There is some Apple product,
where the manufacturer documentation makes that claim. In
general, I would not expect that to be the case with USB external
enclosures.

If your computer does have USB 1.1 ports on the back, then as
the other two posters suggested, purchase a USB2 PCI add-in
card.

This card claims to use a NEC uPD720101 and is $10. It should
work via the drivers Microsoft has already included in the
service packs. (Some drivers might be needed for older OSes
like Win98.) You can get about 30MB/sec transfer rate over
USB2, at least based on some benchmarks on Tomshardware for
different USB enclosures.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124008

Paul

 

[Jo-Anne Naples]

Thank you, Al! My Dell is a Dimension 8250, and it does have USB2 ports, not
USB1. I've used the front port for my camera, and it worked fine. My mouse
is plugged into one of the back ports; when I had to unplug it to take the
computer to the shop and then plugged it back into one of the USB ports, it
didn't work. Changing to another port made it work OK again. I've been told
this is not unusual--that USB ports can be finicky.

A progammer friend recommended the Acronis program too. How would I do a
backup and read-back test before buying the software? I bought a 7-port USB
hub (which I haven't used yet) and a couple USB flash drives (also not yet
used). If the flash drives work for simple backups, is it likely the Acronis
program would work too?

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne Naples]

Thank you, JS! Before I do what you suggested, can you tell anything from
the model number? As I mentioned in response to Al's message, I have a Dell
Dimension 8250 with USB2 ports.

Jo-Anne

 

[JS]

2002 - DELL 8250 Series

2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor

512MB Rambus 400 MHz (400MHz Front Size Bus) RDRAM Memory

200GB Ultra ATA-100 (7200 RPM) Hard Drive

18" LCD Flat Screen Monitor, ATI Radeon 9700 128MB Pro graphics card

16X DVD ROM and 4X DVD+RW Drives

Creative's Audigy 2.0 sound card, Altec Lansing 5.1 speaker system,

10/100 Network Interface Card

Windows XP Home Edition



Does the above describe your PC?

Search on the web shows some 8250's do and some don't support 48Bit LBA

Download HD Tune and report the results, also what is the current size of

your existing internal hard drive?



JS

 

[Jo-Anne Naples]

Thank you, JS! What you listed is close to but not quite what I have. Below,
I've commented on the differences in brackets. (I took out the carets that
preceded each line.)

Re HD Tune, not sure what to do. The website says "HD Tune Pro is an
extended version of HD Tune which includes many new features such as: write
benchmark, secure erasing, AAM setting, folder usage view, disk monitor,
command line parameters and file benchmark.Click here for more information
and to download a trial version." Are you saying I should download the trial
version? Or is there something else I should do?

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne


2002 - DELL 8250 Series
[I bought mine in late April 2003, for what it's worth.]

2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor
[The invoice said it was a 2.40 GHz; definitely an Intel Pentium 4.]

512MB Rambus 400 MHz (400MHz Front Size Bus) RDRAM Memory
[Invoice: "512MB PC1066 RDRAM."]

200GB Ultra ATA-100 (7200 RPM) Hard Drive
[Invoice: "60GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive 7200RPM." Note: You asked the size
of the current internal hard drive; it's 55.83GB, according to the latest
scan. It's the same drive I started with.]

18" LCD Flat Screen Monitor, ATI Radeon 9700 128MB Pro graphics card
[Invoice: "18 in. 1800FP Digital Flat Panel Display, 64MB GEForce4 MX
Graphics Card with TV-Out."]

16X DVD ROM and 4X DVD+RW Drives
[Invoice same.]

Creative's Audigy 2.0 sound card, Altec Lansing 5.1 speaker system,
[Invoice: "SoundBlaster Live! with 5.1 Support," "Harmon Kardon HK-206
Speakers." Recent scan: "Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device," "Creative SB
Live! Series (WDM)."]

10/100 Network Interface Card
[Invoice: "Intel Pro 100M Integrated PCI NIC Card."]

Windows XP Home Edition
[Yes.]

Does the above describe your PC?
[Pretty much, with changes noted in brackets.]

Search on the web shows some 8250's do and some don't support 48Bit LBA.
Download HD Tune and report the results, also what is the current size of
your existing internal hard drive?

 

[Jo-Anne Naples]

Thank you, Paul!

As you probably saw in one of my responses, I do have USB2. JS says,
however, that I need to check my system to see if it has 48bit LBA. I
haven't worked out exactly how to do that yet. I just asked him for more
info.

Are you saying, though, that what matters is the external hard drive itself
rather than what's in my computer?

Jo-Anne

 

[JS]

There is a free version, on the left edge of their web page is a link named
'Download'.
You will see two versions, HD Pro and HD Tune (628KB).

Download the one named 'HD Tune', (628KB). It does not have all the features
of Pro but does have what you need to determine if your PC supports 48Bit
LBA.

JS

Thank you, JS! What you listed is close to but not quite what I have.
Below, I've commented on the differences in brackets. (I took out the
carets that preceded each line.)

Re HD Tune, not sure what to do. The website says "HD Tune Pro is an
extended version of HD Tune which includes many new features such as:
write benchmark, secure erasing, AAM setting, folder usage view, disk
monitor, command line parameters and file benchmark.Click here for more
information and to download a trial version." Are you saying I should
download the trial version? Or is there something else I should do?

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne


2002 - DELL 8250 Series
[I bought mine in late April 2003, for what it's worth.]

2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor
[The invoice said it was a 2.40 GHz; definitely an Intel Pentium 4.]

512MB Rambus 400 MHz (400MHz Front Size Bus) RDRAM Memory
[Invoice: "512MB PC1066 RDRAM."]

200GB Ultra ATA-100 (7200 RPM) Hard Drive
[Invoice: "60GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive 7200RPM." Note: You asked the
size of the current internal hard drive; it's 55.83GB, according to the
latest scan. It's the same drive I started with.]

18" LCD Flat Screen Monitor, ATI Radeon 9700 128MB Pro graphics card
[Invoice: "18 in. 1800FP Digital Flat Panel Display, 64MB GEForce4 MX
Graphics Card with TV-Out."]

16X DVD ROM and 4X DVD+RW Drives
[Invoice same.]

Creative's Audigy 2.0 sound card, Altec Lansing 5.1 speaker system,
[Invoice: "SoundBlaster Live! with 5.1 Support," "Harmon Kardon HK-206
Speakers." Recent scan: "Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device," "Creative SB
Live! Series (WDM)."]

10/100 Network Interface Card
[Invoice: "Intel Pro 100M Integrated PCI NIC Card."]

Windows XP Home Edition
[Yes.]

Does the above describe your PC?
[Pretty much, with changes noted in brackets.]

Search on the web shows some 8250's do and some don't support 48Bit LBA.
Download HD Tune and report the results, also what is the current size of
your existing internal hard drive?

JS

 

[Ed Covney]

JS -

The drive is EXT USB and not controlled by the BIOS.
The external enclosure supports the larger drives and her
OS - XP (SP3) can see it "all".

Ed

 

[Jo-Anne Naples]

Thank you again, JS! I use Norton Internet Security. I know that to download
software I should turn off autoprotect. Is there anything else I need to
disable while downloading HD Tune?

And do you disagree with Ed about the need for 48 Bit LBA?

Jo-Anne

There is a free version, on the left edge of their web page is a link
named 'Download'.
You will see two versions, HD Pro and HD Tune (628KB).

Download the one named 'HD Tune', (628KB). It does not have all the
features of Pro but does have what you need to determine if your PC
supports 48Bit LBA.

JS

Thank you, JS! What you listed is close to but not quite what I have.
Below, I've commented on the differences in brackets. (I took out the
carets that preceded each line.)

Re HD Tune, not sure what to do. The website says "HD Tune Pro is an
extended version of HD Tune which includes many new features such as:
write benchmark, secure erasing, AAM setting, folder usage view, disk
monitor, command line parameters and file benchmark.Click here for more
information and to download a trial version." Are you saying I should
download the trial version? Or is there something else I should do?

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne


2002 - DELL 8250 Series
[I bought mine in late April 2003, for what it's worth.]

2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor
[The invoice said it was a 2.40 GHz; definitely an Intel Pentium 4.]

512MB Rambus 400 MHz (400MHz Front Size Bus) RDRAM Memory
[Invoice: "512MB PC1066 RDRAM."]

200GB Ultra ATA-100 (7200 RPM) Hard Drive
[Invoice: "60GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive 7200RPM." Note: You asked the
size of the current internal hard drive; it's 55.83GB, according to the
latest scan. It's the same drive I started with.]

18" LCD Flat Screen Monitor, ATI Radeon 9700 128MB Pro graphics card
[Invoice: "18 in. 1800FP Digital Flat Panel Display, 64MB GEForce4 MX
Graphics Card with TV-Out."]

16X DVD ROM and 4X DVD+RW Drives
[Invoice same.]

Creative's Audigy 2.0 sound card, Altec Lansing 5.1 speaker system,
[Invoice: "SoundBlaster Live! with 5.1 Support," "Harmon Kardon HK-206
Speakers." Recent scan: "Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device," "Creative SB
Live! Series (WDM)."]

10/100 Network Interface Card
[Invoice: "Intel Pro 100M Integrated PCI NIC Card."]

Windows XP Home Edition
[Yes.]

Does the above describe your PC?
[Pretty much, with changes noted in brackets.]

Search on the web shows some 8250's do and some don't support 48Bit LBA.
Download HD Tune and report the results, also what is the current size of
your existing internal hard drive?

JS



Thank you, JS! Before I do what you suggested, can you tell anything
from the model number? As I mentioned in response to Al's message, I
have a Dell Dimension 8250 with USB2 ports.

Jo-Anne

What the Model number for your Dell?
Some PC's in of this vintage may not support 48 Bit LBA
(drives larger than 137GB).

You can verify if your PC does or does not support large drives (48Bit
LBA)
using Belarc Advisor: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
Note: Belarc identifies the IDE/ATA control (part number) on your
motherboard,
you then need to Google this part number to find if the
controller/chipset
identified by Belarc supports 48Bit LBA.

Also there is: HD Tune, run and then click on the 'Info' tab,
is there a check mark in the 48Bit-address box
http://www.hdtune.com/

As for the USB Bus, version 1.x is way to slow for external hard
drives.
Solution is a PCI USB 2.x card.

JS

I have a 5-year-old Dell desktop computer running Windows XP SP3. I
want to buy my first external hard drive and have my eye on an Iomega
500 GB drive. One of the reviewers of this drive at Amazon said that
it wouldn't work with her older computer, which is about the same age
as mine. The reviewer asked at a local computer store and was told
that in general the large external drives don't work with older
computers. (My internal drive is only 50 GB, as I recall.)

Is that indeed the case?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[Paul]

Thank you, Paul!

As you probably saw in one of my responses, I do have USB2. JS says,
however, that I need to check my system to see if it has 48bit LBA. I
haven't worked out exactly how to do that yet. I just asked him for more
info.

Are you saying, though, that what matters is the external hard drive itself
rather than what's in my computer?

Jo-Anne

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/usbfaq.mspx

Q: Does usbstor.sys need to be modified to support disks over
137 GB in size?

A: No. Support for disks that are larger than 137 GB is not an
issue for the USB mass storage class driver. However, such
support is an issue with the USB-ATA bridge chip in the
external USB storage device.

USB-ATA bridge chip vendors are working on new devices that
support the 48-bit ATA LBA mode. When these devices are available,
the storage limit on a single device should be 2048 GB.

Since Iomega put a 500GB drive into the enclosure, they know the
USB-ATA or USB-SATA chip supports larger than 137GB.

The "2048 GB" limit is a limitation for a 32 bit operating system,
where a 32 bit unsigned integer is used to hold a sector number. If
each sector contains 512 bytes of data, the storage limit that
results, is 2048 GB. Since I cannot find a definition of the
packet format for USB for mass storage, I can't tell you
how much larger than 2048GB that the USB protocol supports.
Perhaps with some 64 bit OS, an even larger limit would exist
on USB mass storage.

Documents like this one, from Seagate, address the connection of
internal hard drives, to IDE connectors, and the potential for a
137GB limitation. That is related to the difference between
28bit LBA and 48bit LBA. 48bit LBA is how IDE disks get past the
137GB mark. But, your usage of an external enclosure, with a
different protocol between the device and the motherboard (USB
mass storage), is how you're able to work around the limit.

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/tp/137gb.pdf

Paul

 

[JS]

Was more concerned with the chipset on the mother board as USB (not certain
on this) drive support may be limited by the chipset's capability.

JS

 

[Jo-Anne Naples]

Thank you again, Paul! I'm hoping this means that the person who reviewed
the Iomega at Amazon and said it wouldn't work on her older Dell was just
experiencing a glitch, not a feature.

Time to order a drive!

Jo-Anne

 

[JS]

I think Paul answered the issue about how large external drives can be.

Thanks Paul
JS

 

[JS]

I don't have that version of Norton, if it blocks you from downloading then
turn it off temporarily so you can download the file.
I do use Norton AV and it does not block downloads.

JS

Thank you again, JS! I use Norton Internet Security. I know that to
download software I should turn off autoprotect. Is there anything else I
need to disable while downloading HD Tune?

And do you disagree with Ed about the need for 48 Bit LBA?

Jo-Anne

There is a free version, on the left edge of their web page is a link
named 'Download'.
You will see two versions, HD Pro and HD Tune (628KB).

Download the one named 'HD Tune', (628KB). It does not have all the
features of Pro but does have what you need to determine if your PC
supports 48Bit LBA.

JS

Thank you, JS! What you listed is close to but not quite what I have.
Below, I've commented on the differences in brackets. (I took out the
carets that preceded each line.)

Re HD Tune, not sure what to do. The website says "HD Tune Pro is an
extended version of HD Tune which includes many new features such as:
write benchmark, secure erasing, AAM setting, folder usage view, disk
monitor, command line parameters and file benchmark.Click here for more
information and to download a trial version." Are you saying I should
download the trial version? Or is there something else I should do?

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne


2002 - DELL 8250 Series
[I bought mine in late April 2003, for what it's worth.]

2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor
[The invoice said it was a 2.40 GHz; definitely an Intel Pentium 4.]

512MB Rambus 400 MHz (400MHz Front Size Bus) RDRAM Memory
[Invoice: "512MB PC1066 RDRAM."]

200GB Ultra ATA-100 (7200 RPM) Hard Drive
[Invoice: "60GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive 7200RPM." Note: You asked the
size of the current internal hard drive; it's 55.83GB, according to the
latest scan. It's the same drive I started with.]

18" LCD Flat Screen Monitor, ATI Radeon 9700 128MB Pro graphics card
[Invoice: "18 in. 1800FP Digital Flat Panel Display, 64MB GEForce4 MX
Graphics Card with TV-Out."]

16X DVD ROM and 4X DVD+RW Drives
[Invoice same.]

Creative's Audigy 2.0 sound card, Altec Lansing 5.1 speaker system,
[Invoice: "SoundBlaster Live! with 5.1 Support," "Harmon Kardon HK-206
Speakers." Recent scan: "Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device," "Creative
SB Live! Series (WDM)."]

10/100 Network Interface Card
[Invoice: "Intel Pro 100M Integrated PCI NIC Card."]

Windows XP Home Edition
[Yes.]

Does the above describe your PC?
[Pretty much, with changes noted in brackets.]

Search on the web shows some 8250's do and some don't support 48Bit LBA.
Download HD Tune and report the results, also what is the current size
of your existing internal hard drive?


JS



Thank you, JS! Before I do what you suggested, can you tell anything
from the model number? As I mentioned in response to Al's message, I
have a Dell Dimension 8250 with USB2 ports.

Jo-Anne

What the Model number for your Dell?
Some PC's in of this vintage may not support 48 Bit LBA
(drives larger than 137GB).

You can verify if your PC does or does not support large drives
(48Bit LBA)
using Belarc Advisor: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
Note: Belarc identifies the IDE/ATA control (part number) on your
motherboard,
you then need to Google this part number to find if the
controller/chipset
identified by Belarc supports 48Bit LBA.

Also there is: HD Tune, run and then click on the 'Info' tab,
is there a check mark in the 48Bit-address box
http://www.hdtune.com/

As for the USB Bus, version 1.x is way to slow for external hard
drives.
Solution is a PCI USB 2.x card.

JS

I have a 5-year-old Dell desktop computer running Windows XP SP3. I
want to buy my first external hard drive and have my eye on an Iomega
500 GB drive. One of the reviewers of this drive at Amazon said that
it wouldn't work with her older computer, which is about the same age
as mine. The reviewer asked at a local computer store and was told
that in general the large external drives don't work with older
computers. (My internal drive is only 50 GB, as I recall.)

Is that indeed the case?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne Naples]

It's not that it necessarily blocks downloading, but people have said it can
cause problems by trying to do something while the file is downloading. I
was told to turn off all antivirus software while downloading (which of
course leaves the computer vulnerable).

Jo-Anne

I don't have that version of Norton, if it blocks you from downloading then
turn it off temporarily so you can download the file.
I do use Norton AV and it does not block downloads.

JS

Thank you again, JS! I use Norton Internet Security. I know that to
download software I should turn off autoprotect. Is there anything else I
need to disable while downloading HD Tune?

And do you disagree with Ed about the need for 48 Bit LBA?

Jo-Anne

There is a free version, on the left edge of their web page is a link
named 'Download'.
You will see two versions, HD Pro and HD Tune (628KB).

Download the one named 'HD Tune', (628KB). It does not have all the
features of Pro but does have what you need to determine if your PC
supports 48Bit LBA.

JS

Thank you, JS! What you listed is close to but not quite what I have.
Below, I've commented on the differences in brackets. (I took out the
carets that preceded each line.)

Re HD Tune, not sure what to do. The website says "HD Tune Pro is an
extended version of HD Tune which includes many new features such as:
write benchmark, secure erasing, AAM setting, folder usage view, disk
monitor, command line parameters and file benchmark.Click here for more
information and to download a trial version." Are you saying I should
download the trial version? Or is there something else I should do?

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne


2002 - DELL 8250 Series
[I bought mine in late April 2003, for what it's worth.]

2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor
[The invoice said it was a 2.40 GHz; definitely an Intel Pentium 4.]

512MB Rambus 400 MHz (400MHz Front Size Bus) RDRAM Memory
[Invoice: "512MB PC1066 RDRAM."]

200GB Ultra ATA-100 (7200 RPM) Hard Drive
[Invoice: "60GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive 7200RPM." Note: You asked the
size of the current internal hard drive; it's 55.83GB, according to the
latest scan. It's the same drive I started with.]

18" LCD Flat Screen Monitor, ATI Radeon 9700 128MB Pro graphics card
[Invoice: "18 in. 1800FP Digital Flat Panel Display, 64MB GEForce4 MX
Graphics Card with TV-Out."]

16X DVD ROM and 4X DVD+RW Drives
[Invoice same.]

Creative's Audigy 2.0 sound card, Altec Lansing 5.1 speaker system,
[Invoice: "SoundBlaster Live! with 5.1 Support," "Harmon Kardon HK-206
Speakers." Recent scan: "Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device," "Creative
SB Live! Series (WDM)."]

10/100 Network Interface Card
[Invoice: "Intel Pro 100M Integrated PCI NIC Card."]

Windows XP Home Edition
[Yes.]

Does the above describe your PC?
[Pretty much, with changes noted in brackets.]

Search on the web shows some 8250's do and some don't support 48Bit
LBA. Download HD Tune and report the results, also what is the current
size of your existing internal hard drive?


JS



Thank you, JS! Before I do what you suggested, can you tell anything
from the model number? As I mentioned in response to Al's message, I
have a Dell Dimension 8250 with USB2 ports.

Jo-Anne

What the Model number for your Dell?
Some PC's in of this vintage may not support 48 Bit LBA
(drives larger than 137GB).

You can verify if your PC does or does not support large drives
(48Bit LBA)
using Belarc Advisor: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
Note: Belarc identifies the IDE/ATA control (part number) on your
motherboard,
you then need to Google this part number to find if the
controller/chipset
identified by Belarc supports 48Bit LBA.

Also there is: HD Tune, run and then click on the 'Info' tab,
is there a check mark in the 48Bit-address box
http://www.hdtune.com/

As for the USB Bus, version 1.x is way to slow for external hard
drives.
Solution is a PCI USB 2.x card.

JS

I have a 5-year-old Dell desktop computer running Windows XP SP3. I
want to buy my first external hard drive and have my eye on an
Iomega 500 GB drive. One of the reviewers of this drive at Amazon
said that it wouldn't work with her older computer, which is about
the same age as mine. The reviewer asked at a local computer store
and was told that in general the large external drives don't work
with older computers. (My internal drive is only 50 GB, as I
recall.)

Is that indeed the case?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[JS]

You should not turn off your AV software while downloading a file to a
folder on your hard drive.
The only time to turn it off is one of two possibilities:
1) You are installing software after it has been downloaded to your hard
drive - sometimes but not very often AV software can interfere with the
installation process.
2) Some people recommend that you turn off your AV software when installing
the latest patches from Microsoft's Windows Update site as AV software has
been reported to cause a problem or two when performing updates.

JS

It's not that it necessarily blocks downloading, but people have said it
can cause problems by trying to do something while the file is
downloading. I was told to turn off all antivirus software while
downloading (which of course leaves the computer vulnerable).

Jo-Anne

I don't have that version of Norton, if it blocks you from downloading
then turn it off temporarily so you can download the file.
I do use Norton AV and it does not block downloads.

JS

Thank you again, JS! I use Norton Internet Security. I know that to
download software I should turn off autoprotect. Is there anything else
I need to disable while downloading HD Tune?

And do you disagree with Ed about the need for 48 Bit LBA?

Jo-Anne

There is a free version, on the left edge of their web page is a link
named 'Download'.
You will see two versions, HD Pro and HD Tune (628KB).

Download the one named 'HD Tune', (628KB). It does not have all the
features of Pro but does have what you need to determine if your PC
supports 48Bit LBA.

JS

Thank you, JS! What you listed is close to but not quite what I have.
Below, I've commented on the differences in brackets. (I took out the
carets that preceded each line.)

Re HD Tune, not sure what to do. The website says "HD Tune Pro is an
extended version of HD Tune which includes many new features such as:
write benchmark, secure erasing, AAM setting, folder usage view, disk
monitor, command line parameters and file benchmark.Click here for
more information and to download a trial version." Are you saying I
should download the trial version? Or is there something else I should
do?

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne


2002 - DELL 8250 Series
[I bought mine in late April 2003, for what it's worth.]

2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor
[The invoice said it was a 2.40 GHz; definitely an Intel Pentium 4.]

512MB Rambus 400 MHz (400MHz Front Size Bus) RDRAM Memory
[Invoice: "512MB PC1066 RDRAM."]

200GB Ultra ATA-100 (7200 RPM) Hard Drive
[Invoice: "60GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive 7200RPM." Note: You asked the
size of the current internal hard drive; it's 55.83GB, according to
the latest scan. It's the same drive I started with.]

18" LCD Flat Screen Monitor, ATI Radeon 9700 128MB Pro graphics card
[Invoice: "18 in. 1800FP Digital Flat Panel Display, 64MB GEForce4 MX
Graphics Card with TV-Out."]

16X DVD ROM and 4X DVD+RW Drives
[Invoice same.]

Creative's Audigy 2.0 sound card, Altec Lansing 5.1 speaker system,
[Invoice: "SoundBlaster Live! with 5.1 Support," "Harmon Kardon HK-206
Speakers." Recent scan: "Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device," "Creative
SB Live! Series (WDM)."]

10/100 Network Interface Card
[Invoice: "Intel Pro 100M Integrated PCI NIC Card."]

Windows XP Home Edition
[Yes.]

Does the above describe your PC?
[Pretty much, with changes noted in brackets.]

Search on the web shows some 8250's do and some don't support 48Bit
LBA. Download HD Tune and report the results, also what is the current
size of your existing internal hard drive?


JS



Thank you, JS! Before I do what you suggested, can you tell anything
from the model number? As I mentioned in response to Al's message, I
have a Dell Dimension 8250 with USB2 ports.

Jo-Anne

What the Model number for your Dell?
Some PC's in of this vintage may not support 48 Bit LBA
(drives larger than 137GB).

You can verify if your PC does or does not support large drives
(48Bit LBA)
using Belarc Advisor: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
Note: Belarc identifies the IDE/ATA control (part number) on your
motherboard,
you then need to Google this part number to find if the
controller/chipset
identified by Belarc supports 48Bit LBA.

Also there is: HD Tune, run and then click on the 'Info' tab,
is there a check mark in the 48Bit-address box
http://www.hdtune.com/

As for the USB Bus, version 1.x is way to slow for external hard
drives.
Solution is a PCI USB 2.x card.

JS

I have a 5-year-old Dell desktop computer running Windows XP SP3. I
want to buy my first external hard drive and have my eye on an
Iomega 500 GB drive. One of the reviewers of this drive at Amazon
said that it wouldn't work with her older computer, which is about
the same age as mine. The reviewer asked at a local computer store
and was told that in general the large external drives don't work
with older computers. (My internal drive is only 50 GB, as I
recall.)

Is that indeed the case?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[Paul]

Thank you again, Paul! I'm hoping this means that the person who reviewed
the Iomega at Amazon and said it wouldn't work on her older Dell was just
experiencing a glitch, not a feature.

Time to order a drive!

Jo-Anne

Could you provide a URL (link) to the review in question ?
You can test the link, by pasting it into a blank browser
window, and see if the same page pops up.

You should be warned about a few things with externals.

1) Manufacturers pay little attention to cooling for the enclosure.
When I build my own externals, I only use enclosures that
have an exhaust fan and an intake vent. I've even bought
enclosures that had a fan, but had no way to draw in air
from the outside. Cooling is important. When there are no
vents to let air in, I use an electric drill, and do a
"Swiss cheese" pattern.

2) Some drives solve the heat problem, by rapid spindown. If
the drive is inactive for 5 minutes, the drive may spin down.
In Windows, this might not be a problem, as an attempt to
access it, will probably cause it to spin up again. On Linux,
some users get no response from the drive. So the thermal
solution kinda backfires in that case.

3) If you read the reviews, you'll notice a number of people lost
their data. If you're going to use an external, *never* have
files in just one place. If the files are stored on the
external 500GB, then a copy should also be on another hard drive.
These external devices are not reliable enough, for archival
storage (your only copy of a file). If you want reasonable
reliability, use two drives and put the same files on each.
If the drive only lasts 24 hours, then the second drive will
save you some grief.

In looking at drives in the past, I noticed that the reviews
for the 2.5" versions of drives, tended to be better than the
3.5" versions of drives. The 2.5" drives are small enough, they
are almost pocket size. The only downside of the 2.5" drive,
is it may be powered via the USB bus. And in some cases, a
computer may not deliver enough power over the USB bus, to run
them properly. But at least from a thermal point of view, they
don't get nearly as warm as some of the higher capacity
3.5" drives.

This warning is meant to scare you. Don't treat these externals
as "golden", because they may let you down. But with a few
precautions, such as storing the files on two separate drives,
there are much better odds of getting to keep your files.

HTH,
Paul