OEM vs. Retail hard drive

[mm]

I hope this isn't too stupid a question.

OEM vs. Retail hard drive. I'm not concerned about the warranty,
but that I've never installed a SATA drive before and this will be the
only drive on the computer.

I have XP Home or maybe Pro SP3.

Does a retail box contain drivers or instructions that the OEM drive
won't include and SP3 won't have?

I have cables already, but I haven't chosen a drive. I've been
looking at http://www.directron.com because they have a good price on
a Thermaltake BlacX Duet Docking station.

Thanks.

 

[mscotgrove]

I hope this isn't too stupid a question.

OEM vs. Retail hard drive.    I'm not concerned about the warranty,
but that I've never installed a SATA drive before and this will be the
only drive on the computer.

I have XP Home or maybe Pro SP3.

Does a retail box contain drivers or instructions that the OEM drive
won't include and SP3 won't have?

I have cables already, but I haven't chosen a drive.  I've been
looking athttp://www.directron.com because they have a good price on
a Thermaltake BlacX Duet Docking station.

Thanks.

Normally you just install the drive in a spare slot and turn PC on.
You will probably need to format it, but Windows will usually prompt
you to do that automatically. Drivers are part of XP.

The most difficult part normaly is working out how to remove the main
case of the PC. A philips screw driver and all will be OK

Michael

www.cnwrecovery.com

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I hope this isn't too stupid a question.

OEM vs. Retail hard drive. I'm not concerned about the warranty,
but that I've never installed a SATA drive before and this will be the
only drive on the computer.

I have XP Home or maybe Pro SP3.

Does a retail box contain drivers or instructions that the OEM drive
won't include and SP3 won't have?

I have cables already, but I haven't chosen a drive. I've been
looking at http://www.directron.com because they have a good price on
a Thermaltake BlacX Duet Docking station.

Thanks.

There aren't any special device drivers for different drives, that would
be a nightmare. They all conform to a standard specification, for which
you can use a single standard driver (usually supplied by Microsoft, if
you're talking Windows). The Microsoft driver will also work identically
whether you have older IDE drives, or the newer SATA.

Yousuf Khan

 

[mm]

Normally you just install the drive in a spare slot and turn PC on.
You will probably need to format it, but Windows will usually prompt
you to do that automatically. Drivers are part of XP.

Thank. It's only been 3 years since I put in an IDE drive, but I've
already forgotten what that required. Nothing, I guess. Maybe
that's why I forgot.

The most difficult part normaly is working out how to remove the main
case of the PC. A philips screw driver and all will be OK

LOL. Well this was a DELL and I used a flat blade screwdriver to pull
back the side cover. Then later I realized that the rubber L moved
down to release the hooks. I'm lucky I didn't bend anything.

 

[mm]

There aren't any special device drivers for different drives, that would
be a nightmare. They all conform to a standard specification, for which
you can use a single standard driver (usually supplied by Microsoft, if
you're talking Windows). The Microsoft driver will also work identically
whether you have older IDE drives, or the newer SATA.

Thanks. BTW, I did look at several webpages about this and they just
confused me.

 

[Rod Speed]

I hope this isn't too stupid a question.
Nope.

OEM vs. Retail hard drive. I'm not concerned about the warranty,
but that I've never installed a SATA drive before and this will be the
only drive on the computer.

I have XP Home or maybe Pro SP3.

Then you are fine if you meant SP3 Home and Pro.

Does a retail box contain drivers or instructions that
the OEM drive won't include and SP3 won't have?
Nope.

I have cables already, but I haven't chosen a drive. I've been
looking at http://www.directron.com because they have a
good price on a Thermaltake BlacX Duet Docking station.

OEM drives are fine.

 

[Arno]

I hope this isn't too stupid a question.

OEM vs. Retail hard drive. I'm not concerned about the warranty,
but that I've never installed a SATA drive before and this will be the
only drive on the computer.

I have XP Home or maybe Pro SP3.

Does a retail box contain drivers or instructions that the OEM drive
won't include and SP3 won't have?

No. HDDs do not need drivers, and in fact you cannot get any.
HDD controllers are a different stpry, but their drivers
do not come with the drive either. Best find out what
controller you have and get the drivers beforehand from
the manufacturer web-page. That is if you plan to do
a new installation. If not, the drivers should already be
in there.

On a new installation, it is also good to have some way to
access the web and burn CDs in case you do need some
specific drivers after all.

Arno

 

[Arno]

Thanks. BTW, I did look at several webpages about this and they just
confused me.

That does not surprise me. There are a lot of incompetent people
out there that still insist in distributing their wisdom.

Simply remember that for HDDs, you need a driver for the controller
(may already be in the OS, but does not need to be for Windows),
but that HDDs themselves never need drivers.

Arno

 

[mm]

No. HDDs do not need drivers, and in fact you cannot get any.
HDD controllers are a different stpry, but their drivers
do not come with the drive either. Best find out what
controller you have and get the drivers beforehand from
the manufacturer web-page. That is if you plan to do
a new installation. If not, the drivers should already be
in there.

On a new installation, it is also good to have some way to
access the web and burn CDs in case you do need some
specific drivers after all.

Arno

Thanks Arno and Rod.

And all the answers here were clearer than the webpages!

I have already dl'd a copy of all the drivers to another computer and
will probably burn them to copy to the new computer.

The question about XP Home or Pro is a complicated XP question, which
I guess would be OT for this ng, but I'll gladly tell it/ask about it
if encouraged to.

 

[mm]

I understand. Now, the more complicated answer, which Arno has already
alluded to is whether or not your hard drive "controller" needs a
driver. The HD controller is usually built into the motherboards these
days, so the driver for that controller is included into the overall
driver for the motherboard. However, it is still possible to buy an
aftermarket controller card, also known as a host-bus-adapter (HBA),
which you would plug into one of the internal PCI expansion slots. That
type of controller would need its own driver to be supplied, because the
operating system would need to know how to communicate with that HBA.
Once the OS knows how to talk to the HBA, then any hard disks you plug
into that HBA will just use the standard disk drivers too.

I get it.

So if you're just buying a new hard disk (SATA or IDE) and just plugging
it into one of the existing motherboard controller plugs, then you have
nothing to do, the driver for the motherboard controller has already
long-since been installed when the system was first setup. But if you're
also installing a new HBA controller card into the system, then you'll
have an additional driver to install.

Well, I hope I won't have reason to get a new controller card.

It only has 3 slots and I can't remember now but I thought I had plans
for two of them. One slot has a modem now, which would be good for
the once a year fax I send and the once a year fax I receive.

One may well be taken up for, get this, a second parallel port, one
for the scanner and one for the printer (neither of which I really use
and I'm not buying another one. I have another printer in the
basement.)

I'm pretty sure I had the third one allocated too. But if not, I want
to have an empty slot for "later".

Thanks.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

One may well be taken up for, get this, a second parallel port, one
for the scanner and one for the printer (neither of which I really use
and I'm not buying another one. I have another printer in the
basement.)

I'm pretty sure I had the third one allocated too. But if not, I want
to have an empty slot for "later".

Thanks.

These days, things like parallel ports and RS232 serial ports are best
handled through the USB port adapter. You should get a Parallel-to-USB
adapter rather than waste a PCI port on it.

Yousuf Khan

 

[mm]

These days, things like parallel ports and RS232 serial ports are best
handled through the USB port adapter. You should get a Parallel-to-USB
adapter

Maybe, but that would cost money. I already have the card.

 

[Rod Speed]

Thanks Arno and Rod.

And all the answers here were clearer than the webpages!

I have already dl'd a copy of all the drivers to another computer and
will probably burn them to copy to the new computer.

The question about XP Home or Pro is a complicated XP question, which
I guess would be OT for this ng, but I'll gladly tell it/ask about it
if encouraged to.

We do see a bit of drift away from the topic of the group at times, no real harm in that.

 

[Franc Zabkar]

... I've never installed a SATA drive before and this will be the
only drive on the computer.

I have XP Home or maybe Pro SP3.

Does a retail box contain drivers or instructions that the OEM drive
won't include and SP3 won't have?

If the SATA drive will be your boot drive, then, during your Windows
XP installation from CD, you will need to provide a pre-installation
driver for your SATA controller, usually via a floppy diskette or USB
stick which you access with the F6 key.

- Franc Zabkar

 

[Simon Brown]

If the SATA drive will be your boot drive, then, during your Windows
XP installation from CD, you will need to provide a pre-installation
driver for your SATA controller, usually via a floppy diskette or USB
stick which you access with the F6 key.

Nope, not with XP SP3.

 

[Arno]

Nope, not with XP SP3.

Depends. Not even SP3 has all drivers. Only way to tell for sure
is to try.

Arno

 

[Franc Zabkar]

Nope, not with XP SP3.

Yes, but you need to slipstream SP3 onto a new Win XP CD.

- Franc Zabkar

 

[Rod Speed]

Nope.

Not even SP3 has all drivers.

It does for the absolute vast bulk of SATA controllers now, or more
strictly the absolute vast bulk of SATA controllers are designed so
that no driver from floppy or USB stick is needed.

Only way to tell for sure is to try.

In practice its very very rare to need a driver from floppy or USB stick for the SATA boot drive with XP SP3.

 

[Rod Speed]

Yes, but you need to slipstream SP3 onto a new Win XP CD.

Not if it was bought/obtained with SP1 or SP2 included.

 

[mm]

We do see a bit of drift away from the topic of the group at times, no real harm in that.

Thank you. It turns out the question is either settled, pending some
actual results, or needs time to be rephrased. So I'll put that on
hold, until I have the right questions to ask.