Used Maxtor or Used WD?

[hardhaty22]

Lack of health = lack of money.So I'm going to go with slaving a
used hard drive to my old 7.5 gig quantum fireball.This sucker is 4
years old and starting to grind.
In my never-ending pursuit for a decent deal I keep seeing many 20
and 40 gb maxtors on ebay.Prices generally run around 40 bucks, if you
add shipping,and this seems like an ok deal.
But in an earlier post you guys discussed the pros and cons of Max.
and W.D. hdds.As far as Maxtor goes it seemed mostly con and that
makes me pause a little because I have my sights set on a maxtor on
ebay at this moment.
Here's the question;
Can I install a western digital HD into this system long enough to
copy my OS and everything else onto,then remove my old fireball?If I
understand things corectly,I wouldn't be able to mis-match hard
drives.Is this correct?
Then there is the question of drivers and any other software that
usually doesn't come with new HD's.How would I go about getting them
on my comp.?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Rod Speed]

Lack of health = lack of money.So I'm going to go with slaving a
used hard drive to my old 7.5 gig quantum fireball.This sucker is 4
years old and starting to grind.
In my never-ending pursuit for a decent deal I keep seeing many 20
and 40 gb maxtors on ebay.Prices generally run around 40 bucks, if you
add shipping,and this seems like an ok deal.
But in an earlier post you guys discussed the pros and cons of Max.
and W.D. hdds.As far as Maxtor goes it seemed mostly con and that
makes me pause a little because I have my sights set on a maxtor on
ebay at this moment.
Here's the question;
Can I install a western digital HD into this system long enough to
copy my OS and everything else onto,then remove my old fireball?
Yes.

If I understand things corectly,I wouldn't be
able to mis-match hard drives.Is this correct?

Yes, they dont need to be matched.

Then there is the question of drivers and any other
software that usually doesn't come with new HD's.
How would I go about getting them on my comp.?

You dont need any drivers if you are running Win.

You dont say what OS you are running, but xxcopy is
free and does a very decent job of copying the Win9x
family from the existing failing hard drive to a replacement.
http://www.xxcopy.com/
http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy10.htm

 

[qIroS]

Not when you can get a new 30gb drive for less at staples after
rebate. I don't think a used hd is ever a good deal anymore.

Oh I don't know about that. I often get good deals on SCA SCSI drives on
ebay. Particularly 9GB and 18GB units.

 

[Jules Dubois]

Can I install a western digital HD into this system long enough to
copy my OS and everything else onto,then remove my old fireball?
Yes.

If I
understand things corectly,I wouldn't be able to mis-match hard
drives.Is this correct?

You can almost certainly mix various and sundry hard drives. (I say
"almost certainly" because, once upon a time, I had a Quantum Pigfoot that
wouldn't work properly as a slave device to any of my other three hard
drives. It was mostly but not completely reliable as master, so I ditched
it as soon as I could.)

Then there is the question of drivers and any other software that
usually doesn't come with new HD's.How would I go about getting them
on my comp.?

How old is your PC's BIOS? Does it support drives larger than 8GB? 32GB?

(Drivers interact with the IDE adapter, so drivers are nothing to worry
about.)

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

You can almost certainly mix various and sundry hard drives. (I say
"almost certainly" because, once upon a time, I had a Quantum Pigfoot that
wouldn't work properly as a slave device to any of my other three hard
drives. It was mostly but not completely reliable as master, so I ditched
it as soon as I could.)


How old is your PC's BIOS? Does it support drives larger than 8GB? 32GB?

(Drivers interact with the IDE adapter,

Nonsense, the drives are an extension of the IDE adapter.

 

[hardhaty22]

How old is your PC's BIOS? Does it support drives larger than 8GB? 32GB?

(Drivers interact with the IDE adapter, so drivers are nothing to worry
about.)

My Bios date is april of 2000.I have no idea of how to determine
what it supports.

A few weeks ago I went on a search to determine just that.I started
with my Bios name,Amibios.A google search led me to American
Megatrends Inc.
Now after reading a few forums (PC Pitstop and Leoville I think) I
was pretty sure this was the maker of my bios.AMI has a utility for
determining bios makers,which told me that mine was a Gateway,which is
the manufactorer of my comp.
Support at gateway tells me that my bios is an AMI.It's like
watching a tennis match between the two.
This bios sucks.I read everywhere some very user- friendly bios,of
which mine is not a shining example.It is just 1 black and white page
listing my ram,hard drive,cd rom, pci's and irq's.I can't select
anything for more info.
So how do I determine my maximum HD size??

 

[hardhaty22]

I meant to answer Rods question.I use windows 98 se.Thanks to all of
you for responding.

 

[Jules Dubois]

My Bios date is april of 2000.I have no idea of how to determine
what it supports.

Perhaps I misremember, but I believe I bought and used a 30GB IDE drive
sometime in 2000, on an Abit BH6.

Now after reading a few forums (PC Pitstop and Leoville I think) I
was pretty sure this was the maker of my bios.AMI has a utility for
determining bios makers,which told me that mine was a Gateway,which is
the manufactorer of my comp.
Support at gateway tells me that my bios is an AMI.It's like
watching a tennis match between the two.

They're likely both correct. Gateway bought a source license to the AMI
BIOS, customizing it for the system you purchased. I know one of the HPs I
used at work had an AMI BIOS and the "options" were set at the factory for
all time.

This bios sucks. [...] It is just 1 black and white page
listing my ram,hard drive,cd rom, pci's and irq's.I can't select
anything for more info.

Gateway doesn't want you to misconfigure the system and then call them for
support! An ancient Acer system we just gave away was exactly the same.

So how do I determine my maximum HD size??

Did you try asking the support droid at Gateway?

 

[Nick]

Nope. Everybody knows that the ATA controller sits on the drive itself.
Drivers therefor interact with the drives themselfs, not just only with
the IDE adapter.

Isn't it the SCSI controller that sits on the drive itself, whereas
the ATA controller is on the computer and accessible thru ports 3Fx
and 1Fx and so on, making the ATA drive cheaper ?

Nick

 

[J.Clarke]

Isn't it the SCSI controller that sits on the drive itself, whereas
the ATA controller is on the computer and accessible thru ports 3Fx
and 1Fx and so on, making the ATA drive cheaper ?

No. Both have onboard controllers. The ATA controller was designed
specifically to work with the ISA bus--don't know if it's still the case
but at one time an ATA drive could be attached to a PC using a logicless
board whose only function was to carry the traces from the ISA card-edge
connector to a pin header that a drive cable could be plugged into.

 

[Fred]

No. Both have onboard controllers. The ATA controller was designed
specifically to work with the ISA bus--don't know if it's still the case
but at one time an ATA drive could be attached to a PC using a logicless
board whose only function was to carry the traces from the ISA card-edge
connector to a pin header that a drive cable could be plugged into.

You've mangled that utterly. It was never
logicless, there were always at least buffers.