What IDE Drive for my 5 year old Dell8200

[Steve Bird]

Hi All

Just after some ideas on what HDD to buy to upgrade in size from my WD Caviar
60GB IDE 2MB drive I have installed.
I have had my Dell8200 running XP SP2 with P4 1.9 CPU AND 1250MB RDRAM for 5
years now without hardly a glitch but i seem to be running out of disk space
fast with the kids wanting more and more on it.
I have a slave drive of 40GB also which can stay for now.

The long and short is I am looking for an IDE drive of about 160-250GB to Ghost
my drive across to.
Any ideas?

Thanks
Steve

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Just after some ideas on what HDD to buy to upgrade in size from my
WD Caviar 60GB IDE 2MB drive I have installed.
I have had my Dell8200 running XP SP2 with P4 1.9 CPU AND 1250MB
RDRAM for 5 years now without hardly a glitch but i seem to be
running out of disk space fast with the kids wanting more and more
on it. I have a slave drive of 40GB also which can stay for now.

The long and short is I am looking for an IDE drive of about
160-250GB to Ghost my drive across to.
Any ideas?

Verify with Dell your BIOS (either as is or if updated) will handle such a
drive and buy.

I like Seagate.
I like Western Digital.
After that - I try to avoid the rest. hah

However - everyone has their differing opinions.

http://www.pricewatch.com/
http://www.dealsites.net/

 

[R. McCarty]

If it was me, I'd go ahead and buy a PCI SATA add-in card and
go with a SATA drive. Most add in cards are ~$35 for SATA-II
compliance. You didn't mention whether you were shopping for
store front or on-line, but New Egg's daily special is a Seagate 320
Gig SATA-II ( 5-Year Warranty ) for $99.00
Going SATA would not only increase space, but overall performance
as well.
New Egg Special here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148215

 

[Guest]

Steve,

I've got a Dell 8200 too. My original 40 gig. WD Carver 5400 RPM IDE hard
recently died. I replaced it with another WD Carver 160 gig. I got that drive
because with the store discount and the mail in rebate it cost me $40. Then
about four months later I purchased a Maxtor 120 gig. for Ghost backups. I
got the Maxtor because it cost $30 after rebates.

They both work fine. They were both easy to install. They each came with
nice utilities. I don't think 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM makes much practical
difference.
Both are 7200RPM. Both are ATA. IDE is just another name for ATA.

The point of my long winded reply is that probably any drive you buy will be
OK and work about the same. Look for what's on sale.

Milt

 

[JohnF]

Hi All

Just after some ideas on what HDD to buy to upgrade in size from my WD
Caviar 60GB IDE 2MB drive I have installed.
I have had my Dell8200 running XP SP2 with P4 1.9 CPU AND 1250MB RDRAM for
5 years now without hardly a glitch but i seem to be running out of disk
space fast with the kids wanting more and more on it.
I have a slave drive of 40GB also which can stay for now.

The long and short is I am looking for an IDE drive of about 160-250GB to
Ghost my drive across to.
Any ideas?

Thanks
Steve

I've upgraded a number of vintage (200-2002) desktop computers using Western
Digital's Caviar series 7200 RPM drives. (Also, I've usually added memory).
The combination of 5400-to-7400 RPM upgrade and memory upgrade has generally
speeded up the system, especially boot time, and opening applications and
large files.

I see newegg.com has the 160 GB IDE-ATA drives for about $62 including
shipping (model WD1600JB).

I avoid hanging multiple drives on the same IDE bus. I prefer a clean
software reinstall, but if you have confidence in the original drive, doing
an image copy is an option..

 

[Steve Bird]

Thanks John

Have never had a problem with this HDD yet so cloning it should be OK. I will
image the drive first to be on the safe side.
Was just a little concerned about drive size limit but seeing as I am running
XPSP2 i don't think there will be too much of a problem with say 200GB
replacement.

Regards
Steve

 

[Rock]

Thanks John

Have never had a problem with this HDD yet so cloning it should be OK. I
will image the drive first to be on the safe side.
Was just a little concerned about drive size limit but seeing as I am
running XPSP2 i don't think there will be too much of a problem with say
200GB replacement.

"JohnF" wrote

To use drives larger than 137GB two things are needed. The BIOS has to
support 48bit LBA, and XP has to be at SP1 or SP2. Most modern BIOS
support 48bit LBA.

 

[Steve Bird]

Thanks again
Is there a way to check if the Bios supports this larger drive functionality?

Thanks
Steve

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Is there a way to check if the Bios supports this larger drive
functionality?

As originally stated - call Dell - verify with them your BIOS will support
it.
Or you can peruse their website using your Service Tag...

 

[Rock]

Thanks again
Is there a way to check if the Bios supports this larger drive
functionality?

Thanks
Steve

"Rock" wrote

Best way is to contact Dell. How old is the computer?

 

[Rock]

Thanks again
Is there a way to check if the Bios supports this larger drive
functionality?

"Rock" wrote

Ahh..lol, I see you put 5 yrs old in the subject. It should support 48bit
LBA, but to be sure you need to contact Dell.

 

[Steve Bird]

Thanks Rock

Have emailed Dell and for some reason they misunderstood my request as they
thought I wanted to buy a HDD from them!!!
If only they had read the whole email instead of the first few lines!!

have emailed them back so will wait and see now, if all else fails I will have
to call them.

Thanks again
Steve

 

[Steve Bird]

Hi Rock
Well as usual Dell responded but indicating that my system will only support a
total of 100GB drive.
At present I have a 60GB master and 40GB slave so that's my limit (or is it??)
I called them today and after they eventually gathered what i was asking they
still tell me that my motherboard will only support 100GB!
Do you know of any reason for that?
I am about to update the BIOS to A09 which is the latest for my PC but at the
moment my Floppy Drive isn't working so will do it another way.

Please let me know if you can think of a reason why Dell would say 100GB max?

Thanks
Steve

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Well as usual Dell responded but indicating that my system will
only support a total of 100GB drive.
At present I have a 60GB master and 40GB slave so that's my limit
(or is it??) I called them today and after they eventually gathered
what i was asking they still tell me that my motherboard will only
support 100GB!

What they are telling you is that the system BIOS is unlikely to support
drives over the 137GB limit without software help and the software way of
using large drives - to me anyway - is not worht the risk to your data.

80GB, 100GB, probably 120GB - no problem. But if you get a 160GB hard
drive - you will likely not be able to utilize its full capacity and be
wasting your money.

Do you know of any reason for that?
I am about to update the BIOS to A09 which is the latest for my PC
but at the moment my Floppy Drive isn't working so will do it
another way.
Please let me know if you can think of a reason why Dell would say
100GB max?

hah..

You are thinking they mean 100GB total.
No.

100GB per drive.

IDE? Probably supports 4 IDE devices. If you have one CD/DVD drive - that
means you could have up to 3 more IDE devices or three 120GB drives in that
systsm - for about 330GB of total space. If you got rid of the CD/DVD drive
you could fit 4 of the 120GB drives and have 440GB of total space - just no
CD/DVD drive. If you bought an add-on PCI card (IDE or SATA) you could have
even more (plus the IDE/SATA could probably support the larger drives (above
137GB limit) natively and thus - your limit goes WAY up.

 

[Anna]

Hi Rock
Well as usual Dell responded but indicating that my system will only
support a total of 100GB drive.
At present I have a 60GB master and 40GB slave so that's my limit (or is
it??)
I called them today and after they eventually gathered what i was asking
they still tell me that my motherboard will only support 100GB!
Do you know of any reason for that?
I am about to update the BIOS to A09 which is the latest for my PC but at
the moment my Floppy Drive isn't working so will do it another way.

Please let me know if you can think of a reason why Dell would say 100GB
max?

Thanks
Steve

Steve:
This is a Dell Dimension 8200, right? A desktop machine, right?

I've worked on this machine in the past and I'm virtually certain it
supports large-capacity HDDs, i.e., > 137 GB. Far be it from me to argue
with Dell tech support but I can't imagine why they would indicate that PC
would support a HDD no greater than 100 GB. Check this again.

I'm assuming you have SP2 (or at least SP1) installed so there shouldn't be
any problem utilizing a large-capacity HDD.

As I recall that machine used RAMBUS (RDRAM) as its memory, yes? A wonderful
form of memory. I've never encountered memory more stable than RDRAM. Such a
pity market conditions forced it from the market.
Anna

 

[Steve Bird]

Hi Anna
Yes it is a Dimension8200

I asked Dell if it was 100GB in total and they said yes, I asked if i could use
2 of them and they said only 100GB in total.
I am running XPSP2 and once if replace my Floppy Drive I will upgrade the Bios
to A09 (latest on dell downlaods).

If i was to put a large (say 160GB) disk in as a slave and it is recognised in
the Bios and once formatted indicates about +150GB in My Computer then can I
presume it is OK to use. I want to clone my existing 60GB disk to the new 160GB
disk.

The RDRAM is great, never had a problem with it, have now got 1250MB installed
but the P4 1.9GHz could do with being a bit faster as it's not as quick as it
could be!!

Thanks
Steve

 

[Steve Bird]

Hi Shenan

I asked about the 137GB limit but they kept going back to their documentation
and saying only 100GB in total (not even per disk)
They kept saying the Motherboard wouldn't support any more!!!
I am just about to update the bios to latest when my floppy drive works.

I think they are probably talking out of there backside as it was difficult
enough understanding what they were saying. I presume the Euro Support Centre is
not english based?

Regards
Steve

 

[Eric]

Hi Anna
Yes it is a Dimension8200

I asked Dell if it was 100GB in total and they said yes, I asked if i
could use 2 of them and they said only 100GB in total.
I am running XPSP2 and once if replace my Floppy Drive I will upgrade the
Bios to A09 (latest on dell downlaods).

If i was to put a large (say 160GB) disk in as a slave and it is
recognised in the Bios and once formatted indicates about +150GB in My
Computer then can I presume it is OK to use. I want to clone my existing
60GB disk to the new 160GB disk.

The RDRAM is great, never had a problem with it, have now got 1250MB
installed but the P4 1.9GHz could do with being a bit faster as it's not
as quick as it could be!!

Thanks
Steve

I wouldn't trust Dell tech support. Get the model number of your
motherboard and look up it's specs online direct from the manufacturer.
My PC is 4+ years old and works just fine. I don't really have any speed
issues, running an AMD Athlon 1 GHz with 512 MB RAM on a K7S5A MB with 2
hard drives, a 120GB and a 40GB. I don't believe I've done any BIOS
updates. Both my hard drives are WD 7200, which I recommend if you're on a
budget. If you feel a need for speed and have some extra cash, look into a
Raptor drive.

 

[Steve Bird]

Do i get the Motherboard details off of the board?

Steve

 

[Eric]

I forget if there is a standard place to find your motherboard model number.
You could:
A) Ask Dell, or look it up on their website
B) See if it's displayed on the startup (POST) screen or in the BIOS if you
can get to that
C) Look for it in Windows (I forget where you might find it, and it is most
likely not printed on the board itself)
D) Run a free utility that can analyze it for you. I would download and try
the one from http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php that tells you motherboard, CPU,
and RAM details.