compatable hardrive

[bryanf445]

my dads friend got a new comp and he gave me his old one ..pretty decent for a gift..(celeron 850 mhz 128 MB of pc133 ram and 30 gb hd.) and i was wondering..can i just put this hardrive into my current computer now? like is there a way i can check how many rpms it is, and if it is compatable with my system..any thing you guys can tell me? thanks

 

[HL2-2004NOV08]

omg. compatable? hahahaha
all depends on your OS

 

[HL2-2004NOV08]

You will always have drivers that you need for something. other than that. there is no harm in trying it. If it is XP, you will stop where you are at unless you have an illegal copy of the business cd-keys

 

[blackeye]

There is a program called hard drive tach (HD Tach) it will give you a rough Idea of how fast your hard drive is and display it on a graph. It should help determine the RPM

You could also try running sissandra and that will also tell you what type of hard drive it is and how fast.

Most likely it will be compatible though because most hard drives are still IDE and that what they were using around the time that computer was built. As long as you get your master and slave wiring right it should definatly work.

HD Tach

Sissandra

 

[bryanf445]

well i know its and ide, put if its only 5400 rpms compared to my 7200 now, will that matter too much since it will be the slave

 

[blackeye]

If you are just using the drive for storing music, or photos that you dont use very often I wouldnt think that it wouldnt matter that much. Just keep the 7200 RPM drive for the main drive for your operating system and games.
Windows will take a bit longer to load up because its got to search through more hardware but nothing to noticable.

Oh and as far as performance goes you should also check if its a 2mb cache or an 8mb cache because that will also effect performance from that drive. I would think that the drive you got is a 7200 RPM with 2mb cache but I could be wrong.

If the drive is in slave I dont think that it should affect performance when your loading from the main drive.

 

[Asus]

Yeah, it will run in your PC. 5400RPM isn't slow for a storage or media drive. It won't slow down your drive per se. If you are just going to be using both drives independently yet at the same time then put it on the second IDE cable with your CD-ROM. That way they will each have their own bandwidth and they won't have to take turns talking to the controller.

I used to store my MP3's and Videos on a old 5400RPM drive and either just play them or stream them over the network to another PC.
That kind of stuff doesn't need a fast drive since there isn't much data being moved at once. It worked out real well.

 

[bryanf445]

ok im using the ide cable from the cd rom, now how do i set this thing up, i mean how can i set it up so i can gain access to it....also its kinda messy in there lol i cant place it under my primary hardrive because the cable is too short..can i switch my primary hd cable with the cd rom one so i can place the new one in its spot?..if not it will just sit in my case all messy

 

[bryanf445]

ahhh help plz lol i got my comp all opened up and stuff... plz help

 

[Asus]

Try taking the Primary drive out and moving it down. Put the other drive above so you can use the same IDE cable as the CD-ROM.

You need to leave your Primary drive connected to the IDE controller that it's currently using (the connector on the board).

If that won't work out, you can put both harddrives on the same IDE cable. It will work.

Just make sure your Master and Slave jumpers are set correctly.
One master and one slave per IDE cable.

You will need to go into bios, after you connect the IDE and power cords, to detect the drive. Then you need to partition the drive. I just use my Windows XP CD to boot from and pretend I am going to install windows. I just use the partition manager that comes up in the blue screen and then exit after I create the partition.

Once it's partitioned you can see the drive in windows but you can not use it until it's formatted. You can format it within windows.

Confused?

 

[bryanf445]

cant i just make a boot wth a floppy and how do i do this? then just format it properties of the new drive?

 

[Asus]

You can use a floppy boot disk that has fdisk. fdisk can delete and create partitions. Don't use it to format though.

 

[bryanf445]

i just looked into the cables in my system....the primary cable (the on plugged into my hd is also connected to my dvd drive.......the other cable that has one open is connecterd to my cd drive...can i just switch put my one open cable to my dvd drive...and use the one off my dvd drive for my second hd??

 

[Asus]

Yes, but you need to make sure the Master and Slave jumpers are set correctly. Also remember to go into bios to detect the drives.

On a side note, never use refresh rate below 85Hz. Headaches are bad.
/me pounds head

 

[bryanf445]

problem solved im formatting the hd now..thanks asus for the help (yet again )