Adding an ATA133 hard drive to an older system

[Jeff48]

I have to replace the master 7.6 GB Maxtor hard drive on my old P233MMX (PC66). I purchased a Maxtor 40 GB ATA133 Plus 8 drive, set it to master like the previous drive but my system not only doesn't recognize the drive but also simply hangs after detecting the CD-ROMs. No errors, just nothing.

Is this drive just too advanced for my system, do I just need to replace the IDE cable with a 80 wire/40 pin cable or is there something else which I have missed to enable this drive?

 

[AndyHui]

Your PC's motherboard BIOS probably cannot handle a drive of such a large size. You would probably be able to solve the problems by purchasing a PCI ATA133 Controller.

 

[Mday]

you can do 2 things, one of which I DO NOT RECOMMEND.

the first is a software overlay. this is a software modification to the HDD itself (reversable) which fools the hardware into allowing the full capacity. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS even though it is "free" people tend to forget they have it, and it causes problems later on.

the 2nd thing is to get a new controller. this can be accomplished by getting a new motherboard or a pci controller. the cheapest thing to do would be getting a new pci controller. i recommend getting a promise card.. it'll give you places to purchase that specific card from. there are other cards you can get. but i have this card, and it works. i have an older version in a P166 among the stores, i suppose www.googlegear.com would be the choice i would make. you can get this card also, but i dont consider the extra expense worth it.

 

[Nick63]

I have a Maxtor 133 pci card and when I put it in my Abit be62 with a Maxtor 80gb 8mb drive I get some skipping when I play music in some programs. When I go back to 33 or the onboard Highpoint 66 the skipping stops. Any thoughts?
Nick

 

[Mday]

Originally posted by: Nick63
I have a Maxtor 133 pci card and when I put it in my Abit be62 with a Maxtor 80gb 8mb drive I get some skipping when I play music in some programs. When I go back to 33 or the onboard Highpoint 66 the skipping stops. Any thoughts?
Nick

please dont hijack someone's thread. so, start a new thread of your own and include in it:
your OS, file system (fat32, ntfs), your sound card, any irq conflicts...

 

[Nick63]

Sorry Jeff48.

Nick

 

[Jeff48]

Folks,

Thanks for your suggestions.

After reviewing the (varied & questionable) performance of the available pci controller cards, I decided to pick up an ATA66 Maxtor 13.6 GB drive.

My old P233MMX recognized it right away so I loaded up the OS and installed it in the box.

The faster and newer ATA133 40 GB Maxtor drive will go into my PIII-667.

Thanks for the help guys.

This thread can die now unless anyone wants to make further comments.

 

[McMadman]

It sounds like your older system will support up to 32gb (since it supports larger than 8.4 32 is the next logical step)

the controller cards are quite handy to have around, if you ever buy a larger retail drive (>137gb) it may come with a controller card which could be used on whichever system that can't support it.

I agree with avoiding the software overlay, it may be a cheap fix, but if you ever want to upgrade you can very likely have troubles. Last I remember the removal process was destructive for the overlays, but they may have changed.