HDD ?

[DoobieNaq23]

I have been chatting with Compaq Tech support for a couple of days now and I have finally found out why I can't reinstall my OS. The hard drive is faulty (ran DFT and came back with error "code 0x70"). The tech told me I would have to get a new hard drive, but I must get the same type of Hard Drive because my system wouldn't support any bigger. I never heard of this before and was wondering why but the tech would only say any bigger would not be supported and I could get a new one at their web site. So I asked a worker at Office Depot what he thought and he said he never heard of such a thing either, he said any hard drive would do. Who is right(?) and if any hard drive would work what would be a decent one for not a lot of money.

I was thinking 40-60GB would be fine.

 

[DotheDamnTHing]

you might need a bios flash before you can install a bigger hd.....what is the current system specs and os you are running?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Old computers had a drive size limit of 32 GB, which could sometimes be fixed by updating the BIOS.

If you get a 40 GB drive, most (all?) of them have a jumper setting to make it act like a 32 GB drive, but of course you give up the 8 GB.

Some drive manufacturers also have drive software on their website that can let you use the full 40 GB.

 

[cy7878]

you can always check from the manufacture's site for BIOS update info. It is true that some older systems can't support large capacity HD. Some OS can't support large capacity HD as a single drive.

 

[DoobieNaq23]

I am reinstalling the OS (Windows 98) on my father-in-law's computer. Right now I am at school and I don't recall all the specs, but here is the link to them: Compaq Presario 5722

 

[DotheDamnTHing]

is the win98 second edition? 30gb for sure with no bios update, over that your looking for a flash

 

[Jiggz]

To be on the safe side, I'll say get a Maxtor 40 gb. At the very worst, you'll be limited to 32 GB. But Maxtor provides a bios software to be able to detect the full capacity of the hdd in the bios. When you partition the hdd use FAT32, which again could limit you to 32GB. You might have to download a newer version of FDISK from MS.