New hard drive in really old computer?

[laurenlex]

I searched here for backwards compatible, but didn't find much.

Ok, here's the story. I will be building a new A64 set up in a couple of months, money is really tight now. I currently have a circa 1999 Pentium 3 500mhz computer that is still running. SLOWLY. The main problem is the hard drive is very full and I only have 2 gigs free.

I was wondering if the following idea would work. What if I bought a new 80 gig EIDE hard drive and put it in the old computer to buy some more time? I was thinking that I would reformat it when I build a new computer. Will a new ATA133 hard drive work in my dinosaur?

Could I transfer all of my old data over to the big hard drive? Can I install windows 98se on the new drive and just drag everything from the old drive to the new one? I have lost some original softward disks and don't want to lose the programs.

Thanks for helping a noob.

 

[phisrow]

The answer is yes and no. Barring unusual conditions, pretty much any PATA drive will work in your PIII. Depending on the details of your BIOS, however, it may or may not be possible to boot from a large new drive. This isn't a huge problem, just keep your old one as a boot drive(which also saves you an OS reinstall) and use the new one for data and any new program installs (as well as unistalling programs from the old drive for which you do have disks and then reinstalling them on the new drive).
As for just dragging things over, that isn't terribly likely to work. Some programs will work fine, some will break in deeply cryptic and pretty much unfixable ways. You'll have a much better time if you just add the new hard drive and stick to copying documents and any programs that do not need to change their operating environment(if a program has an installer of some sort, leave it alone. If all you had to do was unzip an .exe and maybe a few .dll's or other ancillary files to some folder, go ahead and move it.) and leaving everything else where it is.

Best of luck.

 

[DaveSimmons]

You might run into limits above 32 GB or 60 GB depending on the BIOS, but a BIOS update could fix that. With an update you're supported to at least 120 GB.

If you can't find a newer BIOS and don't mind giving up half the space, many drives still include jumper settings that will make them work as just 32 GB drives, which definitely will work in any P3 system. Most 40 GB drives have this, but for 80 GB you should probably check the drive maker's website before buying.

You could also pick up a Promise IDE card in the FS/FT forum for $20-25, or from newegg for $35.

 

[laurenlex]

Thanks for the replies guys :beer:

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: laurenlex
Thanks for the replies guys :beer:

all good suggestions ..if you got the drive nib retail ..I'd just put it in your current system as slave..boot into your system's BIOS ..see if its recognized(most likely not..)..shutdown system after setting Boot from 1st device .. the CD Rom if you have the retail CD ..FDD if floppy disk..then should be able set the new drive up as pretty much storage or boot drive(can clone your old OS install over) following the drive manufacturer's utlility..gl