Hard drive compatbility 2

[ctrek321]

Good afternoon,
No doubt I'm the "novice" here. Please, bear with me. What are the key determining factors that should be considered prior to installing a 80GB hard drive? Have condsidered a particular model because it has an 8MB buffer. No one has given a difenitive answer yet. I did use your one of your colleagues advised Belarc Computer Summary. Which specs would be key in deciding if my system will support the hard drive in mind? Your patience, time, and advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanking you, in advance.

 

[paparazi]

I take it you mean the Western Digital Special Edition? very nice drive.
Belerac was correct, it depends on the motherboard you have and the bios revision that it is currently flashed upto.
Perhaps you could supply us with some more information so that we can give you a definitive answer.
Motherboard make and model, revision number and possibly bios date.
You could also try and find the information out for yourself,
if you have a manual for the motherboard that should give you a make and model, or slip off the case side and take a look, once you have the make/model you can visit the manufactures website for HD support.
Generally if the system is fairly new (less than a year old) there shouldn't be any problem at all.
There is an outside chance that you may need to flash the motherboards bios. Be careful and properly research the proceedure before attempting this remedy only flash if needed.
Martin Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[ctrek321]

Good evening, Paparazi
I tried to use discretion by not divulging names, as not to appear to be "promoting" a particular brand. But, yes, it is the WE Special Ed. Without further ado... I purchased my Dell Dimension L667r in 8/2000, it was packed with a 7GB hard drive and one 128MB DIMM. I'm now down to 2GB. Little did I know how quickly the memory would be exhausted. Did upgrade cd-rom to TDK veloCD 24/10/40 in 12/2001, and added two 256MB DIMMs in 11/2002. The Belarc information, per you inquiry is: BIOS vendor, Intel; BIOS version, A06; BIOS date, 6/15/2000; Win98; Pentium III (version Pent.(R)III; Ext. clock speed, 133Hz; Max./Current speed, 667Hz. I see that the Main Circuit Board is: Intel Corp. CA810E AAA01025-308.
In ending, I was not supplied with any documentation regarding the motherboard. How would I go about "flashing" the motherboard? Would my purchase be practical based upon the data supplied? Would an extra component be needed to accomodate the drive (i.e. card, etc.)? Your response is respected and awaited. Again, many thanks.

 

[seanform]

Hello guys !
What paparazi said is true. However he did not mention that there is another alternative. You can download a drive extension software. This is a software that lets your PC see the drive as 80Gb even if the BIOS does not. You can normaly download the sw from the manufacturer's site. There will also be instructions.
However if you are sure that flashing the BIOS will solve your problem than that is the best thing to do. Let me again remind you to be careful doing this thing though.

 

[ctrek321]

Hi, Sean

I just visited the Dell site, it was suggested that I could look for a "BIOS upate." Again, it makes me a bit nervous when I'm told to "be careful" when proceeding to a step in unfamiliar territory, which this is the case.

As a reminder, I have no clue as to what "flashing" the BIOS means. However, I will visit the both the Dell and Intel sites to check if there is a BIOS upgrade.

Everyones support means a lot.

 

[paparazi]

To explain this in very simple terms bios (basic input output system) is a small amount of information retained permanently on the bios rom chip of the motherboard, it's purpose is to initiate the motherboard to post (power on self test) to a point where the operating system takes over to fully boot into windows.
This bios information sets certain parameters by which the hardware operates.
When a motherboard is released a bios is written for what is known at that time and the hardware configurations it is likely to work under, probably the largest IDE hard drive around at the time your mainboard was manufactured was around a 60gig, so clearly update bios files are needed to allow the mainboard to operate with newer hardware configurations (faster processors, larger hard drives and so on) bios updates also contain patches or fixes for discovered incompatibility issues that have arisen since the original bios was released. Infact during a motherboards production life it is not uncommon for there to be as many as a dozen bios updates made available. On this note* always use the latest as it contains an accumulation of fixes and upgrades that have been introduced.
The bios flash itself is normally a matter of downloading the bin.file (the actual flash) and the bios flash tool (the software to enable the actual flash to take place)
Making a bootable floppy disk and copying over the downloaded files.(on the website this might be just one zipped file) but when unzipped contains the flash bin file, the flash utility and usually a read me document.
Now it is there I will stop because it is at this point that the procedure can vary.
Most manufacturers make available a step by step guide to flashing bios, this must be followed to the letter because as you can gather from the above, if incorrectly flashed the board just won't initiate and will be as good as useless.
If in dought it might be worth enquiring at your local PC custom build shop to see if they offer this service.
Despite the risks the actual procedure only takes a few minutes so shouldn't cost more than $10-$20.
All the best. Martin
Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[ctrek321]

Good morning, Martin

I spent a better part of yesterday researching BIOS, and the "flashing" of it. And yes, it does require attentiveness. Interestingly, I couldn't find my BIOS Identifier number (CA810E AA A01025-308)or its version (A06 dated: 6/16/2000) at Intel's website for Desktop Boards. There were variations of it. However, they explicitly state that they will not support OEM, and to contact the manufacturer. Also, while browsing there I saw the Flash BIOS, and Express BIOS update downloads. Dell, was in line with the "be careful..." and leave it alone. Confusing mixed messages. Instead of "chomping at the bit," I'll take your advice, and haul this baby to a shop and get it over with. Every response has been quite enlightening. Many thanks, and have a great week ahead.