Recommendations for adding a second hard drive

[RMFW]

For home use I have an old Gateway 500S purchased in 2001 with all of the original equipment - 20GB hard drive and 256MB memory.

I am looking to purchase an additional hard drive from Amazon.

With my limited knowledge of computers I am just hoping to receive some basic guidelines.

Thank you in advance.

 

[Nocandu]

Hi

I would have to say that my advice is to buy a new computer if you wan't to do anything with it. You can get a basic new computer pretty cheap now days.
If you are going to spend the money on a hard drive anyway check these out.

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/global/products/ltd/en/us/dhs

/inspiron_560s_dddoca6?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&

id=pcat17080&type=page&lcn=Computers&sc=abComputerSP&
st=processingtime:%3E1900-01-01&usc=abcat0500000&
cp=1&sp=%2Bcurrentprice+skuid&nrp=15&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1
%23%23-1~~q70726f63657373696e6774696d653a3e313930302d30312d3031~~cabcat0500
000%23%230%23%2311a~~cabcat0501000%23%230
%23%2329~~nf396||5061636b616765204465616c73&pagetype=listing


Mike

 

[paparazi]

It's so easy just to recommend a new setup.RMFW is probably happy with what he has.
What I would say is:
You are looking for a standard 3.5inch IDE hard drive, I would be wary of going too big as the motherboard may struggle to recognise it. 40 to 160gig, I'm sure someone has refurb units out there if you search.
If you are using XP then you might want to think about upping your memory to 512mb, again large modules (512 or bigger) may not be compatible. This maybe a used ebay item.

Martin


On wings like angels whispers sweet
my heart it feels a broken beat
Touched soul and hurt lay wounded deep
Brown eyes are lost afar and sleep

 

[vacunita]

I agree with Paparazi, you should look into more RAM as well.

If you can go up to 768MB (3 sticks of256 a piece) I'm pretty sure it should be able to take that much.

As far as the HD's go, I also agree with him. 40 to 160GB should be about as much as a MB that old will recognize.

You'll need to make sure its a 3.5inch IDE or PATA (Parallel ATA) drive, and not a SATA (Serial ATA) drive nor 2.5 inch IDE drive.

If you plan on replacing the system drive with the new one you'll need to install Windows from scratch. Or if you plan on adding the drive as an extra only for storage while keeping the original drive, then you're just looking at setting a couple jumpers (little plastic tabs in the drive's interface pins) to set it to either Master or Slave depending on how you are going to install it.

Assuming you have a CD drive also in the machine, you'll have to go in and check if the IDE cables you have, have 2 connectors or just one.

Or if you only have one cable and both the Hard drive and Cd Rom are connected to it. In which case you'll need to check if you have an additional IDE port on the MB to plug a second cable which should be provided with the HD.


With all that said, I'd suggest taking a look at newegg.com or tigerdirect.com instead of amazon. They deal in computer parts and will likely have more variety than amazon. They are also trust worthy online suppliers.



----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[goombawaho]

I vote for replacement. Something else will die soon (power supply, motherboard) and then you'll be spending good money after bad.

Even a USED computer ($150) from Craig's List would be a better idea than updating a really old machine. Get a used one without a hard drive and then add your own, for example.

There's a glut of used Pentium IV 2.5 - 3.2GHz machines out there waiting to be had. It would be a big upgrade compared to what you have.

 

[Nocandu]

Hi

I see my links vanished, (check out Dell and Best Buys web site) but I don't think it makes any sense to spend money on an almost 10 year old computer.

You can buy a brand new one with Windows 7, Gigabytes of ram, a flat screen monitor, and more hard drive space then you will ever use plus it will have decent on board sound etc. for under $500.

Why spend the time, money and hassles or tying to get modern components to work in an old computer.

As goombawaho said you can probably buy a decent use computer for no more then you would spend on a hard drive and more ram. And those old components will fail one of these days.

Mike

 

[goombawaho]

Or Refurbished/Off-Lease machines from Micro Center or other retailer. I would replace the hard drive though, if it comes with one, and use the original for backup.

 

[kjv1611]

If you want to stick with the old system (your choice, of course, but I do agree that with the age of the PC, you're living on borrowed time, regardless of what you do), I'd go with this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136457

It's MUCH larger than what you have, and it'll be probably twice as fast. You could partition it as well, one partition for system, one for SWAP/virtual memory, and one for data for a little more performance gain, and better reliability. Well, the reliability will come in with being easier to recover your data in case of a drive/system failure.

It will be MUCH faster than what you have, though there are still much faster than it available - just not for your system.

Also, you'll spend about the same price to get a used one anyway, not a whole lot of difference. Of course, you can get the 160GB version for $5 more... more than likely I'd spend $5 any day for 80 more GB, or doubling capacity:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136112

 

[JimInKS]

I don't know your exact situation, but in general I would replace the entire computer rather than sink any money into something that old.

Have you considered a refurb system, maybe something like this:

http://www.systime.com/product_p/s-ibm-8171-32cd1gbsf80xpp.htm

 

[kjv1611]

Well, if you're comfortable installing the OS from scratch, and you just want a computer to run most tasks, don't have any requirments, such as high-end gaming, burning to multiple burners, or using multiple hard drives, these usually run pretty cheap on eBay:

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1313&_nkw=acer+ax*&_sacat=See-All-Categories

I've been eyeballing them for some time now, but haven't spent any money yet. I've watched a lot, though, and I've seen them go under $200 for a practically brand new computer.

They are cheap computers, but I've also seen 2 of them in action, personally. One with a Pentium Dual Core CPU, and one with an Athlon X2 processor.... or it may have been the X3. Either way, both machines can do pretty much anything, they're quiet, convenient, and tiny - so they fit practically anywhere. Also, tons of connections by default.

So, you can spend $160 on a refurb P4, or you could spend around $200 - a little more or a little less, just depends - on one of those Acers, and have pretty close to the latest stuff on the market. You just then need an Vista install disk for Acer (unless one comes with Windows 7 now, or maybe one is with XP - haven't seen in a little while on those)... if you don't have one or can't borrow one, you can likely find it online for cheap - if not direct from Acer.

 

[disord3r]

This thread has lost it's freshness, but I just wanted to report that I recently purchased a couple off-lease computers (one for my niece and one for my nephew), just as goombawaho suggested. For not much more than the cost of a new HDD and some new RAM, you can get a "new" computer that out-specs your computer in every way.

Mine came from a place called PCExchange, and I'm happy with them. Just something to think about.

 

[kjv1611]

Glad to hear your decision. Yeah, that seems like a no-brainer.

 

[goombawaho]

The OP didn't reply or make a decision!!! Somebody else just bumped an old thread to make a comment.

 

[kjv1611]

Oops. Didn't look at the name, just assumed given the context that it was the OP.

'Course, glancing at the OP's profile, I don't suspect a response either. Oh well.

 

[goombawaho]

Yeah, posters should be banned for not selecting a course of action or solution after we piddle our time away with potential solutions.

 

[disord3r]

You two are all over these hardware forums. I think "piddle our time away" is an accurate description of what you do here.

But yes - I wasn't the OP. I just happened to scan the threads, and my purcahse of those two PCs seemd timely because I just got them a couple weeks ago.

 

[goombawaho]

Please describe my ramblings in your own terms. "All over" - you mean like all over the road while driving intoxicated???? or I spilled red wine all over my white shorts.

The reason I don't appreciate people not sharing what they did is that it makes you feel like you got used and not even thanked. If you're going to use me, at least send me some flowers.

Plus, the real benefit is SOMEBODY ELSE will come across the thread while searching the interwebz and find a SOLUTION and not an open question.

 

[kjv1611]

[ROFL2] @ goombawaho

Yeah, we stay a bit busy. I wouldn't say allover. It's just when you're used to getting 20 questions on this stuff practically every day from every angle, you're well prepared to answer them on forums such as this one.

That, and I do try to give back, myself. I've gotten LOTS of help on this specific website for some 7 years. I've gotten help in all sorts of areas, and I've tried to also give back in all sorts of areas. It works out well that way, I think.