New hard drive and installation

newbie123

newbie123

New Member
I am using a 20G hard drive (my computer: pentium 3,883MHz,256M ram), now if I don't want to use this one and try to replace it by a 160G hard drive, is there any problem (I mean can my OS received all 160G or it will not recognize about 40G ...)
When I install new hard drive, I must reinstall my programs ?
Thanks !!!
 
When first installing any drive it will first need to be partitioned and formatted according to the one or operating systems that will be installed onto it. You are starting off totally fresh there unless adding it simply for storing files without any OS.

When reinstalling Windows or the other OS on the same drive you still have to reistall any programs previously run. While the files and folders are often seen remaining totally new entries into the system registry as well as new files are seen.

For older Fat based versions of Windows you often needed a 3rd party to see past a certain size of partition like the updated version of the old Fdisk tool was limited to roughly 64gb. XP prior to SP1 was limited to a 137gb barrier. The one thing to note however is the rounded figures seen on various drives is not the amount seen once in use like a 500gb model will see about 465gb after partitioning. Expect it!

For a 160gb drive you should see just over 150 if not slightly less. If you end up seeing a figure less then 137gb there you either don't have SP1 like some with original releases of XP or an older version of Windows if not simply creating too small of a size with a 3rd party software.
 
With hardware that old I think you will have LBA issues and will only see 137GB (127 formatted in windows) unless your manufacturer has a BIOS update.
 
There were a few bios overlay programs you may still find if the LBA mode is not available. But what we would mainly need to know is which version of Windows or OS you are running there. 98SE could be stretched on larger drives seeing only a single primary partition with certain tools provided the drive's manufacturer.
 
Hi ! Mine is version 2002,Service Pack 2 !
But is it good to have more and more memory, I have two choice 80G or 160G now :D
 
That isn't more memory but simply more hard drive space seen with a larger drive. The problem for either of the two sizes there with 2000 being the previous version is the size limitation without a 3rd party tool.

But at least that is still seeing NTFS for the file system since with either of the two sizes you are going over the 32gb mark. You may have to simply create two partitions rather then one depending on the partitioning tool used as well as bios limitations.
 
newbie123 said:
I am using a 20G hard drive (my computer: pentium 3,883MHz,256M ram), now if I don't want to use this one and try to replace it by a 160G hard drive, is there any problem (I mean can my OS received all 160G or it will not recognize about 40G ...)
When I install new hard drive, I must reinstall my programs ?
Thanks !!!
Click to expand...

Wow! How long have you owned your system? You may want to think about buying a refurbished computer for around $200 that would run circles around your current.
 
Some people are not in a position to run out and grab another "golden oldie" at any given time. Maybe newbie123 is already saving for a newer system? who knows! :P
 
Probably in 1999 since that's about the time frame there. The P3s started seeing ads back in 1995. Someone posted an ad on youtube if you can speak the language at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5TAih0jn8o but were first seen in 1992-93.

I remember seeing several of those ads mentioning PIIIs in IBM and other makes then. Intel finally solved one problem just to get the 733 and 800 models out in large quantity during early 2000. http://www.zen26266.zen.co.uk/P3-750-800.htm
 
The P3 was released in 1998. I know. I bought a P3-500 the week they came out (for the low, low price of $1500 for the processor).
 
P3 Coppermines (First P3's able to reach 866Mhz) were released in the last quarter of 1999 - I have 2 of them oldies...

For that old machine, I wouldn't even bother getting a new HD. I have no clues of what you use your computer for - but 20GB should do fine.
 
PC eye said:
You may have to simply create two partitions rather then one depending on the partitioning tool used as well as bios limitations.
Click to expand...

If you have a system that will only do 28-bit LBA, then it is very doubtful that multiple partitions will help, if that is what you're saying
 
At one time you could download a bios bypass program http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/over_DDO.htm in order to slip right past the limitation imposed by older systems. http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/index.htm

Regarding some of the old tools like EZ-Bios being a drive overlay to bypass the bios entirely for seeing a single working primary,

"On some motherboards, the bios is restrictive in letting you chose settings for your hard drive. IE: multi sector transfers and Logical block addressing. Both of wich increases overall harddrive performance in all versions of windows.
To Overcome this and enable these settings you can install EZ-BIOS on your hard drives via a simple little boot utility that you can get from either Maxtor or Western digital. " http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/windowsxp/articles/371/1/EZ-BIOS

I had 98SE running on a single primary first with a 120gb then later a 250gb ide drive simply by seeing the overlay by that name used. Ez-BIOS is found at http://www.tests-it.com/ezbios.htm
 
When you are stuck with a size limitation for partitions and want a larger drive on an older system your last option to see the full amount of increased drive space available is to create a second and even third partiton within the size limits you are confined to. Those will then appear as separate logical drives while Windows would be installed on the first allowing room for storage and backing things up on the one or more additional partitions.

With only one drive installed it's common practice to see a second one created for storing files there in case the primary ends up needing to be reformatted in case of a virus or some other reason like upgrade of OS. On a large drive with small partitions you can also dual boot Windows with Linux or another OS.

For seeing one single primary where the bios is the problem you then use a bios bypass utility like EZ-Bios. That's been around for a long time now.

When going to install a 250gb drive on an old custom case that certainly came in handy since the bios only allowed upto about 8gb at the time. Later on the next build the WD drive tool DrFat32 allowed 98SE to see the full use of the 250gb drive since the old version was Fat based and the updated fdiak drive tool was limited to 74gb.

Maxtor also offer a tool for their old Quantum drives for allowing full access when the bios on the board lacked the necessary LBA support. When without these tools however what do you do? either see one small primary leaving the rest of a drive unallocated or create multiple small partitions in order to see the entire drive available.
 
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