2nd hard drive

doggy

Hope I'm not covering old ground but I tried a search on this subject and didn't turn up the info I needed. Basically, the PC at home is a 97 Gateway P166MMX, 16MB RAM, 2GHD etc. My parents use it a bit for work, internet and I have a couple of games on it. We want to increase the space available as 2Gigs is nothing, so I'm looking into buying a 2nd HD (10-20GB or so). I was told by someone that I'd be limited to the size of the new HD because my old one is so small. Surely, once a spare ribbon is available it's just a case of plugging in the new HD (with maybe another fan if required for cooling)? What would be the biggest HD I could go for?

hussey

I have a p3 gateway bought in '99
I tried to install a HD (40Gb one ) and it wouldn't accept it

It would accept a 20Gb one though

but fairly old motherboards will prob not accept one that is massive

try a another small HD - eg 2/4Gb one
10/20Gb might be too big

tribble

You are limited by your bios -

check Gateway support pages here for update and info on you motherboard.

Note - you will need to know what bios you have (make and model) - This info is displayed in the bios settings screen. Usually press del, F1, F2 or ESC as the computer boots, to enter. Try all together usually works!

UPDATE - GATEWAY COMPUTERS PRESS F1 TO ENTER BIOS see infohere

Also read the online info re you motherboard for details on max HD size. This info is usually out of date however so read the info on the all the bios's issued for you board to check if it has been updated to cope with bigger HD's

Easy pZee

b:)

Mixie

I have a Gateway G5166m p166mmx system on the desk here beside me, and before upgrades, its min specs were 16mb ram, 2gb HD etc.

Gateway up to a year ago were able to provide tech support / information on the system, but when i rang up last, they told me that the g5166m system's info was no longer available because it was so old!

Just to give you an idea though, the limit for my system (according to Gateway about 5 months after i bought the PC) was the existing 2gb, and an additional 8gb MAX - so i put an 8gb IBM drive in it, and its worked fine for the past few years...

doggy

Yeah, G5 166, thats exactly the same as my one. I'm off to get me an 8gig HD (after I double check the mobo manual, just to be safe). Thanks a million guys. I checked all the usual suspects websites: Komplett, marx, etc and the smallest drive I could find was 10GB, so for a bonus point could anyone point me in the direction of a company that deals with stone age spec HW like 8gig drives? Thanks again folks

Gerry

You can put any hard drive you want into the machine.
If the bios cannot see it, you can get drive translation software from the manufacturers website which will allow the drive to work with your pc. If you run win2k or xp, you don't need to do this as these operating systems bypass the bios when accessing the hard drive ( though it may not boot off the drive in this case ).
This drive translation software definitely works, I got a 20 gig drive to work in a 486 before with this method.

Mixie

I wasn't aware of that, will hook up a 60gb to over the weekend if i get a chance - 8gb just doesnt go as far as it used to

Gerry

I forgot to mention the fact that drive translation will make access to the drive much slower. OOPS