Guest Shirley_Crabtree Posted January 18, 2003 Report Share Posted January 18, 2003 Hi, I'm about to splash out on a new Hard Drive so I've been snooping around looking for a good deal.I just found this one at Ebuyer and I think it is the one I'd like.However my system is getting on a bit and I'm not sure if it would be compatible with it.Could someone please advise?System as follows (well....the relevant bits):-Mobo is a Gigabyte GA7IXE4,sorry I can't link to it but here is the support site (it's in frames) http://tw.giga-byte.com/support/support.htm256MB PC133 ram.Win XP ProCheers in anticipationShirl.PS.If this is in the wrong folder could one of you nice admin chaps please move it to the right one..TA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Timeforabeer Posted January 18, 2003 Report Share Posted January 18, 2003 Hi Shirley :D Personally...I prefer Seagate. I've had a few Maxtors before and I don't find them that reliable (although a few friends swear by them...I tend to swear at them) :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shirley_Crabtree Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 Ok....This is a shameless bump! :o The link mentions DMA/ATA 133 (Ultra) Fast drives as the interface but doesn't mention IDE.I'm a bit of a hardware thicko........will this drive work in an IDE environment?CheersShirl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Timeforabeer Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 Good evening Shirley :) Just checked in the manual on your link and it reckons that your mo/bo supports ultra dma33/ATA 66. You can connect the drive to your ide sockets but, I suspect you won't be able to see the full capacity of the drive unless gigabyte have a bios upgrade. You also won't be able to use the drives full transfer rate. :( Hope this makes some sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shirley_Crabtree Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 Good evening Shirley :) Just checked in the manual on your link and it reckons that your mo/bo supports ultra dma33/ATA 66. You can connect the drive to your ide sockets but, I suspect you be able to see the full capacity of the drive unless gigabyte have a bios upgrade. You also won't be able to use the drives full transfer rate. :( Hope this makes some sense.I'm even more confused now.In your quote :-You can connect the drive to your ide sockets but, I suspect you be able to see the full capacity of the drive unless gigabyte have a bios upgrade.Have you missed a word out somewhere?Like the word "won't" between the words you and be?Can you hazard a suggestion as to what my present system would see the drive as (In terms of GB?)I would be buying the drive as part of an on-going upgrade....I realise that my present system may have problems with it....but will it work "OK" for the time being?Cheers.Shirl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 The BIOS limit to HD capacity is 32GB for old BIOS`s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shirley_Crabtree Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 The BIOS limit to HD capacity is 32GB for old BIOS`sMy present Hdd is a paltry 10.2 GB so a jump to 32GB would be superb.(considering this is a stop-gap upgrade!TY Paul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Timeforabeer Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 Hi ShirlYes..I did miss out the word "won't"(i've got 10 thumbs when it comes to typing). I've gone through the manual again to see if it mentions anything about maximum hard disk size, but, it doesn't. I had a motherboard similar to yours in my last machine and when I installed a 40 GB Maxtor drive I saw 32 GB. And yeah.. it will work on your present motherboard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince of Calcutta Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 i'm sure that you should be able to partition the hard disk ? create 2 partitions of 30gb and get full use of the 60 gb? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince of Calcutta Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 aha, i saw a bios update for adding hard disks of sizes up to 75 gb! i couldn't find the mb in your link so i went to products and clicked on the discontinued link and found it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince of Calcutta Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 oops that was for the "GA-7IXE" mb while yours is the "GA-7IXE4" , in any case i think if you update your bios you should be able to make full use of the disk. try creating 2 partitions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Damo Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 Is updating your bios easy? My systems a year and a half old now so i suspect there would be an update available? Also where do i find bios updates?? ive not got my bios version at hand at the mo coz im at work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince of Calcutta Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 it's not too bad. but the general concensus on updating BIOS is :Do not update unless totally necessaryif you lose power or anything while updating itcould totally screw up your system.to update you bios you'll have to go to the manufacturers site and download the bios setup file. then insert a floppy and run the setup which will copy the necessary files to the floppy. then restart and boot from this floppy which should load the bios flashing program and do its thing and your done.most important thing is not to interupt the program while it is updating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Timeforabeer Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 i agree with prince of calcatta...I,ve done a couple of bios updates before ,and, they are not something i look forward to doing...unless it's absolutley vital <_< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 I,ve done a couple of bios updates before ,and, they are not something i look forward to doing...unless it's absolutley vitalWhen I built this puter im on now I had to update my BIOS from the start so it could recognise my XP2400 at the proper speed, I was not looking forward to it 1 bit but thanks to Asus it was a breeze, all done from within windows :o :o . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Timeforabeer Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 PaulI thought the Asus flash had to be used from a boot-up disk? I flashed an A7v and i had to make a boot disk and do it from that.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince of Calcutta Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 yeah paul, you flashed your bios from within windows?? :huh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 I originally tried to use Aflash which is what you are on about from a startup disk but it refused to work, so I had a dig around and stumbled upon the utility CD that came with my mobo, contained on this CD is a prog called Asus update, its a windows based program with a friendly GUI for updating your asus BIOS, all I had to do was show it the BIOS file I downloaded from ASUS and hit "Update" and it did the rest! all from within windows :o :o then a restart and BIOS configuration session later and the process was complete B) B) B) B) B) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shirley_Crabtree Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 Well....I did a bit more digging today and it seems that my bios supports up to 75GB HDD :D No need for a bios update!!Thanks all for your help,I'm very gratefull.Shirl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Timeforabeer Posted January 19, 2003 Report Share Posted January 19, 2003 Paul..I see what you mean....I've just dug out my Epox CD and it,s got one on there too :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shirley_Crabtree Posted January 20, 2003 Report Share Posted January 20, 2003 60GB HD on way...I can't wait!! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted January 20, 2003 Report Share Posted January 20, 2003 You wont know what to do with all that space :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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