Need to "mirror" HD but stuck with Windows NT

[sawduster2]

I have a 12 year old Dell P2 running Windows NT (Service Pack 3) running 24/7 operating the control of a piece of equipment. The HD is starting to act up (it has 2 HD's @ 13.6 GB). I would readily replace the computer with a new model but I have a problem with the software that runs the equipment - I don't have the reinstall disk and can't get another. It seems the only option I have is to buy 2 new IDE HD's and hopefully mirrow both drives and hope it will continue to run. I plan to purchase a hard drive dock to facilitate the HD copy.

Should I replace the HD's with the exact same 13.6 GB HD's (around $300 for both) or go with a less expensive and newer design 80 GB Western Digital IDE model ($88 for 2). It's been a while since I used Windows NT but I've read that NT will only read about 4 GB partitions. I will not utilize any extra HD capacity as the computer is only for monitoring the equipment (the computer is only using about half the current 13.6 GB capacity). I fear if I use the less expensive HD's the bios may struggle with the extra large unused partitions.

Any suggestions, advice or warning?

[Seshomaru Samma]

I would use this with the new Western Digital model.

The BIOS will be fine. you can always use gparted to expand some of the partition.