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Thread ID: 24761	2002-09-18 08:18:00	Upgrade H.D	J ZEP (336)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
80644	2002-09-18 08:18:00	Hi all, i am hoping to upgrade my harddrive soon from 20GB to about 60GB, (reason being my 20GB is close to full now). I have been told i have 2 options here: 1. Keep the 20GB i have already and not lose anything i have now and add another 40GB separately. 2. Add it all at once as 60GB and lose what i already have. Now i was hoping for some feedback and peoples personal experiences into the pros and cons of doing it in either way. e.g is it better for a specific reason to go with the 60GB total in one way or visa versa. Also am wanting to get some more RAM too - have 256 now and would like to go to 512, would it be best to get the 2 things done at the same time? and same goes for ram should i go for a new total 512ram or just add another 256? **I would like to be able to keep what i have on the 20GB now tho. Any help or ideas appreciated as i am not very up on things in these area's. Thanks :-) p.s using win. XP home.	J ZEP (336)
80645	2002-09-18 09:13:00	Ok having seperate means you have 2 drives (ah duh) Positives, seperate drive to hold critical data, good if one crashes negatives, using up one of your IDE ports If you go for 60G you can copy everything across by using Norton Ghost As for your ram, doesn't matter if you have 2 x 256 or 1 x 512.	roofus (483)
80646	2002-09-18 09:39:00	> As for your ram, doesn't matter if you have 2 x 256 > or 1 x 512 . Actually it does, or it MAY do . Look up the requirements for your motherboard, there can be limitations . If its an OEM BIOS (HP or Compaq etc machine) there can be some limitations over and above the Motherboard maker . e . g . an HP 8624 is BIOS limited to 256 Mb (2x128) even though the motherboard specs is OK for 2x256 = 512 MB . OEM BIOS limits it .	godfather (25)
80647	2002-09-18 09:42:00	and if that was the case as godfather says, it means your computer is old, and may only support up to 32gig of harddrive!!	roofus (483)
80648	2002-09-18 09:52:00	Not that old....could be up to a 1 GHZ PIII, supporting 40 GB drives, in one case I know. Another model even younger will only accept single bank sticks, it just pays to check, is what I am suggesting.	godfather (25)
80649	2002-09-18 10:34:00	J Zep are you limited to 60GB total for hard drives on your machine's specs? If you aren't, then why not keep the 20GB and still buy the 60GB? If it were me I would be adding a hard drive, not replacing one as a second drive would be very handy for backups . And if your machine can take the extra RAM then go ahead and do it while the hard drive is being done . It's only a two minute job while the cover is already off . Add another 256MB rather than replace yours with a 512MB . Cheaper that way . Why aren't you installing it/them yourself, by the way? :D	Susan B (19)
80650	2002-09-18 12:50:00	Thanks guys and girls, my computer is about 9 months old and still under warranty so if i attempt to do it myself i am voiding the warranty - so it is definately going to be a shop job (pity)- now how do i find out these specs that i need to check - i don't know what the motherboard is and have seen through this forum that i can do that by taking the cover off (once again something i can't do) the only other imfo i have in relation to the bios is: Bios Version:Award Software, Inc. ASUS A7A266 ACPI BIOS Revision 1008. Other specs are: AMD Athlon XP1600+, speed 1399Mhz. And how do i find out if i am limited to 60GB on my specs? If i took Susans method of adding 60GB total and keeping 20GB as a backup how would that work - would i just be able to put the 20GB back in at my leisure/when needed kind of thing? - (Sorry but i am not very up on this side of things) Which does sound like a good idea. What bugs me the most is when we brought the puter we were newbies (i used and learnt computers 10 years ago but had had a ten year break)and explained that to the sales guy and what we wanted out of the computer and that we didn't want to be upgrading in 6 months time due to lack of memory - space etc... - e.g Main specifications were a very capable gaming machine and that i do lots of photo work and so on and as advised by others to make sure we had enough Ram and a big Hd.... Anyway here we are 9 months later and after learning alot ourselves in this time - getting exactly what we asked the salesguy to make sure we had enough of X-( - Goodness i know things are outdated as soon as you get them these days - but even for just a good gaming and photo machine we should have been given the 512ram and at least 40gig i think pesonally now i have learnt alot more. Thems the breaks anyway - so as i said how do i find out what i can add? Thanking you all :-)	J ZEP (336)
80651	2002-09-18 12:59:00	Well apparantly you can find that out by reading the mobo manual - but I have been pouring over mine and can find everything but that! I have been following this thread with interest as I also want to add an extra HD for backup purposes and I am toying with the idea of giving Linux SuSe a go. I don't want to trash my PC so thought by putting in a 2nd drive I could play safely. Jen	Jen C (20)
80652	2002-09-18 13:13:00	Do you have access to the SuSe-Linux 7 CD set?	Chris Wilson (431)
80653	2002-09-18 13:22:00	> ...if i attempt to do it myself i am voiding the warranty - so it is definately going to be a shop job (pity)- now how do i find out these specs that i need to check - i don't know what the motherboard is and have seen through this forum that i can do that by taking the cover off (once again something i can't do)... Not necessarily. Read your warranty carefully - most have a statement saying that you are allowed to take the cover off and you are allowed to do minor things like add components such as hard drives and memory. What you arn't allowed to do is change processor, configuration of the mboard etc.	SoniKalien (792)
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