milkman2283 wrote:
> My PC is going out and I wonder if the hard drive with the operating system
> will work in my other computer? The one going out is an HP with 512 RAM and
> the other is a Compact (older model) with about 200 RAM.
Both of the computers are likely to be older units. They probably
have IDE ribbon cable interfaces on the disk drives.
You can move the drive from the 512MB computer, to the other computer,
making that drive a data drive.
X -------------------------X-----X
200MB | |
Computer Guest The_200_boot_drive
Motherboard Hard
IDE Connector Drive
Older computers generally have two motherboard IDE connectors,
and two ribbon cables. Each ribbon cable has two connectors up
near one end. Currently, of that four drive capacity, you are
likely connected to at least one hard drive and one CDROM drive,
with the ribbon cables. There could be two connector positions
that remain unfilled, on the two cables.
When you move the disk from the broken machine, over to the other
one, the jumpers on the drive must be set appropriately. Drives
use either "Master-Slave" or "Cable_Select - Cable_Select" when
combined on the ribbon cable.
Ribbon cables come in two types, one having 40 wires (the wires look
a little thicker). The other kind has 80 wires. The 40 wire cables
used to be used on CDROM drives. The 80 wire cables are noted
for supporting faster transfer rates and for making "Cable_Select"
jumpering to work. I try to use only 80 wire cables in my computers
here, as then the Cable Select option will work.
Pre-built computer makers like "Cable Select" jumpering, because
they can set all the drives they install with "CS" jumper, and then
one or two drives can share an 80 wire cable without complaint.
If any of the cables were the 40 wire kind, you could jumper one
drive to "Master" and the other drive to "Slave".
In terms of "fill order" for the ribbon cable, if you have just one
drive, it goes on the end connector. The second drive is added to the
middle connector. Since you'd be adding the first drive to the end
of the cable, it might have started life as "Master", and the new
drive being added to the middle connector would be "Slave".
Basic proof the drives are being detected, is to look in the BIOS screen
at startup. The BIOS has some key you press, so you can examine the settings.
You may be able to determine what drives were detected that way,
without booting into Windows.
In terms of the size of the drive supported, my guess is your machines
would support up to a 137GB drive. Since the largest drive below that
limit is 120GB, then that would likely be the largest drive you would
expect to see support for. If you go back to motherboards that are
12 years old, then you may begin to see machines with 64GB limits.
Machines later than 2003 should have 48 bit LBA support and can handle
IDE hard drives larger than 137GB. I'm guessing your machines are a bit
older than that.
If you wanted to be absolutely sure the drive size could be supported
in an older computer, you can get a PCI IDE controller card. For example,
I'm using my Promise Ultra133 card right now, controlling two 160GB
drives. I'm using that controller card, since I just changed motherboards,
and Windows was able to boot, since it already had drivers for the card.
(This card is no longer being manufactured, so Ebay would be the most
likely way to get this particular model now. There are other brands
of cards which could perform a similar function, but there are fewer
of them available as time goes on. I'm glad I have a handful of
various versions of this.)
http://www.directdial.com/ULTRA 133 ROHS.html
So yes, chances are you can move the drive from the broken
computer, into your other computer. The main benefit of doing so,
is not the "booting" part - it would be to save your data files,
rescue your email database or the like. The "booting" idea likely
wouldn't work so well.
Depending on what OS is on the 200MB computer, you could have a problem
reading the disk. WinXP understands NTFS and FAT32. Win98 understands FAT32.
If you move a disk with an NTFS partition on it to a Win98 machine, I doubt
you'll be able to read it. If you boot a free Linux LiveCD, those too
understand NTFS and FAT32, and if necessary you can do maintenance and
rescue files that way.
There isn't always unambiguous information available, as to
what hardware will work in what computer. I'm able to find the
odd note about disk size limits, for a few older motherboards, but
in general, if asked about 10,000 different models of pre-built
computer, I doubt info is available for even 1% of them, as to
size limits and the like. The size issue can be defeated by using
controller cards, but the best time to have bought one of those,
is years ago, while the companies were still interested in making
them. (In fact, I remember buying a Maxtor drive years ago,
and an Ultra100 card was bundled with the purchase, so in fact
that should have brought a flood of PCI IDE cards to market.
That is how I got one of my controller cards sitting in my
junk collection.)
USB enclosures for hard drives are another solution. The 200MB
computer might only have USB 1.1 on it, and if that was the case,
data transfer rates over USB 1.1 would take forever. If the
200MB computer was fitted with a PCI USB2 card, then the USB
enclosure idea is an alternative way of making the hardware
connection.
The USB enclosure provides more protection for the hard drive,
than some other solutions. You can also buy disk connection kits,
which consist of a USB to IDE adapter, a power supply to power the
disk, and then the disk can sit on the table next to the computer.
For temporary disk maintenance, this approach eliminates the
step of having to assemble the USB hard drive enclosure box and
put the screws in it. But this solution provides no mechanical
protection for the drives, so you have to be absolutely sure
the drive won't get bumped, if you use one of these. And again,
the PC you connect this to via USB, should support USB2, to
get decent transfer rates (30MB/sec over USB2, 1MB/sec over USB1.1).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119152
Paul
