- My Gateway PC is low on HD space, need add hard drive!
- Posted by JohnCM on May 26th, 2004
I have a Gateway Essential 933C with a Flex ATX case. I've had it for
awhile, I'd say over 3 years. I'm running Windows ME and have a 20GB
hard drive, with just about 2GB of space left. Most of it is claimed
by mp3's which take up over 10GB.
It would be silly to buy another PC, so how would I go about adding a
hard drive? I hear USB drives are more expensive, and arent as fast as
"traditional" IDE drives. But I dont think I have any extra room in my
case for another hard drive. So I dont know how I could use an
internal hard drive, which are cheaper, and offer quicker access.
I dont want to be spending more than $200 on this upgrade. Any ideas?
I could replace the existing hard drive, but that would mean copying
huge amounts of files, and re-installing Windows ME. I just want to
add another hard drive. What's the best way to go about it?
Also my USB ports are all full so I'd need a hub or expander of some
sort, if I go the external route.
- Posted by kony on May 26th, 2004
On 25 May 2004 23:11:34 -0700, qtraindash7@optonline.net (JohnCM) wrote:
Replace the current drive with one having higher capacity. 120GB drives
can be found in the local newspapers for less than $100.
Retail packaged drives will typically come with (or it's downloaded from
manufacturer's website) a floppy or CD to copy over the old drive to the
new... it's quick and relatively easy, no reinstalling the OS or anything
of the sort, all you might need do is temporarily have one drive sitting
on top (or next to) the case if there isn't room to mount both drives in
the case simultaneously during the copy operation.
Keep in mind that the new drive may run warmer than the old, if the case
has poor airflow you could potentially need find a way to increase that
airflow. If you open the case immediately after shutting off the system
and feel the drive it should give you some idea... if the current drive
feels pretty warm it's a fair bet the new drive will need something done,
though you can always repeat this simple test after installing the new
drive, and if your case has an empty 5.25" external bay there are also
HDD bay coolers that could hold the new drive, would improve the cooling.
An internal drive is the way to go, it'll be much faster than your current
drive and also much faster than an external drive, though with the old
drive left over you might consider an external enclosure for it, to make
periodic backups.
Your system might not support HDDs over 128GB in size. If you were
considering larger sized drives then check for a bios update to address
this. The system "should" have already had support for up to 128GB as it
shipped from the factory, assuming it started out as a 933MHz system, new
~ 3 years ago.
- Posted by DaveW on May 26th, 2004
If you get a USB external drive it HAS to be USB version 2.0, and your
computer does not currently contain USB 2.0; it has USB 1.1. You would have
to install a USB 2.0 PCI card.
--
DaveW
"JohnCM" <qtraindash7@optonline.net> wrote in message
news:de3c86c3.0405252211.7e20b8e@posting.google.co m...
- Posted by kony on May 27th, 2004
On Wed, 26 May 2004 23:08:15 GMT, "DaveW" <none@zero.org> wrote:
What are you smoking?
There is no "had to be" to it.
It is a fact that any enclosure bought will run from his USB1.1 ports,
albeit at the much slower USB1.1 rate. Even so, USB2 is drastically
slower than onboard PATA ports, it would make no sense to buy BOTH an
enclosure and a USB2 card instead of firewire (1394) enclosure and PCI
card, unless he has specific need for USB2 support on other devices.
- Posted by kony on May 27th, 2004
On Wed, 26 May 2004 22:13:42 -0400, Trent© <trentsauder@hotmail.com>
wrote:
Flex ATX case though, even if there is room to shoehorn in another drive
they'd almost certainly be stacked atop each other, degrading the already
marginal cooling.
