Computer Upgrades

[jaxx]

ello

im looking to upgrade my current PC

its currently running 512mb of DDR ram but im looking to upgrade to 1Gig of Ram cos of some work im doing on it and its begining to get a bit bogged down. AutoCAD and solid modeling to be precise.

Im also looking to fit a 120GB hardisc and separate into 20gb partitions to make storage of the imense amoun of files i have a bit more easy to organise as im filling the std 80gb hardisc too quickly and soon need to swap 40gb of data over from my laptop before it goes to its new owner! im pretty certain the pc has room for another drive

im a bit clued up on what to do but not 100% and looking for advice on how to go about it the right way

if you need more info let me know

ta

[Jamesb4uk]

try these guys

http://www.rlsupplies.co.uk/

i know what you mean about drive space... ive filled up 1 120gb drive and 3/4 of my second 120gb drive.

RL supplies do 160gb Maxtor drives for about 80 quid.

J

[Bibbs]

I've just gone for a new Processor, Mobo, Graphics card and Memory from www.overclockers.co.uk ..

now running 2.2Ghz, 512Mb ram and it's all 400mhz bus compatable - was £200 ..

Next want to get 2x 160GB serial ATA disks .. loads quicker than IDE ..

[jaxx]

cheers so far gents ill check the webs

can you tell me the different types of hardrives and what do i need exactactly to match my mother board?

[Bibbs]

Has your Mobo got Serial ATA support? If so -Here

[vmail]

4 main types of HDD,

USB2, IDE(standard), SATA(Newest), SCSI

most MB support IDE, you many need a IDE splitter cable so you can have 2 HDD on 1 channel, you will need to change one of the jumpers

my Spec

Asus P4C800 Deluxe

P4 3.3GHz with HT

2GB RAM (512MB uses for RAM, 1.5GB used as a extra HDD(writes at 6.4GB/s))

128MB GPU

2x35GB Raptor SATA(Stripe Raid)

2x200GB Maxtor PATA(Mirror Raid)

52x Plextor CDRW

8x NEC DVD Burner

14 fans

plus many more things

DELL would stell it for £5500, I just spent £1800 (June 2003 except DVD Burner)

[jaxx]

ill check on that bibbs................in fact HOW do i check that!

cheers vmail for the info

ill also need help with the BIOS and doing the partitions but ill ask that later

[vmail]

hi Bibbs, 7200RPM SATA are PATA with SATA convertor, proper SATA are 10000RPM

[vmail]

post a pic of ur MB using you cam phone, partitions are done by software like FDISK, not your BIOS, do you have XP?

you will need to use FDISK from a bootable floppy

I wouldnt mess with FDISK, I just used XP to share folders on my network then MAPPED the drives, this way is slightly different because there is no limit to the disk size

[jaxx]

ill get ua one later vmail

man you guys know your stuff!

[jaxx]

oh yeah ive got XP Home too and i though you had to configure BIOS to switch the disc on?

[vmail]

there is a trick, when ppl plug it in and turn on they get a black screen, simply take out the new HDD so you have only got the old one it, load BIOS, goto detect new drives, plug in the new drive, if using the same cable 1 HDD must be set to Master(this one will boot up) and the other Slave, goto detect new drives again, save and reboot, XP will then install your drive, this may take 2 mins, and XP might ask you to reboot(make sure you are not using hibernate)

[vmail]

XP Home, get rid of it, use XP Pro, Win 2000 or Win 2003, had prob when settin up network drive on XP Home on my bros Laptop

[jaxx]

there is a trick, when ppl plug it in and turn on they get a black screen, simply take out the new HDD so you have only got the old one it, load BIOS, goto detect new drives, plug in the new drive, if using the same cable 1 HDD must be set to Master(this one will boot up) and the other Slave, goto detect new drives again, save and reboot, XP will then install your drive, this may take 2 mins, and XP might ask you to reboot(make sure you are not using hibernate)

nice one ta!

ive got pro on the laptop and will be loading onto the desktop when i can be bothered

[MyV6Flys]

??? I hear lots of talk about HUGE hard drives. is anyone backing up all that data ???

I don't know what you are putting on there, but a good rule of thumb.

Always back up data you don't want to reenter or can't recreate, like home pictures. When the hard drive dies, so does your chances of getting stuff back off them.

[Fidgits]

oh yeah ive got XP Home too and i though you had to configure BIOS to switch the disc on?

Only if your adding a HDD.

If your replacing it, then no. And all you need to do is check that its set up for auto-detect (which is default anyway).

If your gonna use FDISK, you dont want to do it on your boot HDD, cos you get it wrong...

You'll need to make a system disk (use make boot disk on XP), then you want to copy FDISK and FORMAT onto the floppy.

Boot the PC with the disk in, to DOS, then type A:/FDISK

I'd reccomend a max of 3 partitions (giving you 4 segments on the drive). Once you have saved the partitions, you want to format them. You can use DOS or XP (I think, only been using XP a couple of days).

[Fidgits]

XP Home, get rid of it, use XP Pro, Win 2000 or Win 2003, had prob when settin up network drive on XP Home on my bros Laptop

? What problems have you had???

I've just built a system with XP home, and it networked fine (with my 2000 Pro laptop)

[jaxx]

fidge - i actually want to add the drive in as a secondary one

keep the 80gig for progs and split the 120gig into 6 20gig partitions each one will have a specific kind of data on it

[dazwan]

...Always back up data you don't want to reenter or can't recreate, like home pictures. When the hard drive dies, so does your chances of getting stuff back off them.

I almost lost 4 years worth of data because I didn't have a backup of my striped RAID array. For some reason the machine decided that it didn't want an array anymore and removed it when I installed a new hard drive.

If you think getting data back off a single disk is hard try rebuilding a Striped Array. I eventually got the data back after about a week of hair pulling and disk scanning.

Ironically the thing that caused the Mobo to remove the stripe set is because I'd added a new HD to replace the array as I was worried about losing the data if the stripe set failed Since this I use the old drives that made up the array as backups for the new HD.

[MyV6Flys]

Good job getting it back, here in the states they sell stand alone USB 180 GIG harddrives. There COOL, just plug it in the usb port, the system will see it and you can drop 180 gig on it. Unplug it from the usb port and put it in a safe place. No format, partitioning moving jumpers. Just plug it in and use it.

They run about 180 dollars here, but that can be CHEEP compared to loosing all the data.

[vmail]

??? I hear lots of talk about HUGE hard drives. is anyone backing up all that data ???

I don't know what you are putting on there, but a good rule of thumb.

Always back up data you don't want to reenter or can't recreate, like home pictures. When the hard drive dies, so does your chances of getting stuff back off them.

or create a mirror raid array, backup is automatic, and if one of the HDD fails you data is not lost

[MyV6Flys]

We lost 3 drives in one raid array in a power outage at the same time. But everything here also goes to Tape backup nightly. So we lost nothing but, the time restoring the system.

As a Rule a harddrives life cycle is about 5 years. Loosing a 4 years old array to a power loss can be costly in hard drive loss.

If you only trust the array you may get bit down the road.

We would have lost data the day we lost 3 drives.

[dazwan]

I have a removeable caddy for all the spare HD's.

I even have an old 8Gb disk in a tray which has a basic XP install. If I lose the OS I can just clone this drive onto the main drive and I'm back i business within a few hours. No messing about with drivers or reistalling core Apps (Word, Photoshop, etc.)

[MyV6Flys]

I've been doing this stuff since 1982, I have seen a lot of data become TOAST over the years. Just like to warn other who do not have a plan..........

[jaxx]

i like the idea of this USB drive

surely i can tkae it from computer to computer aswell??? (obviously as long as its got a USB port :D )