Hard Drive Brands - Best One is???

[cutie_pyie]

Hi Guys!! (and other gals, if any).

I have a Dell Dimension 8100 PC, 1.3Ghz P-4 with a 40GB
7200rpm IBM HDD (ATA/IDE) running Win ME, built in 2001.

I want to install Windows XP and another HDD, so I will have two drives.
The current drive cable is blue end to MB, Black END to existing IBM HDD, middle connector grey = empty. The IBM HD has jumper set to cable select.

1). Of the 3 brands of HDs that I know about: Western Digital; Maxtor; Seagate; what is the buying order of preference?
2). And are they still available as ATA/IDE? I don't need a massive size drive, something around 80 to 100GB wud be enough for me I guess.
3). Is a 5400 rpm drive as good as a 7200rpm one? (a friend gave me his old (2001) Western Digital400 5200rpm 40GB one.
It only has jumper settings for single, master, or slave.
4). If I set it to slave and install on middle connector, will it be recognized properly?

Sometimes when I bootup, there is a strange noise coming from the PC, can't determine if it is the HDD or the Fan!

5). Do any of you know of any free diagnostic pgms out there to use on HDD to test if it really IS going bad?

If the IBM drive IS going bad, I wud want to get a new drive and use it as the primary for WIn XP and have the WD 5400rpm one as secondary drive for Windows ME. I still use a lot of DOS pgms that I know will not run under XP.

As always, I thank you VERY much for your knowledge and expertise in these matters!!

Sincerly,

Cindy:-@ :t

[ukulele]

Actually most of those old programs will run on XP if they still worked on WinME. Look for a drive with a 7200 rpm speed and 5 year warranty. The brand is debateable. This month it's Seagates, next month who knows? That strange noise at boot is most likely a dirty case, cpu or PSU fan. Crack the case and clean them all out with a small artists brush and some canned air or a vacum cleaner, even the one in the PSU needs to be cleaned but be careful the capacitors could still be charged and give you a bit of a surprise.

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by cutie_pyie
(a friend gave me his old (2001) Western Digital400 5200rpm 40GB one.
It only has jumper settings for single, master, or slave.
4). If I set it to slave and install on middle connector, will it be recognized properly?

5). Do any of you know of any free diagnostic pgms out there to use on HDD to test if it really IS going bad?


4. Probably, but change the IBM jumper to Master w/slave and then set the WD to slave.

5. Every drive maker makes their own diag program. You can download them.

IDE drives are very much available.

[cutie_pyie]

guys,
I got the 2nd HDD to work and be recognized but there is a problem with the drive letter assignments.
The original HDD was partitioned (using Powerquests Partition Magic pgm) as C: = primary boot, D:, E: & F: partitions as logical.
Now that I have added 2nd Western Digital HDD, IT became drive "D" and threw else everything else off. How do I make the 2nd hard drive letter what I want (still running under windows ME)???

Thanks again!!

Sincerely,
Cindy:-@ :t

[Midknyte]

you can't. that's just the way it is with win9x. the primary partitions are always first, then the logicals.

[Imperion1]

Use fdisk, switch to the second hard drive and make it an extended drive, instead of a primary. This will make it the last logical hard drive, giving it the next drive letter after the other drives.
All of my additional hard drives are extended drives.

How to use Fdisk (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;255867)

[G]

Hi,
The following instructions below are for FDISKing, partitioning, and FORMATing a single or multiple HDDs. You will find the solution to your enquiry in here.

Using Fdisk.

If you wish only to have one HDD as primary then the process should be simple.

This is the procedure, which should allow you to format your hard drive as painless as possible.

1. Place a bootable diskette (Win98 Start-up, or Windows Boot Diskette) in to the floppy drive immediately after power on (make sure that your bios settings, start-up options/sequence indicates that the first start-up drive is the floppy drive or a:\> )
2. You will be presented with the a:\> prompt
3. At the a:\> prompt type dir Hence, you will have a:\>dir (Press enter (return key))
4. A screen will appear with the contents of your bootable floppy disk.
5. The file which you require is called Fdisk
6. At the a:\> prompt type Fdisk Hence, you will have a:\>Fdisk (Press enter (return key))
7. A screen will appear stating at the bottom ‘Do you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)’. Indicate Y for yes, unless you wish to have FAT16 (limit 2GB).
8. The next screen represents Fdisk options. These range from 1-4 (but you may have fives options if you have more than one HDD connected to your computer)
9. To establish the state of your hard drive, go to option 4 (Display partition information)
10. This screen will either show that you have a partitioned hard drive or that no partition(s) were detected. If a partition is detected it will inform you which partition is the active partition. If you have partitions already, I would recommend deleting each one, rebooting, and then recreating partitions. (See below).
11. If no partition(s) were detected, and bearing in mind that you will need a partitioned hard drive in order to format your hard drive; press Esc to get out of this screen and back to the Fdisk option screen.
12. Press Fdisk option 1 (Create dos partition or logical disc drive)
13. The Create dos partition or logical disk dive menu screen appears
14. Press create dos partition or logical disk drive option 1 (Create primary dos partition). It is necessary to have a primary partition otherwise you will not be able to install Windows. You can stipulate the size you would like your primary partition to be (a maximum of 2GB if you want FAT16). Any other partitions you wish to have will be up to you.
15. Press Esc and go back to the Fdisk options screen
16. Press Fdisk options 2 (Set active partition). You will need to do this if you wish to install Windows. Follow the instructions. It is self-explanatory. (Create an active partition or change it.
17. Press Esc until you arrive back at Fdisk options.
18. Press Fdisk options 4 (Display partition information)
19. You should find that you now have one primary partition, which is ‘active’. (This procedure will help you to manipulate the active partition of a single HDD).
20. Press Esc until you arrive at the a:\> prompt
21. Warm boot (reboot) your computer without the floppy in the floppy diskette drive and you should now be able to go in to Windows using your HDD as the only HDD connected to your computer.
22. If you wish to have additional partitions these can be in the form of three additional primary partitions (four in total is the limit) or create an extended partition and multiple logical dos partitions.
23. Each time you create a partition I would recommend that you exit FDISK, reboot, and then continue.

Using format for one or more partitions

24. At the a:\> type format c:/s (This MS-Dos switch may not happen because c:> will not have any system files on it and for the simple fact that no Ram will make it impossible to use this switch). The difficulty here is that if you are using an EBD (Emergency Boot Disc) you will need to insert your EBD, restart your computer, and change directories to the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive (usually one drive letter ahead of where it typically resides because of the RAM drive created by EBD). If EBD still does not boot your CD-ROM then the drivers on your EBD do not include your CD-ROM device driver or a generic device driver to do the job instead. You will need to edit your Config.sys file adding the necessary line for your CD-ROM device driver and maybe even the CD-ROM device driver on to the EBD). However, if all is well continue as instructed below.
25. Hence, you have a:\>format(space)c:/s (Note also if you receive a ‘Bad command’ or ‘Bad file name’ error message, you will need to extract the Format.com tool to boot your disc.
26. Type at the prompt , hence, a:>extract(space)ebd.cab(space)format.com
27. After Format.com is extracted to your boot disk and the MS-Dos command prompt is displayed, type format c:/s Or type format drive: for partition(s) not marked as your active partition. Follow the instruction on the screen . I have already explained what to do in the above explanation so I will not repeat myself, and bore you to tears.
28. The /s switch will copy system files to the ‘c’ partition on your hard drive. The system files are essential if you wish to install Windows. Without the system file, the partition will not be recognised. Otherwise forget the sys switch and simply boot from the Windows CD-ROM (CD-ROM must be inserted, BIOS change to CD-ROM as the first start-up device).

If you have two HDDs installed (note you will have to configure the HDDs as instructed by your motherboard manufactures HDD manual), place you EBD or Windows installation boot disc in to the floppy diskette drive. Boot your computer. Go to
1. ‘Start computer without CD-ROM support’ and press enter.
2. Place a bootable diskette in to the floppy drive immediately after power on (make sure that your bios settings, start-up options/sequence indicates that the first start-up drive is the floppy drive or a:\> )
3. You will be presented with the a:\> prompt
4. At the a:\> prompt type dir Hence, you will have a:\>dir (Press enter (return key)
5. A screen will appear with the contents of your bootable floppy disk.
6. The file which you require is called Fdisk
7. At the a:\> prompt type Fdisk Hence, you will have a:\>Fdisk (Press enter (return key)
8. A screen will appear stating at the bottom ‘Do you wish to enable large disk support (Y/N)’. Indicate Y for yes, unless you wish to have FAT16 (limit 2GB).
9. The next screen represents Fdisk options. These range from 1-5. (Note, 5) = Change current fixed disk drive (this option is only available if you have more than one physical hard disks correctly configured in your in computer)
10. In order to set the new HDD primary partition with the OS installed press option 5 (Change current fixed disk drive (this option is only available if you have one physical hard disks correctly configured in your in computer). Indicate which drive you wish to focus on. You will need to indicate your new drive. You will need to get a display, which lists the five options as before but instead for the new drive. Now set the primary partition with the OS installed as active for the new HDD. Follow the instructions for partitioning a single HDD. Note you do not necessarily have to have a primary partition. You could have logical dos partitions which originate from the extended partition on HDD number one for example and so do not have to be set ‘active’ either.
11. To establish the state of your hard drive, go to option 4 (Display partition information)
12. The following screens should indicate to you the physical HDD (s) and their status.
13. Press Esc and go back to the Fdisk options screen and then Esc out of Fdisk and Restart your computer.
14. Boot your computer. Go to ‘Start computer CD-ROM support’ and press enter.
15. If this does not work boot your computer. Go to ‘Start computer CD-ROM without support’ and press enter.
16. Select the drive letter for your CD-ROM device and type ‘setup’. Windows should start to go through the installation process.

As you would expect, there are many complications that may arise, and many configurations that may be involved. The information I present above to you is for the well behaved, hassle free HDD(s) and the like, within reason.

If there is anything, which is unclear, do not hesitate to get back in contact. I will be happy to augment these instructions further if necessary.

I hope that this will be of some use to you. Let me know how you get on.

Happy FDISKing and FORMATting.

G

PS: I only buy Maxtor. Whether SCSI, SATA or PATA.


The reason that your second HDD is now D: is because it is a primary filesystem.

[COLN]

About a year ago, there was a discussion on Maxtor and WD because they were claimng the warranty period started on the date of manufacturer. I'd check that out first. The drives that I have seen on retail shelves (WD & Maxtor) only list a one year warranty. Seagate was five so I bought a Seagate.

[ukulele]

Originally posted by cutie_pyie
guys,
I got the 2nd HDD to work and be recognized but there is a problem with the drive letter assignments.
The original HDD was partitioned (using Powerquests Partition Magic pgm) as C: = primary boot, D:, E: & F: partitions as logical.
Now that I have added 2nd Western Digital HDD, IT became drive "D" and threw else everything else off. How do I make the 2nd hard drive letter what I want (still running under windows ME)???

Thanks again!!

Sincerely,
Cindy:-@ :t

If you want to identify the drives use a volume label instead of a drive letter. Drive letters often change with hardware changes.

[cutie_pyie]

Imperion1 and G,

If I Fdisk as you have described, will it create any problems if I want to install Windows XP to the 2nd HDD and keep WinME on the first till I get used to XP??

Thanks again!

Cin:-@ :t

[G]

No. You can dual boot WinME and WinXP.

Install WinME on HDD 1 (technically 0) on partition 1 (otherwise known as drive C: ) and then install WinXP on HDD 2 (technically 1) on partition 2 (otherwise known as drive D: ).

Make C: a primary partition and D: an extended partition with a single logical DOS drive.

Do not under any circumstance format C: if WinME gets in to trouble some time in the future or you will lose access to WinXP as its system boot files will be installed in this volume.


Make sure you have a sound backup program and routine and then you can relax.