How big a HD can I buy

[morabors]

I have 2 identical Compaqs. I replaced the 20 GIG on my sons a year ago with an 80 Gig, NP. Now my daughters is full. How do I tell how large a drive I can install. I am thinking I would like to install a 120Gig but I think there is a limitation in BIOS as to how big you can go. How do I find this limitation? Also, my PC is about 5 years old, can I use a SATA drive? Thanks

[Rocketmech]

120 should be find . The next barrier is 137g , and you need the right bios, controller and OS . If you have XP SP1 or W2K SP3 min. you could opt for a PCI IDE Controller card .
You might consider a DVD burner . They can burn 4.3 G of data per disk , multiply 100 disks = 430 G , and the data is portable. And they can share it , if you make it external.

120g IDE drive = 70us
Burner + 100disks = 70us
Controller+320g drive = 185us

*Newegg pricing

[morabors]

Thanks for the help, I know my daughter she will not want to load CF's, the machine already has a burner, Do you see any value in the adapter to go with SATA?

[Midknyte]

going sata wouldn't give you a performance advantage. stick with your EIDE for now.