a P233 and 200GB Hard drive question

[whatnow]

I've got an old P233 or so computer at home and I was wondering if it can handle a 200GB Hard drive? It's running windows 98, might have up to 64MB of RAM and probably a graphics card no higher than 4-8mb. It's certainly a shite PC but i'm going home for xmas and wondered if it was worth taking my 200GB hard drive with me to play music and watch stuff off it.

Does anyone know of any issues I should consider before I do any of this? The drives FAT32 so it *should* recognise it...but even windows xp can't handle >120 so i'm sure there must be some fix I need to take with me so I can do it.

I also wondered if it would even play video's at all? my old P3 900 had problems running videos so I really doubt that a p233 would do it...however I wanted to check with the pro's before I did anything or before I took it, did something stupid and then lost all my stuff...ok i'm not gonna accediently format it or anything but I just wanted to check first!

TIA.

[Little John]

Nothing to do with the OS that is on the PC

FAT 32 and NTSC support large drives

It is the IDE controler you are using that places the limit on the size of useable drive
ATA100 limit is about 137GB
ATA 133 is required for anything bigger

Should you plug your drive in to the system and i isnt ATA133, in a formated state of 200GB and try to alter/use anything on the drive it is highly likely you will loose the contents of the drive.

i know I had a 160GB drive formated in another pc when I reached over 137GB the data was corupted and started to become un usable.

[whatnow]

so if I have a IDE133 interface with the HD i should be able to read the contents ok, but if I have a IDE100 it's impossible or I could ruin the drive's contents?

Also, what about the PC running video, or is that something i'll just have to try hwen i'm there?

plus, if I got a USB>IDE external box would this all change things?

na forget it, my old PC doesn't even have USB! lol, it's an oldy.

thanks 4 your time littlejohn

edit: would I need any registry fixes for Win 98 for it to see the HD too?

[Chip2k]

your 200gb hdd will not work in your old p233 without a ata133 pci controler card. thats what u need, you should find one on ebuyer or ebay pretty cheap.

Chip

[vodkas]

How about partitioning it into two 100mb lumps, wont that get aroubd the 137mb restriction

[Pegasus]

ATA100 limit is about 137GB
ATA 133 is required for anything bigger

Drive size recognition has nothing to do with the interface speed, it is dependant on whether the controller is 48bit LBA capable or not.

How about partitioning it into two 100mb lumps, wont that get aroubd the 137mb restriction

No.


@ shangrula
You will need to purchase an IDE controller that is 48bit LBA capable.

[whatnow]

thanks pegasus team et al, it sounds like it will be old to read the drive & this isn't the best time of the year to treat yourself to stuff either, looks like i'll have to go without my precious media for a while.

cheers for your time.

[jw_2000_uk]

thanks pegasus team et al, it sounds like it will be old to read the drive & this isn't the best time of the year to treat yourself to stuff either, looks like i'll have to go without my precious media for a while.

cheers for your time.

U should ask santa for a MP3 player for crimbo m8. :whistle