Dead HDD, ancient PC, possibility of RAID?

[xK1LLSW1TCHx127]

Hello everyone, this is my first post, I hope I'm not screwing up big time already =)
So I have a (2001 approximate) HP Pavillion 515n which was given to me a few years ago to mess around with. I got into the whole android business and bam, my HDD died. Now, I have a server I got at a garage sale, HP ex470 I believe, with 4 500GB SATA drives. Now, my ancient PC does not support SATA, but I hear I can buy an adapter/ controller for that for around 30 bucks online and set up a RAID on my PC, is this true? If yes, any recommendations for the RAID controller, or tips/help setting up RAID so i can have my old android PC back? Thanks for your help/time, I'm a newbie at this, or a techie virgin according to the site=), so correct me if I'm wrong =) Hope to hear from someone soon, thanks again!

 

[MindoverMaster]

Welcome to TF!

I don't know if older systems can use the SATA controller. If that is running XP, it doesn't support SATA devices well.

I would just look on eBay and get a new drive for cheap.

 

[xK1LLSW1TCHx127]

Thanks for your response! Yeah, it's actually a 2004 HP Pavillion 515n. I've done research and i found this Installing or Replacing a Hard Drive HP Pavilion 515n Desktop PC (US/CAN) - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

It teaches how to install a drive and such, what caught my eye is at the bottom of the page it says it can handle RAID, the problem is that since i would be installing brand new drives i would not have the software required. Is this software something i could download or buy? If not, it would be possible for me to replace the IDE HDD with a SATA HDD with a few wire changes, correct? The reason i don't just want to buy a new drive is I have 4 brand new Seagate 500GB SATA drives sitting around, and if possible i would like to use them, or one =) Thanks a lot for the help i really appreciate it

 

[xK1LLSW1TCHx127]

Welcome to TF!

I don't know if older systems can use the SATA controller. If that is running XP, it doesn't support SATA devices well.

I would just look on eBay and get a new drive for cheap.

k, i did a bit of research and the HP site tells me that with an adapter i can hook up a SATA HDD or RAID if i have the software for it, example: Intel Matrix storage technology. I have 4 new SATA's and i would really like to use them. you say XP doesn't support SATA well, what about RAID? also, I plan on running a linux based OS, likely Ubuntu 11.10 or a Xubuntu variant, is this software that i need available for Linux, or a similar variant?
I also know there is a difference between software and hardware raid. If my PC is incompatible with software RAID, is there chance my motherboard is compatible with hardware RAID? Aren't all motherboards compatible since the RAID array controller handles the compatibility issues? sorry for so many questions,
Thank you very much for your response =) I really appreciate the help

Sorry for the double response, my browser wasn't showing the response right above this so i assumed it never submitted =)

 

[Joe C]

that's a pretty old board, running a 2.4 celeron cpu and has a max capacity of 2gb of memory. You would be spending more to upgrade with a sata controller than what that board is worth
Board specs here:
Product specifications HP Pavilion 515n Desktop PC (US/CAN) - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

I do not know how you could get 4 hdd's to fit into it. If you could get them in your case that oem power supply probably couldn't handle the extra power required to run four drives.
I hate to pooh on your project but you might want to consider somewhere else to put those drives into.
4 new 500gb sata hard drives....making me drool

 

[xK1LLSW1TCHx127]

Thanks for the link=) yeah, there is no chance I'm fitting 4 drives in my case=) I think only two would go in there, how can I calculate how much power that would need? I found a shop that'll deep me the raid controller for 30 bucks and if it doesn't work they'll give me my money back, in which case I will just keep my drives and buy me a better PC=) thanks for the help everyone, I appreciate it=)

EDIT: So there is a software component to RAID? it's not just installing the drives and letting bios recognize them? if there is a software aspect, is it available for Linux (Ubuntu 11.10)?

 

[Joe C]

I do not see anything in the specs that shows a raid controller on that motherboard. You can get a sata controller with raid on it. I've never had to go that route so I can not recommend a "good" card, here's a list from the egg
Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Hard Drives, Controllers / RAID Cards, SATA II, sata controller pci

The cards come with a driver disk. With that older board you'll have to get a PCI card