Hard drive compatability

[Trotter]

I need an answer to a simple question. Here goes...

I have an old computer (read DINOSAUR) that uses Ultra ATA33 hard drives. As anyone can guess, ATA33 drives aren't sitting on Best Buy's shelves, or NewEgg's for that matter. So I was wondering about it, and thought I'd go ahead and look like an idiot.

Could I use a newer type of hard drive in my old computer? I know that I could not move the data any faster that the ATA33 controller moves it already, but could the system actually use a newer type drive at the slower speed?

 

[Samm]

Yup no reason why not. I've had ATA-66 & ATA-100 drives running on ATA33 only boards.
Like you said, they just won't transfer data any faster than ATA33.

Just watch however - the newer the drive, the larger it is likely to be obviously. If the old system only supports ATA-33, the largest capacity drive it can recognise may be smaller than the drive you wish to install.

 

[Trotter]

Thanks for the quick response.

OK, anyone know how large of a HDD Windows 98 can recognize?

 

[Samm]

Thats a tricky one!
The version of fdisk & format that come with win98, cannot recognise anything over 64GB, but the OS itself can. You can however get an updated version of fdisk from Microsofts website to overcome this.
As for win98 itself, scandisk in win98 has an upper limit of 125GB that it will recognise but I'm not sure about the rest of windows.

 

[Trotter]

Thanks. I doubt that I'll sink enough money it the old heap to buy that large of a hard drive.

Besides, I plan on wiping it and making it a Linux box anyway...but my daughter is using it until we get her a computer of her own, and she really needs storage space (it only has a 4.3 gig right now).