harddrive help

[N0toriou5]

how do i find out what kind of hard drive i have? i have everest, but it dosen't say. if i were to switch mobos, would i need a new hd, or are they not connected?
thanks in advance

 

[b1gapl]

hmm...usually everest will tell you, but you could also try any of the 3dmarks programs, pcwizard, or sisoft sandra. If you switch mobo, you don't need a new HD. You just need to do a clean install of Windows.

 

[krazefinn]

Device manager should tell you something also. Unless it is a particularily old drive, should be able to reuse. And there are ways to use the present install, but its alot of work and not as good as format/cleaninstall. If you have a decent, fast drive, and the new board used the same interface (sata or ide) no problem, or you'd need a controller or an adapter.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

You can also tell by looking at the drives themselves.....

IDE Drive

SATA Drive

 

[b1gapl]

Don't mean to hijack this, but the SATA drive I have uses the 4-pin molex as the power connector. Is this some other type of SATA you linked ethereal?

 

[krazefinn]

Most sata use a different power connector...requires adapter for molex. Its sata specific only. Some include both connections on drive, and you use either.

 

[N0toriou5]

does this mean IDE?

 

[N0toriou5]

Here is my harddrive now, if i were to want to get a new harddrive, would i have to get the same interface, or could i get another kind, like Sata or whatever?

 

[krazefinn]

That is only the controller, properties should show what is connected to them. Above 4 lines in dev magr, under disk drives, is the actual drive id'd, click it, and the drive name/mn displays. The barracuda is an ata/ide drive.
You can insatll another ide if you have an open connector on ri bon ide cable and you jumper the opticals/disk drives on them properly. It dioesnt show whether you have a sata controller though. Dev mgr should also have heading for "scsi/sata raid"controler. If not, you will need to buy a sata adapter or pci sata card in order to use a serial interface drive.

 

[M733mhz]

There's a real simple way. Take off the side panel of your case and take a gander in there.