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how big an external hard drive?



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 20th 06, 07:46 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
marcia
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 7
Default how big an external hard drive?

I want to purchase an external hard drive to store a large quantity of
photos. I've read that I should first ascertain "how big a hard drive [your]
PC can support." My Dell has a 40 GB hard drive. Will it support a 250 GB
external?
--
marcia
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  #2  
Old August 20th 06, 08:03 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Jim Macklin
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Posts: 630
Default how big an external hard drive?

The external drive is USB or Firewire. Unlike an internal
IDE drive that depends on the BIOS and mobo for support, the
external drives depend on USB (hope you have USB 2.0 or
you'll be very unhappy with the slow speed of USB 1.1) the
external drives enclosure includes the support. Get as big
as you wish and can afford.


"marcia" wrote in message
...
|I want to purchase an external hard drive to store a large
quantity of
| photos. I've read that I should first ascertain "how big a
hard drive [your]
| PC can support." My Dell has a 40 GB hard drive. Will it
support a 250 GB
| external?
| --
| marcia


  #3  
Old August 20th 06, 08:10 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
M
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 54
Default how big an external hard drive?

This will be down to the BIOS in the external hard drive enclosure. If you
are buying one ready built then the answer is as big as you like. I've got
a 400 GB external on a 5 1/2 year old PC.
"marcia" wrote in message
...
I want to purchase an external hard drive to store a large quantity of
photos. I've read that I should first ascertain "how big a hard drive
[your]
PC can support." My Dell has a 40 GB hard drive. Will it support a 250
GB
external?
--
marcia



  #4  
Old August 20th 06, 08:44 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
marcia
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 7
Default how big an external hard drive?

Thank you!
--
marcia


"Jim Macklin" wrote:

The external drive is USB or Firewire. Unlike an internal
IDE drive that depends on the BIOS and mobo for support, the
external drives depend on USB (hope you have USB 2.0 or
you'll be very unhappy with the slow speed of USB 1.1) the
external drives enclosure includes the support. Get as big
as you wish and can afford.


"marcia" wrote in message
...
|I want to purchase an external hard drive to store a large
quantity of
| photos. I've read that I should first ascertain "how big a
hard drive [your]
| PC can support." My Dell has a 40 GB hard drive. Will it
support a 250 GB
| external?
| --
| marcia



  #5  
Old August 20th 06, 08:44 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
marcia
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 7
Default how big an external hard drive?

Thank you!
--
marcia


"M" wrote:

This will be down to the BIOS in the external hard drive enclosure. If you
are buying one ready built then the answer is as big as you like. I've got
a 400 GB external on a 5 1/2 year old PC.
"marcia" wrote in message
...
I want to purchase an external hard drive to store a large quantity of
photos. I've read that I should first ascertain "how big a hard drive
[your]
PC can support." My Dell has a 40 GB hard drive. Will it support a 250
GB
external?
--
marcia




  #6  
Old August 20th 06, 08:51 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Jaymon
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 544
Default how big an external hard drive?

http://www.usbman.com/WebDrivers/Int...k/USBREADY.EXE
Use the above Intel tool to see if you have high speed USB 2.0 capabilities..
If you don't have an Intel system it may work anyway, may not, won't hurt to
try though, just delete the stand alone app if it doesn't, nothing to
install, just click it to run it and click the details button for more info..
j;-j

"marcia" wrote:

I want to purchase an external hard drive to store a large quantity of
photos. I've read that I should first ascertain "how big a hard drive [your]
PC can support." My Dell has a 40 GB hard drive. Will it support a 250 GB
external?
--
marcia

  #7  
Old August 22nd 06, 02:23 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Loren Pechtel
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 186
Default how big an external hard drive?

On Sun, 20 Aug 2006 11:46:01 -0700, marcia
wrote:

I want to purchase an external hard drive to store a large quantity of
photos. I've read that I should first ascertain "how big a hard drive [your]
PC can support." My Dell has a 40 GB hard drive. Will it support a 250 GB
external?


Stock XP will *NOT*. XP SP1 or greater is needed to handle a 250gb.
W2K can also handle it, I don't know what service pack is needed.

W98SE can handle it but the formatting tools will lie to you. I would
assume ME can handle it but I can't confirm this.
  #8  
Old August 22nd 06, 02:00 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Bob I
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 9,943
Default how big an external hard drive?

Loren Pechtel wrote:

On Sun, 20 Aug 2006 11:46:01 -0700, marcia
wrote:


I want to purchase an external hard drive to store a large quantity of
photos. I've read that I should first ascertain "how big a hard drive [your]
PC can support." My Dell has a 40 GB hard drive. Will it support a 250 GB
external?



Stock XP will *NOT*. XP SP1 or greater is needed to handle a 250gb.
W2K can also handle it, I don't know what service pack is needed.



External is NOT on the IDE subsystem, which is what the patches for W2K
and XP fix.


W98SE can handle it but the formatting tools will lie to you. I would
assume ME can handle it but I can't confirm this.


  #9  
Old August 25th 06, 11:57 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
stef
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 39
Default how big an external hard drive?

Bob I wrote:
Loren Pechtel wrote:

On Sun, 20 Aug 2006 11:46:01 -0700, marcia
wrote:


Stock XP will *NOT*. XP SP1 or greater is needed to handle a 250gb.
W2K can also handle it, I don't know what service pack is needed.



External is NOT on the IDE subsystem, which is what the patches for W2K
and XP fix.


Bob, that's interesting as i've been told that max size for Win XP
without SP1 is 133GB but, reading ur post, that must be on the IDE.

I think u r saying that limitation does NOT apply to external USB or
Firewire drive--only internal/IDE drives.

and i believe u r correct as i do not have SP1 and my external drive
160GB IS being recognized by the system (Win XP HE) without problems....

Am i understanding u right?
  #10  
Old August 28th 06, 02:15 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
Bob I
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 9,943
Default how big an external hard drive?

How to explain. The problem is NOT the drive size. It is a problem with
the ATAPI(ATA Packet interface) driver, (and MAYBE the motherboard BIOS
for the IDE interface) which is the IDE system is using. If the
attached drive is not using the "bad" ATAPI driver then the entire drive
capacity is seen. USB, SCSI, FIREwire are not using the broken driver,
so there is not a problem with that.

Please read the attached article for what is being fixed.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303013/en-us

stef wrote:
Bob I wrote:

Loren Pechtel wrote:

On Sun, 20 Aug 2006 11:46:01 -0700, marcia
wrote:


Stock XP will *NOT*. XP SP1 or greater is needed to handle a 250gb.
W2K can also handle it, I don't know what service pack is needed.




External is NOT on the IDE subsystem, which is what the patches for
W2K and XP fix.


Bob, that's interesting as i've been told that max size for Win XP
without SP1 is 133GB but, reading ur post, that must be on the IDE.

I think u r saying that limitation does NOT apply to external USB or
Firewire drive--only internal/IDE drives.

and i believe u r correct as i do not have SP1 and my external drive
160GB IS being recognized by the system (Win XP HE) without problems....

Am i understanding u right?


 




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