Hard Disk Info needed.

Hi .. just wanted to know the names and details of 10 - 20 GB hard disks we used during the late nineties and early 2000. Any information of details and specifications on this is very appreciated.I think its definitely not the PATA or SATA used in the these days

I have a old Pentium III processor on 128 Mb SD RAM whose hard disk ( 10 GB ) and SMPS is not working. I got a replacement of the SMPS but can't find the 10 or 20 GB hard disks used during those days. I dont wish to dump my PC because everything else is working fine.

Please suggest something.Thanks.

 

I'm pretty sure an older HD is just IDE(PATA). I have an old IBM in the basement which has about a 2GB drive and I remember having hooked the HD up to a 1998 Pentium II which came with a 20gb drive and transferring data.

You can get the HD model number off the label and search for it on the web. Western Digital definitely has specifications for their legacy drives available.

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What is the make and model of computer? We could help figure out it's specifications and what type of drive it can handle. It is a matter of figuring out if there was a BIOS update that allows it to see drives larger than 32GB.
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What are your symptoms on the computer you are trying to boot? Is the HD recognized in BIOS?

 

Actually it was an assembled PC. It had Pentium III 800 Mhz processor. Mercury Motherboard which uses Intel i810e chipset and kob 810e fst drivers are required.It has only onboard primary and secondary IDE channels. Previous hard disk was segate ST310212A 10.2 GB

actually the hard disk is physically damaged i.e when I try to connect the SMPS to the hard disk , there is a some short circuit which does not allow any more power supply to the machine. So I have to search for a replacement compatible with the above mentioned mother board with minimized cost input.

 

one of my first harddrive purchases for myself was an 8gb maxtor, probably around the late nineties. and it was PATA.

 

ok then I guess my motherboard will support a PATA ( IDE ) hard disk as well if I want to replace it. So what are my options in buying a new hard drive that will function properly within the above configurations ?

 

Pretty sure that PATA was the standard and was pretty much universal at that time. I bought my first "modern" PC in 1997, and its 4gb hard drive had the same PATA and power connections a new PATA drive has. The difference is the throughput ability of the drive:

--Enhanced IDE (E-IDE) - Hard drives built 1994 to early 1997 are of the E-IDE design.
--UltraDMA (a.k.a. DMA-33, Ultra33, ATA-33) Allowed data transfer rates of 33MB per second. 1997 to early 1999
--ATA-66 (a.k.a. Ultra66, DMA-66) - 1999 to 2000
--ATA-100, ATA-133 - 2000 to Present

All versions have been backwards-compatible with previous versions.

There is also the SCSI (Small Computer System Interface, pronounced "scuzzy") type, but it is not as common and seems to be fading fast. The newer interface is SATA (Serial ATA) but if your computer is old then this would not be the interface in question

I built a PIII system in 2003 using a 40GB hard drive as it's main drive, and the salvaged 4GB drive as a secondary holding a restore image for the computer.

You can use a new or newer model PATA drive. The only limitation would be size - as in how big a drive will your operating system support?

 

Mech, you are going to have a hard time finding a drive that is small enough (in GB) that will be recognized by the old motherboard as Spad mentioned. Your best bet is to find someone dumping a computer and grabbing the old hd out of it.

 

Yes I know .. I am not looking for a new one .. I will be getting myself a second hand .. that is why I needed to know the exact configuration that might support my machine. Because like I said all other parts of my machine is working very good.

So I am guessing a IDE hard disk of < 40 GB might be alright for this machine ??

 

30GB or less will be safe as there's a limit for some machines at around 32GB - but larger drives often have a 'clip' setting to limit the available size to 30/32GB for use with affected machines.

Try not to get a 15GB as these will certainly be of an older, slower design (I'd avoid Fujitsu's in 10/20/30GB too; many of these had serious firmware bugs, but they're probably all dead now ^^).