Upgrading Internal Hard Drive

I have a Dell Optiplex GX240 cpu running windows xp pro sp 2 with a western digital 40GB hard drive and 512 memory, Pentium(r) 4 1.70 GHz. I want to install a 200GB or 250GB internal hard drive. I want to know if it can handle it. I know its an EIDE Hard Drive I currently have. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

The PC specs sound new enough that BIOS shouldn't have an issue.. next part is 'if you can handle it'? If you can follow directions - sure. *most* harddrives come with a quick install guide and CD that boots to help you finish the setup.
Typically you'd make your replacemnet a slave on the same cable as the original drive & boot the cd and select replace drive...
I say typically because - I dont know the drive setup in the Dell or what drive you plan to install... but it is not that bad if your not afriad of it...

 

Thanks for your feedback. I'm looking at a few hard drives like the seagate 200GB, Maxtor 200GB and the Western Digital 250GB. I want to keep the hard drive that is in there already if possible, if not I will replace it with the bigger hard drive. I'm a stickler for following instructions. It seems then that I should not have a problem, which is a relief to me. The CPU has an Ultra ATA 100 and is EIDE. Does that help?

 

Like I said it would appear that the hardware is new enough - so that should not be an issue. Sure you can leave the original drive in - givien there is an open bay. From my limited experience with Dells they have room for one more drive. So you'll just need to find a spot on an IDE cable for it and jumper it correctly. Then, since you want it as extra space you can boot into XP go into Control Panel > Admin Tools> Computer Management> Disk Management and you should see the drive there and be able to click on it and format.. your done.

My 2 cents- avoid Maxtor.