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Hard Drive in an old PC

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I currently own an HP Vectra VL 5/75 series 3 desktop PC, which I wish to use as a Linux Fileserver using Samba. However, a limiting factor on the project is Hard Disk size as the older motherboard will support up to about 2.5Gb.

I would really like to use a 40Mb drive for filestorage on this PC, however am unsure about how to achieve this. I have been told that flashing the BIOS may rectify this problem, however is there anything additional I can do, or is it that this PC is too old to be upgraded in thios way. An additional that was mentioned was to purchase an additional IDE port on a card with modern chipset capable of supporting the faster modern drives.

Can someone help, as i see this as a fantastic use of older hardware if I can get it to work. The alternative (and more costly solution) would be to go SCSI. However I wish to avoiud this if I can on cost.

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Hard Drive in an old PC

In reply to Hard Drive in an old PC

Look for the manufacturer of the hard drive on the internet. There you will find a version of Go Disk or EZ Disk. Download this and it will install a driver into the boot sector of the hard drive. Remember to back everything up as you will be formatting the drive as part of this procedure. If this doesn’t work, at least you didn’t spend any money on it.

Hard Drive in an old PC

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Hard Drive in an old PC

In reply to Hard Drive in an old PC

1. You could try updating the BIOS. I don’t know how reliable HP’s utility is. You could end up with a dead system. If you update, be absolutely sure you have the correct image file and reccomended version of the flash utility. Follow HP’s instructions to the letter. I saw a Compaq deskpro die even after using all the correct procedures, image, and version of the flash utility. 2. I don’t know how well Linux behaves with a software BIOS extension written to the drive from the drive manufacturer. If you follow that route, make sure you have a boot disk which contains the BIOS estension. Most drive mfg are including these with new drives. 3. An EIDE controller with embedded BIOS is a safer option. If your system is a PCI board the get aPCI controller. You may have faster drive access. Good luck.

Hard Drive in an old PC

In reply to Hard Drive in an old PC

I like the 3rd suggestion more in updating the hardware correctly using an ATA/66 or even ATA/100 IDE card. Have looked within Linux sites and found support for this approach. Thank you

Hard Drive in an old PC

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