I have an older style Dell desktop optiplex Gx1. Its only a Pentium II with a 6 gig hard drive. So my question is I came across a couple of different hard drives one being a Maxtor which I think just from visiting there site and entering the model#7213AT says that this one is a 203 gig.But once again Iam not sure. The other one Ihave is a Western Digital Caviar 21200 if that means anything.
So my question is out of the two of these which one is better and how much of a project is this to install myself? I am somewhat good with my hands and did install a CD-ROM in my system already. If anyone can help with all or any of these questions it would be greatly appreciated thanks
A GX1 - now we're talking!!
You can easily take any hard drive up to 60 gig, no problem. Sometimes you can get into problems with BIOS limitations (the latest version is A10, if you need help with that.) where the BIOS can only show 8 gig., but the drive is fully functional. Depends on what you're putting in there and the BIOS number. Bigger ones can work, but can be more problematic.
Of these models you listed Caviar 21200 shows on their web site as a 1.2 gig hard drive - very small by todays standards, and about 1/5 the size of your present 56 gig. The Maxtor shows on a google search for a 7213AT as a 210 meg drive, 1/5 the size of the Western Digital, not even big enough to hold Win98 alone.
So you see neither of these would be a solution, except for an extremely small back up drive, and their slow spindle speeds would make me avoid them altogether. If someone is trying to sell these to you I would definitely avoid them!!!
Replacement of your drive would entail 5 screws and replacing the data cable and the powere supply plug - 5 minutes tops. To add another drive is 5 screws, but you may have to provide the scres. Again about 5 min or less. Not tough at all.
Did your drive go south, or you need more room or what?
