Newbie here with hard drive question

[charliebrown]

How did I not find this forum until now-wonderful place!...I have a hard drive capacity question.  The computer is a Compaq desktop Model 5070.  It's been a workhorse for 5 years...I'll be building my own new computer next fall but will keep this one until it folds.  I do routine software and physical maintenance on it-tear it down a couple of times a year to clear out dust, etc.  Never had a hardware failure.

It has the following:

AMD K6  3D processor running at 350mhz.
280MB RAM
4 GB Hard Drive...1.8 GB free space at the moment.

Windows 98SE updated through MS Update site.
IE6

What is the largest hard drive I can get away with to replace this little 4GB job?  I'd like to add a few more programs.  Make and model recommendations are welcome.  The local COMPUSA has a couple of 20 GB drives, Seagate and Maxtor Ultra IDE, but I don't know if the motherboard and processor will handle it...no one there could tell me for sure either.

The original drive is a Seagate and has worked great, I'd just like a larger drive that's compatable with more space.

Thanks in advance!

[wrwss]

I beleive that you can only use a 4 or 5 gb harddrive with that system.It is equipped with s.m.a.r.t which won't recognize a larger disc among other things

[charliebrown]

I beleive that you can only use a 4 or 5 gb harddrive with that system.It is equipped with s.m.a.r.t which won't recognize a larger disc among other things

I thought the same thing you did , but did an experiment this morning with a Western Digital 10 GB HD I borrowed from a friend who is rebuilding his son's computer...not only did my computer recognize the drive, I did a WIN98 install on it...I pulled the 10 gig drive and reconnected my old drive after verifying that my bios does recognize at least 10 GB.  The smallest IDE drive I've found locally is 20 GB...I'm hopefull I can use it.

[Computer_Commando]

If it sees the 10GB, it will surely see the 20GB.
Hard drive barriers are at 528MB, 2.1GB, 8.4GB, 32GB, 128GB
Operating System and BIOS Limitations

[charliebrown]

If it sees the 10GB, it will surely see the 20GB.
Hard drive barriers are at 528MB, 2.1GB, 8.4GB, 32GB, 128GB
Operating System and BIOS Limitations

I was hoping that would be the case...thanks for limitation info!  I had updated BIOS on this machine once previously-date is 5/99.  Compaq has another update that is a few months newer...wouldn;t you know that my floppy drive seems to be going out-can't format disks and it only reads a few files on older disks...floppy is needed to update BIOS...grrrrr......

I downloaded the BIOS update but can't get it onto a floppy when I execute the update file...I WISH I could execute it to my CD burner.

[charliebrown]

If it sees the 10GB, it will surely see the 20GB.
Hard drive barriers are at 528MB, 2.1GB, 8.4GB, 32GB, 128GB
Operating System and BIOS Limitations

Many thanks!  Here I am with my new Seagate 20 GB, the old 4 GB as slave, new floppy drive and clean reinstall of the O/S...runs smoooooooth as silk.  Almost all software reloaded and room to spare on this old relic.  After confirming everything worked, I formatted the old drive and plan on using it for data storage...I do some home recording with a Roland digital workstation, so that drive will come in handy.

..the floppy drive was toast, so that with the new hard drive and some CDr's...total was $85...nice 5 year warranty on the Seagate drive too...thing is whisper quiet.  Thanks again!!!