Hard drive size.

[69Z28]

EEVIAC---your link I downloaded is a Dell Driver Download Manager about 10Kbytes I had to download NET Frame 3.5 for XP SP1. I opened it, ran it, and not sure whats happing next.

Nothing happen.

[EEVIAC]

it has a value of about $0

I'm not so sure about that, he seems pretty excited about his laptop... 

no offense 69Z28   

[EEVIAC]

Nothing happen.

What do you mean.. Did you update already ?

You might have to ENABLE LBA support in the bios.  Like the way you enabled you onboard sound in the other thread.

[69Z28]

What do you mean.. Did you update already ?

You might have to ENABLE LBA support in the bios.  Like the way you enabled you onboard sound in the other thread.

I'm in BIOS now. I don't see anything in regards to LBA. What section would it be in?

Come on guys---It's not that the old laptop has any value to me, it's the information that I am learning from these fixes that I am gaining knowledge from.

[69Z28]

Just did a bunch of reading on the LBA. Don't seem to be an easy task to overcome or even if it can be done with this 3000.

Let me know what you all think. This is all just a learning thing for me.

[EEVIAC]

I have no idea what your bios options/menus are.  There all different.  If you've searched all the MAIN menus and SUB menus, and see nothing about LBA, and/or it's still not recognizing the whole drive, then the update did not include LBA support... Nothing you can do

[Computer_Commando]

1.  I'm in BIOS now. I don't see anything in regards to LBA. What section would it be in?
2. Come on guys---It's not that the old laptop has any value to me, it's the information that I am learning from these fixes that I am gaining knowledge from.

1.  You won't see anything in the BIOS regarding LBA.  I'm pretty sure you're stuck at 8.4GB.  Original HDD was no larger than 4GB, which was plenty for Win98.
2.  I understand, you want to learn; just offering my experience.  If something does go wrong with the flash, it's not like you've killed a new laptop.
I've got the Inspiron 7000, actually a Compal, (not Compaq) made for Quantex.  Hardware is identical, but the BIOS differs.  All Dells have customized BIOS.  Bought it new in mid-1999, it's a Pentium II-333MHz.  Your Inspiron 3000 is not a Pentium II, but a Pentium Mobile MMX-266MHz, or lower.  I estimate your I-3000 to be 1998-99.
http://support.dell.com/support/systemsinfo/document.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&~file=/systems/ptwist/specs.htm

[69Z28]

I can live with what I have. I got it for free without a hard drive about 5 years ago. Works pretty good from. I might be able to pick up another laptop a bit newer from where my wife works. They change laptops all the time.


Thanks for being frank about all this stuff. I'm economically stressed (no job) at the moment and don't see anything coming up any time soon. So I have time on my hands to maybe check out and learn some things about computers.

G

[69Z28]

I was able to utilize all the space on the 20gb hard drive I installed on my Dell Inspiron 3000 laptop. I found this on AOL Discover. Just type on Zoom! How to speed up Windows.

In short it explains how to convert from a FAT32 system to the NTFS, New Technology File System that all new computers are using that have Windows XP and newer OS. Before I couldn't use any more than 7.2 GB on this 20GB hard drive. Once I converted to NTFS I can utilize the hole hard drive. Very simple to convert and is suppose to make the hard drive more reliable, secure and faster.