Computer hard drive question.

I'm planning on upgrading the 20 GB hard drive on my Compaq computer with a new 80GB drive that Bestbuy has on sale. web page

My question is can I take old drive with it's 98SE OS and files still installed, and use it to replace the 2GB drive in an older HP desktop computer that had Windows 95, thereby upgrading its OS and drive at the same time? Will the old HP accept the new drive and OS with no other changes?

Maybe. The older systems BIOS may not be capable of "seeing" a 20GB drive. If it does you should be OK. You'll probably have to fool around with some drivers though. Good luck.

Peter

Assuming the BIOS has no problem with hard disks larger than 6 GB (depends on the age of the mainboard) installing the larger drive into the other computer will be similar to what you do when updating a mainboard in a computer. The usual procedure is to boot into safe mode and open the Device Manager. Delete all the devices you can then reboot. Windows is supposed to detect all the hardware changes and allow you to reinstall all the drivers (you will need to have all the current Win98 drivers on hand for the older PC, not all are the same as Win95).

My experience with doing this has been mixed. I would go ahead and backup the hard disk and then wipe it clean and reinstall everything in the proper manner. This isn't a good option if you don't have a Win98 installation CD and/or have no prior experience with installing Windows OS from scratch.

What Hammer suggested sounds good.

The general attitude I take in these situations is, "Backup everything and assume that it won't work." Then go ahead and do it. Hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

The HP is a 233 pentium that is 5 or 6 years old. I have the recovery CD for the Compaq with the OS and OEM programs on it. Would that work? My thoughts originally were to leave the OS and programs on the drive and install it as is. I also don't know if the 20GB drive will fit in the HP. It's a small desktop case with little extra room.

Thanks for your help.

For a few extra hundred bux (300-400) you can grab a M$ 'Peecee' with better overall specs...(use your old monitor)...

just thought I would throw that in there for another option...

[ QUOTE ]
For a few extra hundred bux (300-400) you can grab a M$ 'Peecee' with better overall specs...(use your old monitor)...

just thought I would throw that in there for another option...

[/ QUOTE ]

You're right that it isn't worth putting any money into it, but it still works fine for my Wife's uses. That's why I was thinking of doing this - because it's a free mod. Even my computer, a 700 PIII, won't be worth spending very much on. Just the new drive and some more RAM.

Assuming you want to replace the original 2 gig drive with the "new" 20 gig drive then yes the new one should fit. If you want both hard drives in there that depends on if the case has an additional hard drive bay.

Ooooh! One thing I remembered that you should do is download the Windows 98 network card drivers for your old Pentium 233 and save them on your 20 gig drive. That way, worst comes to worst, when you put your new drive in you'll still have internet access. This will allow you to tell Windows to download any drivers it can't find from the internet.

That Compaq may not have a real BIOS, but a 'setup' partition on the HDD. One of the things OEMs do to lock you into their 'service'.

Do keep that in mind before you plunk down money on an 80 GB HDD.

I worked on a Compaq once, and never again. Even unplugging the HDD IDE cable and plugging it back in was enough to royally screw things up (change detected = dead computer).

Some Compaqs have real BIOSes and that depends on model and year. Some OEMs don't give you a full OS, but a POS 'Rescue' disc.

Hi Guys,

Got an older Compaq 5240. 400mhz. amd processor. I upgraded to xp and a 120 gig. HD. Partitioned it into two 60 gig hd's. It works great with the new hd and no bios problems.

As far as using the "old" 20 gig Compaq hd on an HP, I've done just that. Only with a 10gig. model HD and a 400mhz. Celeron HP. It worked great except HP was using some sort of propriatary sound card/modem. I had to get on the net and get drivers. You might want to get on the net to see if there are any drivers for any components installed in the HP. If you are using a Compaq restore CD for the OS, it will need to be installed when the HD is in the Compaq. The restore disc will not work in the HP. When you install the HD into the HP and boot up, Windows will have a lot of work to do changing everything, but it did work. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

"The restore disc will not work in the HP."

Does this mean never restore the drive again as long as it's in the HP?

Hi Kz,

Yes. The restore disc will only work if you reinstall the hd in the compag, restore the hd, and then install it into the hp. There may be a way around this, but I don't know of one. I tried to use my compaq restore disk in the hp and a screen came up telling me this wasn't the machine that was for use with this software.

Thank you!

Dave,

What I've done in the past is to use a program the mirrors the old disk onto the new one. This is important as it will maintain all the parition and boot sector information.

Then you can just unplug the old one and plug in the new one. Done!

I'm pretty sure HDs don't require special drivers.

Regarding those machines with the "soft" BIOS as I once saw it referred to on the Compaq machines. I've got an old 486 based one here with that setup, and had that problem when I stuck a bigger drive in it. There are plenty of sites scattered around the net which allow you to download a boot floppy which reinstalls the "BIOS" image onto the harddrive, can't remember where it was (this was well over a year ago), but there were hundreds of models listed there.