EMachine Hard drive...

[casey]

Just stopped in for some quick grocery shopping when I got stopped by an aquaintance who knew I messed with computers, The question he asked me was about adding an 80 gig hard drive to his EMachine which he said the 4.3 gig hard drive is full. Since I never worked on an Emachine I hesitated to answer but told him I would look and find out what he needed to know.
My Questions:

1. I take it the 4.3 gig is an IDE.
2. Are they set as Master or CS?
3. Is there room in case and place to install?
4. Does the cable have the two connection. MAS & SLA
5. Anything else you can think of...

He won't even consider buying a new computer....

[Rainbow32]

See if you can get the model of the E-Machine. Just wondering how old it is being it came with a 4.3G hard drive.

[dbarrow]

Boy! to go back that far ... don't think they make hand cranked HD anymore.

[casey]

Boy! to go back that far ... don't think they make hand cranked HD anymore.


Now that's no Help..:)

I'll see if I can get model but I would believe it is old and the bios will never handle an 80 gig hard drive..

[Dan18960]

That E-Machine HAS to be around 6 - 7 years old! There is NO way the BIOS is going to support anything as large as an 80gb drive. And it isn't a matter of partitioning - it won't see the correct settings.

What is his argument for not even CONSIDERING a new computer? ? ?

He can get a "low" (read cheap) Dell for about $500.00 AND that E-Machine cost him more than that back when he bought it. Back then they were the sub-1000 units ($999.99).

[kelly]

If the new hard drive was partitioned on another machine into smaller volumes, wouldn't that work?

-td

[casey]

What is his argument for not even CONSIDERING a new computer? ? ?

I really don't know and when he said EMachine and the look I gave him is when he said "I'm not buying another computer". This is just an aquaintence so I'll just tell him what I find out and if he doesn't like it, I'm sorry. I don't intend to get anymore involved in this then finding out some information...

[dale@fcg]

Be careful not to make the mistake of telling someone (especially an aquaintenance:)) that upgrading an old pc is feasible. You never know what pitfalls are awaiting with old mboard, bios, cables, cases, etc. Unless you open the case and literally inspect your options, then boot into bios and check settings, then go on a hope and prayer- you'll be regretting your assurance that upgrading is a good option.


I just had a Win98SE machine that was 7 years old, and it would not recognize a 40 gig ide Western Digital hard drive. The bios just hung up trying to recognize it. I had to settle for a 15 gig. Also, the lousy mboard/bios wouldn't allow Acronis to clone the original drive onto the 15 gig. It just hung up and wouldn't procees. Thankfully, I was able to make an image and use that.

[mylanta]

Larry,
Don't screw around with this and you know it will take bios update and depending on the OS and file system my guess would be 37 gb FAT32 size anyway. have him add a controller card then you can do whatever you want. Oh and if you start screwing with eMachine mobo, it will blow as it's amazing it lasted that long. Also add one piece of hardware and psu will also blow.

[Seth]

Larry,
Don't screw around with this and you know it will take bios update and depending on the OS and file system my guess would be 37 gb FAT32 size anyway. have him add a controller card then you can do whatever you want. Oh and if you start screwing with eMachine mobo, it will blow as it's amazing it lasted that long. Also add one piece of hardware and psu will also blow.

LOL...

Rich you sure have an interesting way with words.

I haven't had any major hardware flaws with the old (tan) E machines. But the black and silver ones? Damn, I get about two a month because the psu's blow in one to two years. And when the psu goes, it usually takes the mobo with it. If it doesn't, go ahead and replace the psu and watch the mobo head south after a few boots.

[mylanta]

Yeah well I have been told that....

[Dan18960]

So, I guess the consenses is:

Put in new Hard drive
Put in new controller card
Put in new psu
Put in new mbd
and
PRAY

[Terry Hanushek]

Dan

Put in new Hard drive

Put in new controller card

Put in new psu

Put in new mbd
This kinda reminds me of my grandfather's axe. I have replaced the handle four times and head twice but I still have the same axe that dear old granddad used.

Terry

[dale@fcg]

This kinda reminds me of my grandfather's axe. I have replaced the handle four times and head twice but I still have the same axe that dear old granddad used.

Kinda like my first car: I jacked up the oil cap and put a new car under it :D


Back in the spring I dealt with an Emachines that had a blown mboard from a bad Power Supply. I simply took out what was working and used it to assemble a 'used' machine to return to client. Boy was he glad to get his Emachine back (with an old Antec case, MicroTech board). At least same processor and RAM. :D

[Dan18960]

Good one Dale! :first: