EIDE (Enhanced IDE) vs IDE
in [Hardware]
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From: David Fairbrother on 3 Mar 2006 06:07 What is EIDE? I am thinking of replacing a hard drive in my old (old, old old, 1996 PC) and it's - like most HDD's of its vintage - IDE. I have seen an "EIDE" hard drive from Western Digital advertised with my local IT company. Would this use the same connectors/be compatible with this old computer? My old PC is an HP Pavilion 7222. The HDD is Western Digital 400BB IDE 40GB/7200RPM/100. (i'm not completely sure that it is EIDE - could somebody check? i heard somewhere it was) any help appreciated :)
From: Gerard Bok on 3 Mar 2006 06:41 On Fri, 03 Mar 2006 11:07:02 GMT, David Fairbrother <simmastacopter(a)gmail.com> wrote: >What is EIDE? I am thinking of replacing a hard drive in my old (old, >old old, 1996 PC) and it's - like most HDD's of its vintage - IDE. I >have seen an "EIDE" hard drive from Western Digital advertised with my >local IT company. Would this use the same connectors/be compatible with >this old computer? My old PC is an HP Pavilion 7222. The HDD is Western >Digital 400BB IDE 40GB/7200RPM/100. (i'm not completely sure that it is >EIDE - could somebody check? i heard somewhere it was) >any help appreciated :) Formally, IDE has been enhanced and is now called EIDE. Practically, all harddrives are EIDE nowadays. And nobody cares. As long as you stick to PATA drives, your connectors will match. If you plan to replace a harddisk in an older PC, first check if your BIOS supports the new disk size. If it doesn't you may need a bios upgrade. (Probably not a problem for a HP PC, often a huge problem for less supported 'brands'.) -- Kind regards, Gerard Bok
From: David Fairbrother on 3 Mar 2006 06:51 Gerard Bok wrote: > On Fri, 03 Mar 2006 11:07:02 GMT, David Fairbrother > <simmastacopter(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > >>What is EIDE? I am thinking of replacing a hard drive in my old (old, >>old old, 1996 PC) and it's - like most HDD's of its vintage - IDE. I >>have seen an "EIDE" hard drive from Western Digital advertised with my >>local IT company. Would this use the same connectors/be compatible with >>this old computer? My old PC is an HP Pavilion 7222. The HDD is Western >>Digital 400BB IDE 40GB/7200RPM/100. (i'm not completely sure that it is >>EIDE - could somebody check? i heard somewhere it was) >>any help appreciated :) > > > Formally, IDE has been enhanced and is now called EIDE. > Practically, all harddrives are EIDE nowadays. And nobody cares. > As long as you stick to PATA drives, your connectors will match. > > If you plan to replace a harddisk in an older PC, first check if > your BIOS supports the new disk size. > If it doesn't you may need a bios upgrade. (Probably not a > problem for a HP PC, often a huge problem for less supported > 'brands'.) > cheers - it'll be good to bring this old horse back :P
From: MCheu on 3 Mar 2006 20:48 On Fri, 03 Mar 2006 11:07:02 GMT, David Fairbrother <simmastacopter(a)gmail.com> wrote: >What is EIDE? I am thinking of replacing a hard drive in my old (old, >old old, 1996 PC) and it's - like most HDD's of its vintage - IDE. I >have seen an "EIDE" hard drive from Western Digital advertised with my >local IT company. Would this use the same connectors/be compatible with >this old computer? My old PC is an HP Pavilion 7222. The HDD is Western >Digital 400BB IDE 40GB/7200RPM/100. (i'm not completely sure that it is >EIDE - could somebody check? i heard somewhere it was) >any help appreciated :) Check out this site for a very good explanation and historical context: http://www.storagereview.com/guide2000/ref/hdd/if/ide/unstdEIDE.html --------------------------------------------- Thanks. MCheu
From: kony on 3 Mar 2006 21:45
On Fri, 03 Mar 2006 11:07:02 GMT, David Fairbrother <simmastacopter(a)gmail.com> wrote: >What is EIDE? I am thinking of replacing a hard drive in my old (old, >old old, 1996 PC) and it's - like most HDD's of its vintage - IDE. I >have seen an "EIDE" hard drive from Western Digital advertised with my >local IT company. Would this use the same connectors/be compatible with >this old computer? My old PC is an HP Pavilion 7222. The HDD is Western >Digital 400BB IDE 40GB/7200RPM/100. (i'm not completely sure that it is >EIDE - could somebody check? i heard somewhere it was) >any help appreciated :) It would be better if nobody used the terms EIDE or IDE at all. What you need is more properly called ATA, or Parallel ATA. Considering the age of your system, it would support ATA33 at most and likely not the capacity support for modern drives. It likely has an 8MB or somewhat higher limit but not as high as modern drives. You might check for a motherboard bios update, but I wouldn't expect much. You could buy a PCI ATA133 controller card such as a Promise Ultra133. You could use the software included with retail drives to install a drive overlay (some do it automagically) but the drive overlay is the least desirable option. Why would you pay a pretty penny for a 400GB HDD for a '96 system? Yes the connectors are compatible if it's actually a "PC" rather than a server (that might use SCSI instead) but the capacity limit (as well as the limit on capacity from an old OS) might be an issue. |