http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=338818&ref=cj&pfp=cj&cm_ven=Performics&cm_cat=**Slick%20Deals**&cm_pla=General&cm_ite=generic%20120gb&ref=performics

9/1/2006 11:26:28 AM

i've seen better deals but thats not too bad

[Edited on September 1, 2006 at 11:27 AM. Reason : to answer the "is it decent" question- yes it is decent]

9/1/2006 11:27:15 AM

well if you see a better deal let me know

cuz this JUST sold out

i upgraded the shipping and clicked "update my cart" to get the new total and BAM

sold out for delivery

which is the only way you get the huge instant savings for whatever reason

9/1/2006 11:38:28 AM

hey im looking for a hard drive too so any help would be great...

i need one that is 160+gigs (wouldnt mind it being 250)

needs to either be external, or come with an enclosure that has both USB and Firewire

whatever is good quality, but pretty low price - aka i dont want to pay too much but also dont want it to crap out on me after 3 months.

(this drive will be used for video editing)

9/1/2006 11:47:28 AM

^ I did right much reading before I bought my external drive last year. Seemed that the Maxtor OneTouch drives were the most reliable. Western Digital didn't seem to fare very well according to what I read, with failures around 1 year's time.

200 Gb Maxtor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144054

It's worth noting that the 300Gb isn't but about $20 more, though it's out of stock right now:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144055

9/1/2006 12:07:38 PM

if you don't mind doing it yourself (and without the nifty one-touch), get one of these:

Seagate 320gb - ~$105 regular price
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101457

and any USB2/1394 SATA external enclosure for ~40

hard drive comes with 5-year warranty and if you go up to $45+ enclosures some come with SATA interface to the computer as well (instead of using USB, you'll also need a cheap SATA bracket tho)

[Edited on September 1, 2006 at 12:41 PM. Reason : .]

9/1/2006 12:38:38 PM

yeah if you want quality harddrives get seagates, they all come with 5 year warrenties

9/1/2006 4:21:26 PM

i just got this:

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4596287

holla

9/1/2006 5:56:38 PM

^i was thinking of posting that deal actually...wasnt sure if you were trying to spend 100 on a harddrive

thats a good deal with no rebates though, in november of 05, i got a 300 gb drive from the same place and also seagate...it was 150, with a 50 dollar rebate

9/1/2006 6:03:10 PM

yeah im glad i missed that one deal

i may even buy a second if this deal stays up for a week or two

9/1/2006 6:10:29 PM

do you check slickdeals?

a couple weeks ago i got a 200gb hd for 9.98 after pricematching and rebates...ended up selling it on craigslist for 60

they had some 320gb harddrives for like 30 a couple weeks ago...the price you got was good with no rebates, but there are definitely better deals out there

9/1/2006 6:14:34 PM

word

i mean id honestly pay more and get a seagate with a warranty and more reliability

just because i really dont know what im doing...and because losing 400GB worth of shit...



......

9/1/2006 6:19:48 PM

ha i saw that up on slickdeals before you posted it and bought one

at least we're on the same page


now i gotta find a good enclosure with firewire/usb

9/1/2006 6:30:29 PM

will this enclosure work okay with that seagate drive?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=31389&CatId=0

9/2/2006 2:42:17 PM

ha, i get 30% off of all compusa stuff, too - good deal

9/2/2006 2:44:21 PM

^^ no, whenever you are comparing the enclosures with the hard drive, pay attention to what
type of connection the hard drive uses, and what the enclosure supports,
for instance, the seagate hdd is a "3.5" 320GB Serial ATA 7200RPM"
and the enclosure only "Supports: 3.5" ATA 133/100/66/33 Drives",
also notice it says "Interface: IDE.

I don't guess you should be expected to know, but Serial ATA connections are not the same thing
as ATA, which is an IDE connection. basically, either get an IDE hard drive, or get a SATA enclosure.

[Edited on September 2, 2006 at 5:00 PM. Reason : that link up top needs to be shortened, annoying stretch.]

9/2/2006 4:57:32 PM

^^^^ did you get the rebate to work?

9/2/2006 7:03:16 PM

well now that that HD is on the way...my next purchase is going to be some more memory...any advice???

i found a 2GB (2x1GB) package for $144 and that seemed like a great deal

i know my computer has 1.256 GB right now and has 4 slots, but im not sure of the current configuration

is there a way i can find out how its set up without shutting down and opening up the case?

9/2/2006 8:47:09 PM

lol, no, 144 for that is not a good deal

[Edited on September 3, 2006 at 4:35 AM. Reason : you only need 1gb anyway, unless you do some crazy ass computer shit]

9/3/2006 4:34:44 AM

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=24729&t=315771

yo man...price drop

9/3/2006 5:27:01 AM

http://www.cooldrives.com/combo-sata-drive-enclosure-firewire-and-usb.html

Will this enclosure work with that seagate HDD? There are almost zero enclosures that take SATA drives that have a USB and Firewire connection...

9/4/2006 3:17:51 AM

bttt for ^

9/4/2006 12:10:03 PM

^^ yea that looks like the only usb+firewire sata drive ... here's more specs on it from the manufacturor ...

http://www.addonics.com/products/enclosures/ae5idecsu2f.asp

... from what i've seen you're only going to get sata->usb normally.

[Edited on September 4, 2006 at 1:49 PM. Reason : really, is there a reason you need usb+firewire?]

9/4/2006 1:48:54 PM

^^that's because the more logical step up is to eSATA, that and there's no real reason to have USB 2.0 and 1394 because they are so close in bandwidth, and most people use USB 2.0 nowadays.

^there's more than just that one, seach for 1394 or 1394a, the proper terminology for PC version of firewire.

9/4/2006 2:12:38 PM

yah i need firewire b/c i'll be doing video editing on NCSU's macs... but i have an IBM and would prefer to have USB as well so that I can still use it with my own laptop

i shouldve just gotten an IDE hard drive

thanks for all your help guys

9/4/2006 3:43:00 PM

uh, macs have usb too.

http://www.apple.com/macpro/specs.html

Quote :

"# Five USB 2.0 ports (two on front panel, three on back panel) # Two USB 1.1 ports on included keyboard"

9/4/2006 3:48:18 PM

since when hasn't apple supported usb 2.0?

[Edited on September 4, 2006 at 3:49 PM. Reason : ^again, didn't see your post]

9/4/2006 3:48:57 PM

i thought so too.. but my teacher said it needs to have firewire.. i'll email her about it

9/4/2006 3:54:25 PM

Quote :

"yo man...price drop"

Quote :

"$120- $26= $84"

hahahah

whats a good price for a gig of RAM then?

its for gaming purposes

i play a lot of bf2 and im also massively impatient with any computer slowdowns whatsoever

what should i be looking for and does brand matter?

[Edited on September 4, 2006 at 4:45 PM. Reason : /]

9/4/2006 4:44:30 PM

if you were concerned about gaming you should have gone with sataII not pata, unless that's the only interface your motherboard supports...

what kind of motherboard do you have? because there's a difference between ddr and ddr2 prices.

yes brand matters, gskill, corsair, ocz are all good imho, also kingston, crucial, patriot are also decent, it's just a matter of how well it performs and if it's compatible... since all memory out there pretty much has lifetime warranty

good gaming latency for ddr should be around 2-3-3-7-1T (or cas 2.5 for amd)
good gaming latency for ddr2 should be around 3-3-3-8 or 4-4-4-12, DDR2-800 is the sweet spot for gaming if your motherboard supports it.

[Edited on September 4, 2006 at 6:07 PM. Reason : .]

9/4/2006 5:59:16 PM

Quote :

"if you were concerned about gaming you should have gone with sataII not pata, unless that's the only interface your motherboard supports..."

what do you mean?

im on a dell dimension 8300...so i guess my motherboard is whatever that comes with

how can i check without opening up my computer?

9/4/2006 10:16:39 PM

looks like it's a standard ~3ghz p4 800mhz fsb w/ Intel 875P chipset, to confirm this look up your system configuration on dell.com w/ your service tag #, post your table of components it spits out... among the numbers you should be looking for is a part # for your motherboard and the type of ram originally installed, keep in mind you'll want to buy a dual-channel kit as this computer requires installing in pairs.

from the looks of it, you'll probably want to go with PC3200 DDR-400 memory, but can't say for sure until you post your components.

from this:

Quote :

"i know my computer has 1.256 GB right now and has 4 slots, but im not sure of the current configuration"

assuming it has to be installed in pairs, you should have 2x512's already, just need to replace the 2x128's in there.

one other thing, you'll have to open the case to see what the brand of memory is in there if it says... just a wild guess, but i'm assuming the 2x128's were standard, and the 2x512's were aftermarket installed, meaning you should really try to match the same brand/model as the 2x512's you already have to increase your chances of success and reducing the chance of incompatibilities.

once you confirm all this you should be looking at something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227031

[Edited on September 4, 2006 at 11:45 PM. Reason : .]

9/4/2006 11:38:07 PM

i found what you mentioned on dell.com but it says its unavailable for me

wouldnt it make more sense to get the 2x1GB for $30 more?

and when i open my case it looks like there's 2 slots where the memory sticks are sticking straight up, and two where they are at an angle

does that make sense?

9/5/2006 3:23:01 AM

ive got this new HD hookedup and everything, but bios can only recognize 127 of the 400GB

im running windows xp pro 2002 and have every update installed

seagate offers no other solution other than "add-in PCI controller card"

i dont know what that is

what should i do

9/5/2006 5:35:18 PM

damn...i actually remember a tech talk thread about that exact thing once- forgot how they ended up fixing it though

9/5/2006 5:44:36 PM

well i ran the discwizard that came with the HD once omre and a window popped up this time that said it had recognized my problem, and to allow it to restart and fix it

i did and the problem persisted

so i did a double-check on microsofts website and checked out a couple files they suggested

they were older than the updates i have installed

so

...

9/5/2006 6:20:42 PM

Quote :

"wouldnt it make more sense to get the 2x1GB for $30 more?"

typically yes, but if you already have 1GB (2x512), why spend more?, not to mention xp will only recognize up to 2gb (unless you use the 3gb switch)

Quote :

"and when i open my case it looks like there's 2 slots where the memory sticks are sticking straight up, and two where they are at an angle.... does that make sense?"

no, i've never heard of memory at an angle.

Quote :

"ive got this new HD hookedup and everything, but bios can only recognize 127 of the 400GB"

http://www.google.com/search?q=127gb

9/5/2006 8:04:08 PM

so my teacher told me that we need to have an external HDD with firewire because we will be doing video stuff and we need the speed of firewire...

i was under the impression that USB 2.0 and firewire were both 480mbps so it shouldn't make a difference.. am i right??

9/5/2006 9:33:07 PM

partially correct

1394a/firewire400 (6-pin) - 400mbps
USB2.0 - 480mbps
1394b/firewire800 (9-pin) - 800mbps
eSATA - 150MB/s (1200mbps)

except there's no external enclosure (that i'm aware of) that has 1394b on it (ok there is, but they are $texas)

[Edited on September 5, 2006 at 9:48 PM. Reason : .]

9/5/2006 9:47:16 PM

Quote :

"typically yes, but if you already have 1GB (2x512), why spend more?"

well because 4GB is greater than 2 (not being a smartass), i'd probably never ever have to upgrade no matter what im trying to do with this thing, nor could i that i know of (unless there are some 2GB single sticks out there or some shit

plus its just 25% or $30 more for double the RAM...$30 aint shit

Quote :

"not to mention xp will only recognize up to 2gb (unless you use the 3gb switch)"

why would dell make a computer with 4 slots if they couldnt be optimized? what is "the 3GB switch"?

Quote :

"http://www.google.com/search?q=127gb"

ive already read all this stuff and done some of what they suggest, but am not computer-literate enough to completely grasp what it is i have to do with every suggestion, or what i need to do specifically to get this problem fixed...i.e. i dont see why this isnt working

because

first and foremost i just cant imagine why, when i not only have windows XP pro with service pack one, but also service pack TWO, that this is still not working. most of these articles say i need xp and just service pack one. the manual for the drive says the same. i have what everyone says i need and more and yet its not working.

complicating matters (in my mind) is the fact that i bought this computer from a fellow tdubber with (i am guessing) a bootleg version of windows xp pro (2002?) on it. i couldnt care less that its a bootleg, but i can imagine this could be whats causing the problems, but if its not (and it doesnt seem to be given all the checks [software and otherwise] ive performed) how is this going to complicate things such as "flashing to a compatible OS"? i dont even know what that means, other than apparently just upgrading my OS. but if im going to upgrade my OS, what am i going to upgrade to (xp 2006?)?

this is the kind of shit i need to know, and im not real sure how to even google this bs, because i just dont know what im looking for. its like trying to understand spanish...i am missing a lot of the details, but i understand most of whats going on. i figure i paid for this HD and got it installed myself in a few minutes, i might as well see it through to the end. it definitely doesnt seem like it should be this retarded to try and get it to work.

ive fixed any problem ive ever had with this computer on my own, so i dont see why i shouldnt or cant fix this.




sorry for all these pesky words folks, but i just know someone is gonna see this thread and feel like saying "okay you dumb son of a bitch, this is your problem and this is what you do."

[Edited on September 6, 2006 at 4:04 AM. Reason : .]

9/6/2006 4:02:36 AM

heres my bios info if it helps anyone:

BIOS Date: 09/27/04
BIOS Type: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A07
BIOS ID: Dell 0W2562 BIOS Version: A07
OEM Sign-On: None
Chipset: Intel 2578 rev 2
Superio: Unknown
OS: WinXP SP2
CPU: Pentium 4 3000 Mhz MAX: 3600 Mhz
BIOS ROM In Socket: No
BIOS ROM Size: 512K
Memory Installed: 1280 MB
Memory Maximum: 4096 MB
Memory Slot 01: 512 MB
Memory Slot 02: 512 MB
Memory Slot 03: 128 MB
Memory Slot 04: 128 MB

9/6/2006 5:37:01 AM

no answers?

9/7/2006 7:09:40 PM

bttt

9/12/2006 1:28:06 PM

first of all does your BIOS recognize it as 400gb? or 127gb?

if the BIOS recognizes it as 400gb and windows doesn't you'll need to reinstall windows w/ sp2 to get the proper atapi.sys file needed for 48-bit LBA support

if the BIOS does NOT recognize it as 400gb, but rather 127gb, then it's a hardware issue and either A) you'll need to find the appropriate update and flash your BIOS, or B) your motherboard doesn't support it and you'll need to install a seperate PCI controller card like such: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815124023
( Supports hard disk drive larger than 137 GB (48-bits LBA) )

9/12/2006 10:20:53 PM

how do i figure out if i need to flash my bios or if i need a pci card?

9/12/2006 11:17:31 PM

Quote :

"if the BIOS does NOT recognize it as 400gb, but rather 137gb"

go into your BIOS and it should be under standard cmos features or something like that it lists your hardware... you may want to snoop for an "enable LBA mode"

if you cannot find any options in regards to LBA or 48-bit mode in the BIOS and it STILL shows up as 137gb, you'll need to find out if there is an update for your BIOS via Dell (http://www.dell.com/support) there should still be a service tag attached to your 8300 somewhere, else you should be able to type in 8300 and get bios updates.

if the flash doesn't fix it (OR if there ISN'T an update for your BIOS) you'll need a pci card.

i just checked here: http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R86308&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P4_8300&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=308&devlib=0&typecnt=1&vercnt=8&formatcnt=1&libid=1&fileid=113031

and apparantly you ALREADY HAVE the updated BIOS....

so here's what I'd recommend.

1) see if you BIOS is listing your drive as 400gb or 137gb
2) if 137gb, search your BIOS for any feature that resembles (LBA mode, Logical Block, 48-bit, Enable Large Disk Support, etc...) and make sure it's enabled...
3) if that doesn't work, get the pci card

ok, so here's another couple ideas...

Quote :

"2a. Use a 3rd party hard drive partitioning software such as PartitionMagic* or Partition Commander* and increase the partition size to the hard drive's full capacity. - or - 2b. Create additional partitions to take up the full capacity of the drive (e.g. one partition setup as 128GB and one extended logical partition setup as 24GB)"

from: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa/sb/cs-009297.htm

[Edited on September 12, 2006 at 11:43 PM. Reason : .]

9/12/2006 11:32:40 PM

Quote :

"1) see if you BIOS is listing your drive as 400gb or 137gb"

I went to system setup and it says the drive is 400GB

is that what you mean?

Quote :

"if 137gb, search your BIOS for any feature that resembles (LBA mode, Logical Block, 48-bit, Enable Large Disk Support, etc...) and make sure it's enabled..."

i cant find anything like that and im pretty sure ive exhausted every option on the menu

9/14/2006 4:20:14 PM

well if your BIOS recognizes it as a 400GB drive, than it's NOT a BIOS/motherboard issue...

chances are whoever installed your Windows XP missed the revised atapi.sys file and either windows needs to be reinstalled or you need to revise your system file.

please see this: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013

go ahead and download and run this:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b997cc5f-4483-4edc-a17e-6f659a033b0d&DisplayLang=en

[Edited on September 14, 2006 at 5:03 PM. Reason : .]

9/14/2006 5:01:32 PM

i checked the atapi file in the folder it said to check and its version 5.1.2600.2180

when i try to run the program you said to download it says my version is beyond that version and thus the old one cannot be installed

9/15/2006 2:22:41 PM

try deleting the partition and recreating it as 400gb...

other than that i don't have any other ideas other than to reinstall windows.

9/15/2006 4:25:52 PM