Member Avatar for poto1

I hope you don't mind rookie posts, but that is what I am.

I want to add a 200 gig Maxtor HDD to 2 existing 30 gig Maxtor HDDs. I am running XP Home SP 2 ( Atapi.sys version 5.1.2600.2180 ). I have an Asus a7v133 MB w/ 2 ide channels and 2 ata channels. Each 30GB is currently on its' own ata master w/ the ide channels housing my burner and dvd player.The 2 current disks are in 5 partions and both ntfs and fat 32. I have a 400 watt power supply.I would like to copy the boot drive to the new 200gig and make the 30's storage.

My questions are:
1) Do I need to update my BIOS if I use the Maxtor Big drive enabler ?
2) What is the best use of my 4 channels ? Masters, slaves, etc cable select, ?
3) What are the advantages / disadvantages of 2 file systems ?
4) Is my power supply adequate ?
5) Will my os from the 30 copy to the 200 ?
6) Do I need to change my Bios due to the added HDD or is that automatic ?
7) Should boot sequence still be A drive, CD drive, and then HDD ?
8) This is the first updating I've done in 41/2 years, do I need to call MS due to XP ?

If I need to provide any other info let me know. I appreciate any and all assistance.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by chrisbliss18
Member Avatar for chrisbliss18
  • Do I need to update my BIOS if I use the Maxtor Big drive enabler?
    The Maxtor Big Drive Enabler software is an operating system patch for Windows and does not affect the BIOS. If your BIOS does not support larger drives, you will need to flash it.
  • What is the best use of my 4 channels ? Masters, slaves, etc cable select?
    IDE only allows reading from or writing to one device per channel at a time. The best configuration is up to your preference on how you want the system to work. Drives that will send information between themselves frequently should be put on separate channels.
  • What are the advantages / disadvantages of 2 file systems?
    I don't understand your question. What file systems? Are you asking about the differences between FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS?
  • Is my power supply adequate?
    Hard drives will not exceed using 20 watts. You're power supply is adequate to handle three hard drives, but that isn't to say that it is adequate to handle three hard drives if you also have many other devices connected to the power supply that draw large amounts of power.
  • Will my os from the 30 copy to the 200?
    In order to "copy" from one drive to the other, you need to use a drive cloner like Norton Ghost. You can find out more information about drive cloning here.
  • Do I need to change my Bios due to the added HDD or is that automatic?
    If you BIOS is set to auto-detect drives on the channels that you will use, you don't need to change anything. You will want to check your BIOS to ensure that drive detection for those channels is set to automatic.
  • Should boot sequence still be A drive, CD drive, and then HDD?
    That's a good sequence to use, but it's really up to preference. I don't use floppy drives, so I have CD then HDD.
  • This is the first updating I've done in 4 1/2 years, do I need to call MS due to XP?
    You will be prompted if you need to contact Microsoft.
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