Sata in external case with old comp

[ranjan2001]

I need to change my comp & will be doing so in a 2 months or so.
Meanwhile I need to have higher capacity hard disk & I am thinking of getting 250/300 GB sata fitted in external case with external power supply.
My present system runs XP pro P4/1.7 intel 845 glad MB, 512 mb Ram.

Will sata hard disk work as normal with my present system using old Samsung disk. I will connect using it via usb port. I remember there is a convertor cord to bridge the different type of hard disk, I also know that the sata disk will not run at its peak speed if used with old hard disk.

My plan is to buy Dual layer DVD writer which can work with present system & I can use these 2 items when I buy new comp.

What problems can I run into, I tried once adding 200gb normal hard disk to this system & it gave me only 130 GB of that disk, seems some limit of the mother board I have, so will it treat 250 sata the same way (not much of a issue since I will upgrade soon)

What else can I face problems if any.

 

[Eazy]

Arihant in Mumbai have external USB2 SATA cases - I was given a price of 2750/- for this case. Contact them on 2382 2424 they are at Lamington ROad Mumbai. email : abhishek@arihant.net.in

 

[ranjan2001]

2750/- just for a case is'nt it costly.
Whats so special about this one?

Here in Delhi I inquired cases for old IDE hard disk ranging from 300-750/-

 

[madman123]

buying a external harddisk with 300gb, it depends on the budget you have: if you are on a tight budget, get a seagate 300gb 7.2k hdd internal (6000rs.) and a 2.0USB casing (500rs.). If your budget is a bit loose, get a maxtor one-touch 2 for 11000rs.

the problem you have could also be related to the jumper setting, although i can't give u more detail on that.
it is also possible that windows does not recognize it. Try upgrading windows maybe..

 

[ranjan2001]

Sorry if I created some confusion, I meant internal sata HDD mounted in external case & connect it via usb.
6500/- is within my budget & I am not looking for External HDD as suggested.
If the problem is just the jumper setting that is quite manageable.

MY XP is fully updated except SP2 which I don't want to install as it breaks my network on last 2 tries.

So my question is, is it windows XP or the motherboard Intel 845 glad, which may not recognize the higher capacity HDD.

 

[Eazy]

You need to install SP2 to get the full HDD space available.

At this moment I run an External USB2 case from Vantec which cost me 2.5K - model: NexStar 3 - and I think it is worth this price as it is very well built and has no problems running the 250GB Maxtor HDD I have placed in this case. In my earlier BAFO case the HDD would only get recognised as a 127GB drive.

I am sure there will be other people here who will say otherwise BUT I have seen in other Forums that some of the cheaper cases are very troublesome and can corrupt drives. I have one for which I paid 450/- - when I am copying files larger than a GB and have a HDD in this case it stops and starts the HDD very often - I am sure that cannot be good for a HDD

YES - I agree that the SATA HDD USB2 case is overpriced - but it is the only one I have seen available locally and I suppose the seller knows he has the market to himself for this product - for the moment

 

[ranjan2001]

You need to install SP2 to get the full HDD space available.

Are you sure that SP 2 is required for the full HDD space to be recognaized. I have wifi network to connect my laptop & that breaks with SP2 I cant even get to see the network adaptor on both desktop & laptop so if I need SP2 then I guess I have to install a slipstreme XP with SP2 becoz my original XP cd was shipped with SP1 only.

In next 2 -3 days I will look for the oprions listed here & will update.
Thanks for suggestions.

 

[Eazy]

my original XP cd was shipped with SP1 only.

SP 1 should recognise the full HDD space. Check this page for some info on this...

*www.largeharddrivesupport.windowsreinstall.com/winxp.htm

 

[manmay]

cost of external hdd csing for pata hdds is 500-800 bucks. but the cost of external sata casing is much higher .
and i hav not heard of any successful case of using internal sata hdd made ext using a casing.
pata hdd work quite good when used as external .
they even give a data transfer rates of 14-16 mega BYTES / sec. which is gr8.(on a pci-e mobo)
but the poin tis your mobo ie 845 glad will not provide u with atht speed.
u may get a max transfer speeds of 10 mBps i think.
secondly you will need to install sp2. becoz drivers for usb 2 are not present in sp1 . even though the device will b recognized. it wil not work at usb 2 speed of 480 mbps (bits).
better get a pata hdd of required capacity. the diff in speed of sata to pata is abt 20 %. so its up to u whether u want to spend so much on ext sata casing.
which still i'm unsure of, or u want to get a ext pata casing for 700 bucks (rate in surat) and use a pata hdd.(which u can then use in your new sys.)
regarding the size of the hdd being recognized i dont think that will be a prob. becoz u r using it as a ext.
and even the prob of the hdd being detected as a lower size can b rectified by a bios upgrade. search this forum , i think this [prob was posted before.
thats all for now.

 

[ranjan2001]

your mobo ie 845 glad will not provide u with atht speed.

I am aware of that but I finally will be getting new comp soon, so its a temporary issue.

secondly you will need to install sp2. becoz drivers for usb 2 are not present in sp1 . even though the device will b recognized. it wil not work at usb 2 speed of 480 mbps

I have usb 2 drivers installed separately from XP update, I guess that should work.

better get a pata hdd of required capacity. the diff in speed of sata to pata is abt 20 %. so its up to u whether u want to spend so much on ext sata casing.

Thats something I can think of what I am concerned is if I get a pata HDD 250gb it works out cheaper but when I upgrade the comp, will it be compatible with SATA HDD, I heard that if you attach PATA to SATA then the entire SATA speed gets lowered down.
Thats my confusion hence need some direction.

 

[manmay]

no that is totally untrue....i'm presently using 2 hdd.
80 gb sata hitachi
and 80 gb pata seagate.
both working fine. and ofcourse sata gives me a max transfer rate of 28 MBps wile the pata give me 21 MBps.
my os(win xp pro + sp2) is installed on sata.

now a days ne new mobo would support sata hdds. so i dont think that will b an issue. instead u'll need to check whether your mobo supports the newer sata 2 hdds.

 

[ranjan2001]

Reading you post now I am in 2 minds, instead of having external sata HDD with expensive case, I rather go with internal SATA HDD if my mobo can support it with SATA>IDE convertor cable.

In this case I wont get the benifit of SATA speed in the present system but when I upgrade I simply can use the same hard disk.

How & where can I find some info if glad 845 mobo P4 1.6 can take 250 gb SATA HDD or not.
Can anyone confirm this.
Thanks

 

[manmay]

if u can find a sata to ide converter cable then u sshould try ....and post your experience with it.....
i havent come across this one. ask youe loacl assembler abt it....and how successful is it....

 

[ranjan2001]

*www.addonics.com/products/io/adsaide.asp

I saw this sometime back with one of my local vendor, he was saying that it works well, but I need to try it on my own*www.addonics.com/products/io/images/adsaide_write_blocking.gif

 

[ranjan2001]

Just an update I finally installed seagate 250GB SATA hdd with the SATA to IDE convertor costed Rs 500/- for the card for single HDD.
*www.ebay.com.my/viItem?ItemId=8814534000#photo
I did not need XP2 just had to update my BIOS 48bit LBA. 250gb was recognized at 1st boot without problems.

 

[gary4gar]

*www.addonics.com/products/io/adsaide.asp

I saw this sometime back with one of my local vendor, he was saying that it works well, but I need to try it on my own*www.addonics.com/products/io/images/adsaide_write_blocking.gif

thanx for pics.it takes 5 min to understand from text.rather from pics it done in a flash

 

[samrulez]

Well I suggest..wait it u get ur new PC then install the 250 Gig HDD and use ur old PATA HDD as a external one....coz u get a PATA to USB case for around 400 bucks....and 40 to 80 GB is enough for portable HDD..Don't waste ur money on getting a SATA to IDE to USB case..

 

[ranjan2001]

I am not getting new PC as I could not find much speed diffeence, instaed I am putting money to buy 19inch LCD & upgrading other stuff, the sata hdd is already installed & is working fine. Making a portable HDD was one thing I was thinking of assuming it will have power from the USB port but thats not the case instaed I need to lug around the power cord too so I decided against it. I have plenty of 1 gb card with me & I do have rewritable DVDs too.

 

[samrulez]

Yep 3.5 HDD require an external power supply also.....but if u can get a 2.5"
laptop HDD that does not require a power supply its powered by the USB port...and i think a 40 gig HDD costs about 3.2 k or somethin....

 

[mario_pant]

isnt the IDE interface too slow as compared to SATA?
i'm just asking, not interupting in this discussion....
then whats the use of that much disc space in SATA...

PS: i have a bad feeling that i'm going to get a reply that 300GB IDE discs are not available.......