hdd capacity

Hi all. I have an Asus p4bm mobo with a 80gb ide hdd. I want to replace the 80 gb hdd with a 250gb one. Will my mobo recognize it?What is the max hdd size i can connect up as a master? Is rpm speed determined by mobo or can i just fit either 5400 or 7200 rpm hdd? Thanx for your time

 

cristalliera-

Depending on how old your system and bios is will determine if it will recognize a bigger hdd, as well as your operating system. If you have Windows XP without a service pack it is only 137 GB. With service pack 1 2 or 3 it is as big as you want it to be.
Hdd speed is not determined by the mobo, You can install whatever rpm hard drive you wish. The speed of the hdd is determined by the hdd itself. In other words, to say a hard drive is 7200 rpm, the hard drive has a motor that is spinning the platter inside of it at 7200 rpm. The higher or faster the rpm, the faster data will be read/write from the hdd and the faster your system will be. Also, hdds have a cache, the bigger the cache, the faster it will be. Most ide drives I see for sale these days have a 8mb cache. Switching from an old 5400 rpm 2mb cache to a 7200 rpm 8mb cache there will be a noticeable difference in speed.--TheCaptain

 

Hi Captain and thanx for your time. Your explanation is very clear, however how can i determine whether my Bios supports that big hdd? Bear in mind that as my 80gb hdd has packed up ( i mean there was a power surge and when i try to switch on my pc, there is a warning telling me that some files have been damaged) i can not load Windows Xp ( my OS).Thanx again

 

You could go to the Asus website and try to find out info about the bios on your board-- See if you can figure out which version you have, on some computers it will come up on your screen while the computer is booting, before the Windows XP screen comes on, otherwise you might have to go into the bios and look to see which version you have. I'm not sure how to get into the bios on your board, you might have to press F1 or the delete key while it is booting to get into it. I think on an ASUS board it is the delete (del) key. If you can download a manual from the Asus site for your board it will say how to get into it. It might also have info in how big a hdd the bios will recognize. Anyway, once you figure out which version you have you might find info on the Asus site on that version, if it is the latest version, etc. If your board isn't really old, say made in 2001 or after, I would think there is a bios for it that would support bigger hdd's.
Hopefully the hdd is the only damage to your computer from your power surge, if it is an older computer it may not be worth putting a lot of money into it. Good Luck--TheCaptain

 

Okay, my curiosity about your board got the best of me. I found it on the Asus site. Goto support.asus.com, search your mobo P4B-M and you will find the manual, bios updates, drivers, etc.
Good luck-TheCaptain

 

Thanx for your time