Hi all im having computer problems and i am planning to buy a reconditioned pIII 350 base unit to use as a temporary solution. basically i have a 120gb hdd which is ide i think, but def not scsi, and i would like to know whether this will install ok into the new base unit as a second hdd so that i can back up the data from this hdd to the hdd of the base unit. the base unit will probably be this spec: IBM Base Units P2 350Mhz CPU 64MB Memory 4Gb Hard Disk CDROM 1.44Mb Floppy USB Sound Parrellel Serial What do you reckon. and another question, should i buy a new motherboard for my current p.c. i will need to be sure of compatibility with my current hardware. I have an ahtlon xp 2800 333mhz i believe, and pc2700 ddr 333mhz ram. is it possible to buy a motherboard rated at 400mhz for example, and then if my current ram is dead, replace it with ram of a slower speed for example, providing it has the same number of pins. for example if the motherboard is rated as 400mhz memory speed, can i put for example pc2100 ram in if it is cheaper as a temporary solution? thankyou for your help, also do you have any tips on how to back up the HDD as it has windows xp installed and i beleive this may cause problems when i try to boot the computer up, am i right in thinking that i set the hdd to Slave and then make sure it is set not to boot off this hdd? thankyou

Do not set this as the master in the backup system. Make sure the 4G HDD in there now is set for a master/slave configuration. This jumper info should be on the drive, but if not, search the model number on it on the web. Set your 120HDD to slave based on it's jumper instructions. hmm what os is on this "backup" comp? I ask because whether it can read the whole 120 may be an issue also. What is it on the HDD that you want to back up? You can't, well you can, but hopefully it's just data you want to back up from the HDD, and not the os itself. What is your problem in your other system? It's hard to suggest things without knowing. Why would you want to replace your current pc2700 with pc2100?, and want a mobo at a slower FSB than your cpu? That doesn't make sense. You'll need to explain more.

And another thing... what is the os you are using now also? If it's an NT version (xp pro), tehn you will have to slave this drive to a system that can read NTFS, as 98/winme/ etc uses fat32. Please give complete details on everything.

Right my current operating system is xp, and my reconditioned base unit will be using windows 98. the hdd of my current computer is about 110gb i think. I want to back up some of my brothers school files from the hdd, not windows itself, just the data in my documents etc. I dont know what is wrong with my current computer but it will not post, all i get is a blank screen and a beep repeated every five seconds, i believe i may have damaged the motherboard a bit when i took out the cpu. I want to know whether if i buy a high speed motherboard whether it will be backwards compatible with slower ram, and cpu's if that is all i can afford to buy. As i may just buy cheper components out of a process of elimination for example a basic stick of ram, gfx card, processor etc to see which is causing the problems.

Not sure if it is xp pro or home, i think its just xp home

"Not sure if it is xp pro or home, i think its just xp home" Does Windows load on your PC? If yes, from the desktop left click My Computer / Properties. The screen will show whether the OS is Home or Pro and whether SP1 is installed

No it wont post so i cant check that.