Hello all, I have a question and I hope somebody can help me with an answer: I have a 7598 Compaq Presario Computer year 2000, I'll like to upgrade my hard drive:Generic IDE Disk 34 GB, I get some more information: Disk Controllers: Intel(r)82801 AA Ultra ATA controller, Primary IDE controller (dual fifo), secondary IDE controller (dual fifo). And I'll like to upgrade to: 250 GB Caviar Special Editon WD 2500JD Internal Serial ATA 7200 RPM ATA-150, or, 200 GB Diamond Max Plus Internal EIDE Ultra ATA/133 7200 RMP 8 MB Cache. Can somebody tell me if I can upgrade to any of this hard drives? what another up-grades I need to do in order to support thar kind of hard disk? thanks in advance.

You'll probably need a PCI IDE controller card to get the size in or you can partition it off into several smaller ones and let it read that way. Most of the older computers won't read over 37GB. Alot of Maxtor's drives come with the IDE controller card for that very reason and they usually run about $30 for an ATA/133 Clyde

buy an external case and hook it usb if its for storage the cases vary in adaptability

A USB 2.0 card would still be required since the computer probably only supports USB 1.1. USB 1.1 is too slow for hard drives. An internal drive would also be faster.

>> WD 2500JD Internal Serial ATA 7200 RPM ATA-150 << This is Serial ATA drive. Should read SATA-150. You will certainly need a PCI serial ATA card for that to work. >> 200 GB Diamond Max Plus Internal EIDE Ultra ATA/133 7200 RMP 8 MB Cache << This will work in your current computer, but only at ATA33 speeds which is all the motherboard supports. You will need to partition as described by Clyde. To get the full ATA133 speeds you will need a PCI ATA adaptor and an 80 way IDE cable to connect it. Stuart

Why do you think you need such a huge hard drive? Because it is relatively cheap is not a good answer. Are you aware of the drawbacks having such a huge hard drive will entail, especially on your relatively slow computer? e.g. defragging a full drive may take up to 6 times as long as it does now. If you really feel you must have a huge hard drive, you are much better off getting a new faster computer to use it on.

you don't need an ata controller if your external case is adaptable from it to usb or firewire