As a relative newbie, I hope this question is in the right place - please inform me if not. I currently have an older Compaq Presario 5BW250 with a Compaq motherboard 06COH with an 82810E chipset, Compaq BIOS 686C3, a Celeron at 700 MHz, 512 MB RAM 100 MHz bus, Windows ME, and a tiny 15 GB Western Digital HDD model WD150AA ATA at 5400 rpm. I've tried unsuccessfully to find out from various sources if I can upgrade to, say, a 250 GB HDD at 7200 rpm Ultra ATA-100, or is my system too old to handle the stress? Any wisdom is appreciated. Jinxdragon Catrancher

if you go back out to where you got your bios, there should be a list (or it may have even been in the download zip file with the bios)that tells you what each bios updates corrects/features added. See if you can find that and let us know if you cannot find it

I don't think your motherboard will handle a drive greater than 137GB. As mentioned by Mike, you can check for a bios upgrade to make it 48bit LBA capable, but I don't think your chances are very good. You might need to add a PCI IDE controller card. Reference: http://www.48bitlba.com

Your system can definiely support a 250 GB HDD or larger, however you will need to invest in an additional PCI IDE controller for your PC. You must have an available (open) PCI slot for installation. Here are some examples. http://www.siig.com/product.asp?catid=76&pid=437 http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/product/proddetail.html?sess=no&language=English+US&prodkey=ASH-1233&cat=%2fTechnology%2fHost+Adapters%2fATA http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=39967&item=5212539039&rd=1 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=39967&item=5212878515&rd=1 Good luck. I - Sandor J Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment is the treasurer of the wise man. - William Penn (1614 - 1718)

http://www.48bitlba.com/

Way cool, people: many thanks for your responses. Yesterday I spent educating myself thanks to the resources you supplied. It looks as if the best approach for me now is to scale back my grand designs until I can upgrade to a better system and OS. What a cool forum this site is. Jinxdragon the Catrancher