Can I upgrade my HDD to 500GB or more

wiljim

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Mar 26, 2012
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I have an Intel desktop motherboard D865GLC with a 160GB WDC WD1600AAJS-60PSAO SATA hard drive and I am running Win XP Professional SP3. I want to upgrade my HDD to 500GB or 1TB can you tell me will my system handle/recognize this size drive?
My BIOS version/Date Intel Corp. BF86510A.86A.0063.P18.0406220349, 6/22/2004
 
You cant upgrade the existing HDD to 1TB.
But you can throw another HDD in and use it as well as the existing.

Though it looks like that Motherboard does not have any SATA connectors on it, so you will have to get an IDE Hard Drive.
Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB IDE. $95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136109

Though that is very expensive considering the capacity you are getting. I would go with this option.
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM. $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840
and use this card to get yourself some SATA ports to connect too. $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115072

That way you can get triple the capacity and faster speeds for only $10 more.
 

wiljim

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Mar 26, 2012
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My current hard drive is a 160GB WDC WD1600AAJS-60PSAO SATA hard drive. If a 1TB won't work will a 500 GB?
 
I am saying that you cannot change your existing HDD to be a bigger or smaller capacity. To do so you would have to physically pull it apart, change the platters and internals, then put it back together again. And even then it likely wont work, since HDD's have to be very finely tuned to work.

What I was saying you do is get another HDD to put in the system. That way you can keep your existing 160GB drive, but have more storage. This also means you don't have to re-install windows, get drivers again, install all your programs or backup any of your old data.

There shouldnt be any problem with compatibility software wise, and hardware wise the SATA card I mentioned will fix that.

Are you sure the HDD you have is SATA? From images I'm seeing of your motherboard, there are no SATA ports to use.
http://www.redplanettrading.com/ebay/motherboards/c28705-407/c28705-407-overview-800.jpg
Unless you have a card similar to what I suggested above.
 

nocteratus

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Mar 6, 2007
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You can see the 2 SATA connectors in the picture, they're black in the lower left corner of the MB.
 

wiljim

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Mar 26, 2012
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Thank you all for the replies. In another situation it would be a good idea to add another HD to my system for extra storage but I have another desktop to put my current drive into. I have another OS also. I was only wanting to know if my motherboard could accept a 500 GB HDD. I don't know much about the subject and am not sure if there is a limit to the size that specific motherboards can handle via the BIOS (from what I've read). I have read that Win XP 32 bit can only handle up to a 2TB HDD which in my case is more than enough. So from what I gather from the answers I should be okay to replace my current HD with a 500GB drive? And while I'm here does anyone know if it matters if it's SATA, SATA 2, SATA 300, SATA3.0?
 

nocteratus

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SATA are backward compatible so a SATA3.0 will fit on your motherboard.
If your optical drive is IDE then you should have both SATA ports free so you can leave the 160Gb HDD as the boot drive and put an extra HDD for expanding your storage. Yes you can put a 500GB or even a 2TB HDD.