hard drive compatibility

[istanbul]

I currently have compaq 5340. I want to upgrade the harddisk from 3gb to 60gb. Can any internal harddrive fit into the my current hard drive's slot? Do I have to check if my motherboard is compatible w/ 60gb hardrive? As you can see, I am kind of new in this computer stuff. I will appreciate it a lot, if you can reply. Thank you.

 

[Ryans]

Check to see if the bios supports all 60GB. Older bios versions will not be able to detected hard disks having large capacites. Possible solutions
1) Upgrade the bios
2) Get an IDE controller
3) Set the capacity limitation jumper on your hard disk. This will limit the capacity of you disk to the maximum capacity that your bios supports.

 

[sturm]

as far as i know all harddrives have the same external dimensions. but the main point is makeing sure ur bios will support the full capacity. there are programs that can allow the bios to use the full capacity. i used one on my 486 for a WD drive.

 

[Crashman]

you forgot #4, use a drive overlay software, and set the drive to a manual smaller setting in BIOS.

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