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azaddoc

3 Posts

6546

October 12th, 2005 00:00

Suggestions needed for HDD upgrade for Optiplex GX1

i have recently got a dell optiplex GX1, processor speed 450 Mhz, hard drive 2 GB, total RAM 256 MB, O/S Win 98, from the computer services of my univ. i m planning to upgrade the hard drive to something like 100 GB or above  (internal HDD) and install Win XP, Office XP, Win media player 10 and other stuffs. i m not very familiar with the technical details, please help me out... 
 

peterfelgate_ce40d3

1.3K Posts

October 12th, 2005 06:00

Any IDE disk up to 120Gbyte will work using the in-built controller, noting that the BIOS has a display limitation of 65535 Mbytes (but that's a display limitation only; the disk will work fine); and that the disk will operate at the max speed of the in-built controller (ATA 33) - this is usually adequate but a third party PCI IDE controller can be added if you want to speed the disk up, although this is probably only really needed if you go to a faster CPU; note that you need to get a controller known to work with the GX1 e.g. the Promise range.
 
Set the new drive's jumpers to the cable select position NOT master or slave.  If this disk is to replace the original disk, you can set the bios to boot from CD, then boot the XP CD and set up the disk as part of the OS install.  If you need anything from the original disk you can always add it to the spare IDE cable connector  (as long as you have the larger case models with two IDE connectors; remember that using cable select the master disk is that on the connector furthest from the motherboard; and if adding a second disk you will need to go into the bios and switch the second devioce from NONE to AUTO to see it). 
 
The smaller cases pose problems as there's no spare IDE cable for a second disk nor a power connector; in this case you have to either replace the existing disk or start some real messing about to get the second disk in. 
 
If you need further informaiton e.g. once you have your new disk, post again.

speedstep

9 Legend

 • 

47K Posts

October 14th, 2005 12:00

Make a few WIN98 Startup disks AFTER you download and install the FDISK patch.


http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=263044


Update the Bios to A07 if its not at that level.  If it is then leave it alone.


XP will install without issue.  However the onboard video will need rage pro drivers from ATI


wxp-j5-30-1-b02.exe

Ati doesnt allow direct downloads anymore but they have free registration.

If you dont want to be spammed to death just create a free hotmail account and then

register with whatever information you feel is appropriate or not.

 

Message Edited by SpeedStep on 10-14-2005 09:58 AM

tbrown05

2 Posts

March 12th, 2006 15:00

hello,

I'm trying to upgrade my optiplex gx1 hdd and I'm not sure what driver will work.  I got the computer from my husbands mom.  It was her old univ computer.  I'm currently running Windows 2000.  Can I purchase a Seagate 160GB Internal Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive, or do I need something smaller.  Also if I could get assistant on how to install it, that would help.

 

Thanks

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