will ATA100 automatically switch to ATA33?

I have an old (reliable) celeron 400, 98SE, with ATA33 disk.
Since disks are getting so cheap, I thought it might be a good
idea to purchase a 160GB disk (ATA100). And, I believe that
all the ATA100 disks are backward compatable with ATA33.
It is not clear if the disk will properly switch from ATA100
to ATA33 automatically. I kinda got that idea because seagate
has a tool utility that will toggle disks from ATA100 to ATA33:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/di...ra_ata100.html
So, my concern is that if I cannot write to the disk, I would
not be able to use that toggle utility, catch22.
I have 40 conductor cable, which is supposed to be used only
up to and including ATA33. Maybe the disk will detect that, and
automatically set its speed to ATA33, regardless?

Are seagate or western digital good brands?

regards,
bill

bill escribió:
I have an old (reliable) celeron 400, 98SE, with ATA33 disk.
Since disks are getting so cheap, I thought it might be a good
idea to purchase a 160GB disk (ATA100). And, I believe that
all the ATA100 disks are backward compatable with ATA33.
It is not clear if the disk will properly switch from ATA100
to ATA33 automatically. I kinda got that idea because seagate
has a tool utility that will toggle disks from ATA100 to ATA33:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/di...ra_ata100.html
So, my concern is that if I cannot write to the disk, I would
not be able to use that toggle utility, catch22.
I have 40 conductor cable, which is supposed to be used only
up to and including ATA33. Maybe the disk will detect that, and
automatically set its speed to ATA33, regardless?

Are seagate or western digital good brands?

regards,
bill

i dont think it will work on your motherboard

"bill" wrote in message
m...
I have an old (reliable) celeron 400, 98SE, with ATA33 disk.
Since disks are getting so cheap, I thought it might be a good
idea to purchase a 160GB disk (ATA100). And, I believe that
all the ATA100 disks are backward compatable with ATA33.
It is not clear if the disk will properly switch from ATA100
to ATA33 automatically. I kinda got that idea because seagate
has a tool utility that will toggle disks from ATA100 to ATA33:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/di...ra_ata100.html
So, my concern is that if I cannot write to the disk, I would
not be able to use that toggle utility, catch22.
I have 40 conductor cable, which is supposed to be used only
up to and including ATA33. Maybe the disk will detect that, and
automatically set its speed to ATA33, regardless?

Are seagate or western digital good brands?

regards,
bill
The problem will be that your old motherboard wont support a drive that
large and nor will windows 98 (natively). Certainly an ATA 133 drive will be
backwards compatible to ATA 33 speeds (should be automatic with a 40 wire
cable). You're best bet is to investigate what the largest size drive is
that the motherboard supports (probably either 137 GB limit - i.e. buy a 120
GB drive or 32 GB limit - i.e. buy a 30 GB drive if you can find one) and
get a drive of that size. You can do this by finding the make and model
written on the motherboard and going to the manufacturers website. There may
be a BIOS upgrade for your motherboard to allow larger sized hard drives to
be used. If you're unsure about how to do the "flash" upgrade though, I
suggest you get someone in the know to perform this because a mistake can
trash your motherboard (depending on the make/model). Seagate have just
increased their warranty period to 5 years and Samsung have a very
respectable 3 year warranty (both are very quiet drives - speed won't be a
limiting factor so 5400 RPM drives would be sufficiently fast - and likely
cheaper than other models if you can find any still).

Paul

On 22 Aug 2004 12:04:32 -0700, (bill)
wrote:

I have an old (reliable) celeron 400, 98SE, with ATA33 disk.
Since disks are getting so cheap, I thought it might be a good
idea to purchase a 160GB disk (ATA100). And, I believe that
all the ATA100 disks are backward compatable with ATA33.
It is not clear if the disk will properly switch from ATA100
to ATA33 automatically. I kinda got that idea because seagate
has a tool utility that will toggle disks from ATA100 to ATA33:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/di...ra_ata100.html
So, my concern is that if I cannot write to the disk, I would
not be able to use that toggle utility, catch22.
I have 40 conductor cable, which is supposed to be used only
up to and including ATA33. Maybe the disk will detect that, and
automatically set its speed to ATA33, regardless?

Are seagate or western digital good brands?

regards,
bill

Given the limitation Paul Murphy mentioned, that your board can't
support a 160GB drive even after a bios update (at most a bios
update for a board that age will generally support up to 128GB),
and that running ATA33 mode on a modern ATA100 or ATA133 drive
will be a significant performance hit (though it should work
fine), best option is to buy a PCI IDE (ata100 or ata133)
controller card.

Here's one cheap,
http://www.shopampm.com/product_info...roducts_id=253

"kony" wrote in message
...
On 22 Aug 2004 12:04:32 -0700, (bill)
wrote:

I have an old (reliable) celeron 400, 98SE, with ATA33 disk.
Since disks are getting so cheap, I thought it might be a good
idea to purchase a 160GB disk (ATA100). And, I believe that
all the ATA100 disks are backward compatable with ATA33.
It is not clear if the disk will properly switch from ATA100
to ATA33 automatically. I kinda got that idea because seagate
has a tool utility that will toggle disks from ATA100 to ATA33:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/di...ra_ata100.html
So, my concern is that if I cannot write to the disk, I would
not be able to use that toggle utility, catch22.
I have 40 conductor cable, which is supposed to be used only
up to and including ATA33. Maybe the disk will detect that, and
automatically set its speed to ATA33, regardless?

Are seagate or western digital good brands?

regards,
bill

Given the limitation Paul Murphy mentioned, that your board can't
support a 160GB drive even after a bios update (at most a bios
update for a board that age will generally support up to 128GB),
and that running ATA33 mode on a modern ATA100 or ATA133 drive
will be a significant performance hit (though it should work
fine), best option is to buy a PCI IDE (ata100 or ata133)
controller card.

Here's one cheap,
http://www.shopampm.com/product_info...roducts_id=253
Although that would get around the 137 GB (128 GB Windows formatted size)
limitation (assuming that's what
the mobo is limited to), it won't get around the Windows 98 problems
associated with drives larger than what 28 bit LBA can handle. For more info
this is an excellent site to reference these issues - here's the Windows 98
related page: http://www.48bitlba.com/win98.htm
The OP would be well advised to read up on this!

Paul

The motherboard's BIOS on your older computer undoubtedly CANNOT recognize a
harddrive a newer harddrive as large as 160 GB.

--
DaveW



"bill" wrote in message
m...
I have an old (reliable) celeron 400, 98SE, with ATA33 disk.
Since disks are getting so cheap, I thought it might be a good
idea to purchase a 160GB disk (ATA100). And, I believe that
all the ATA100 disks are backward compatable with ATA33.
It is not clear if the disk will properly switch from ATA100
to ATA33 automatically. I kinda got that idea because seagate
has a tool utility that will toggle disks from ATA100 to ATA33:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/di...ra_ata100.html
So, my concern is that if I cannot write to the disk, I would
not be able to use that toggle utility, catch22.
I have 40 conductor cable, which is supposed to be used only
up to and including ATA33. Maybe the disk will detect that, and
automatically set its speed to ATA33, regardless?

Are seagate or western digital good brands?

regards,
bill

DaveW wrote:

.... snip ...

The motherboard's BIOS on your older computer undoubtedly CANNOT
recognize a harddrive a newer harddrive as large as 160 GB.

There are available ISA and PCI cards (very small) that contain
only a replacement disk driver rom, which the boot process
installs. They go for 40 or 50 dollars. This avoids disturbing
the existing bios, but provides the function. I have one in a 486
system, but forget where I got it. I can choose what drives to
enable it on. Without that I am limited to under 8G drives.

--
Chuck F ) )
Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
http://cbfalconer.home.att.net USE worldnet address!

On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 23:21:30 +0100, "Paul Murphy"
wrote:

"kony" wrote in message
.. .
On 22 Aug 2004 12:04:32 -0700, (bill)
wrote:

I have an old (reliable) celeron 400, 98SE, with ATA33 disk.
Since disks are getting so cheap, I thought it might be a good
idea to purchase a 160GB disk (ATA100). And, I believe that
all the ATA100 disks are backward compatable with ATA33.
It is not clear if the disk will properly switch from ATA100
to ATA33 automatically. I kinda got that idea because seagate
has a tool utility that will toggle disks from ATA100 to ATA33:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/di...ra_ata100.html
So, my concern is that if I cannot write to the disk, I would
not be able to use that toggle utility, catch22.
I have 40 conductor cable, which is supposed to be used only
up to and including ATA33. Maybe the disk will detect that, and
automatically set its speed to ATA33, regardless?

Are seagate or western digital good brands?

regards,
bill

Given the limitation Paul Murphy mentioned, that your board can't
support a 160GB drive even after a bios update (at most a bios
update for a board that age will generally support up to 128GB),
and that running ATA33 mode on a modern ATA100 or ATA133 drive
will be a significant performance hit (though it should work
fine), best option is to buy a PCI IDE (ata100 or ata133)
controller card.

Here's one cheap,
http://www.shopampm.com/product_info...roducts_id=253
Although that would get around the 137 GB (128 GB Windows formatted size)
limitation (assuming that's what
the mobo is limited to), it won't get around the Windows 98 problems
associated with drives larger than what 28 bit LBA can handle. For more info
this is an excellent site to reference these issues - here's the Windows 98
related page: http://www.48bitlba.com/win98.htm
The OP would be well advised to read up on this!

Paul


One thing the 'site seems to overlook (at least on that page,
didn't reread whole 'site, is that the newer FDISK MS offers for
Win98 that supports over 64GB can be used to partition a drive,
but size needs be specified as a percentage.

If the disk will not automatically work with ATA33 it will run in PIO mode. You can then run the utility to make ATA33 work. As other posters have said, your big problem will be getting your system to recognize a large hard drive.

bill wrote:

I have an old (reliable) celeron 400, 98SE, with ATA33 disk.
Since disks are getting so cheap, I thought it might be a good
idea to purchase a 160GB disk (ATA100). And, I believe that
all the ATA100 disks are backward compatable with ATA33.
It is not clear if the disk will properly switch from ATA100
to ATA33 automatically. I kinda got that idea because seagate
has a tool utility that will toggle disks from ATA100 to ATA33:
http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/di...ra_ata100.html
So, my concern is that if I cannot write to the disk, I would
not be able to use that toggle utility, catch22.
I have 40 conductor cable, which is supposed to be used only
up to and including ATA33. Maybe the disk will detect that, and
automatically set its speed to ATA33, regardless?

Are seagate or western digital good brands?

regards,
bill

--

When replying by Email include NewSGrouP (case sensitive) in Subject

Mike Walsh
West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

"kony" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 23:21:30 +0100
snip

One thing the 'site seems to overlook (at least on that page,
didn't reread whole 'site, is that the newer FDISK MS offers for
Win98 that supports over 64GB can be used to partition a drive,
but size needs be specified as a percentage.

Although the FDISK fix may not have been referred to directly on that page,
it is referred to somewhere on the site - that's how I found out about it.
Its only a cosmetic fix anyway though because if a user wants to partition a
drive to full capacity the "old" version will still do it (automatically),
it just doesn't display the correct value at the time of use. The more
pressing issue is that with drives over ~130 GB the scandisk and defrag disk
utilities built into windows wont work and the OS simply isn't designed for
such a large drive. 120 GB on the other hand, will be acceptable to the OS,
as long as that size is acceptable to the motherboards BIOS - if not a
complete system upgrade would probably be the most cost effective solution
rather than trying to make a silk purse out of what may be considered to be
a sows ear. Feedback on the exact system specs is needed from the OP before
progress can occur.

Paul