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120 gb is the Largest hard drive I can put in my 4550?



 
 
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  #51  
Old December 6th 03, 02:59 PM
Tom Scales
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Suzeann,

I had a great laugh. All these people were giving you silly answers and
acting very condescending and you're a knowledgeable power user. Karen's
tools are great stuff -- my wife is a big fan too. I think your approach
(which is similar to mine) works great. My storage needs (over a terabyte in
the house) are identical to yours. I'm an amateur photographer and do all my
'darkroom' work on the computer. I recently upgraded to a decent digital SLR
(Nikon D100). Every image is about 25MB. Those are small compared to the
120MB images from my 4000dpi film scanner.

The storage adds up fast.

I have a DVD burner, but at 60 cents a gigabyte for disk storage, fine just
adding storage to be a better approach. I also use a Maxtor 200GB
USB2/Firewire drive which is very handy, but am going to look into the
drawer you mention. The downside is I have two drives in the open bays so
I'd have to give one up.

Run down to Circuit City if you have one and buy the 250GB drive for $149.
8MB cache and very quiet. Great deal!

Have fun.

Tom
"Suzeann Loomis" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 06 Dec 2003 02:25:11 GMT, "Kernelpanic"
wrote:


"Suzeann Loomis" wrote in message
.. .

Help, please.

I have been told that I can only add another 120 gigabyte hard drive
to my Dell 4550. But people at a local computer shop say I can add a
250 gigabyte hard drive.

Which is true? I need more space for my photography.

Thank you.

Suze Loomis


Suze,

I read all the post, from which alot of it got off the subject that you

had
posted. Did you try and contact Dell? If you have support for you

system,
I suggest you contact Dell, even though there may be those that will

oppose
it. Please post the firmware rev that you BIOS is using(Rev. A04 added
"UDMA support for 48-bit LBA hard drives over 137GB"), and what OS you

are
running on the system(i.e., WinXP Home, WinXP Pro SP1, etc...). You

should
be able to install a 250GB HD in your system, but it may depend on your

OS
and BIOS firmware for how big a partition can be. The new HD may come

with
a utility to help you partition your HD. If adding the drive as a 2nd
drive, your problem may be simply that you can't create a partition

greater
then 120GB(Actually it's slightly larger), but you can create a few
partitions on that new HD. I also hope that you are backing up your

files.


Windows XP Pro, Service Pack One. One gigabyte of ram. Thanks for all
your answers, everyone. No, I didn't contact Dell because the answers
here in this forum seem adequate. I had suspected that I was being
given false advice about the limitation, which is why I posted here.

I had a chance to buy Western Digital Caviar 200 gb drives, with the 8
mb cache, on a post-Thanksgiving day sale for $99 each, but passed
them up because I was uncertain, as in my original post, A nephew has
a 4550 computer and he also was uncertain if the BIOS would support
such a large drive.

Currently I use a 120 gb drive, and I have an identical 120 gb drive
(both partitioned into four partitions) in a slideout drawer (Computer
Geeks, about $7, I've used these for years). I use Karen's Replicator
(outstanding freeware) to backup the non-system partitions, and
Windows' own ASR backup for the system partition. That duplicate drive
sits in bubble wrap, in a large plastic baggie, under my car seat. It
simply plugs into and out of a drawer in a 5" bay.

I also do a second backup of data and photos into an 80 mb drive that
I put into a Plumax USB2 case. That goes elsewhere, outside my house.

Thanks again. There will be more sales after Christmas.

By the way, how soon will these Serial ATA hard drives be a regular
feature and will there really be any advantage to them? (I do mostly
photo work, with larger photos, more than 10 mb., and documents. No
games or spreadsheets.)

Suzeann



  #52  
Old December 7th 03, 12:16 AM
Cristian Croitoru
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"derek / nul" :
Let me say that all drives on a controller can be reading and writing at

the
same time, this does not mean that they are holding onto the buss at that

time.

Buss speed 160Mb/s, drive speed 20Mb/s therefore 8 devices r/w at the

same
time.

All drives have buffers (double buffers actually), when a buffer is full,

the
drive raises a flag (data available) to say he wants to transfer some

data, when
the buss is free there will be a buss available signal.

In effect we have a multiplexed system happening here, unlike an IDE

device
which holds the buss for the complete transfer.


Now I am really confused.. 20 Mb/s sounds measly, IDE drives can burst 100+
(150 on SATA) and they DO that, cause I tested.. Also they can supply
sustained at 50 MB+ and they do that, measured from the speed of "ghosting"
a drive on an other one.

While I understand the concept of multiplexing, it seems to me that the
numbers you presented do not quite add up..

I am looking forward for the approval of my new server, it should have
enough "variety" to be able to demonstrate proof on concept and benchmarking
for the technology in discussion.. Again, I hope I do not screw up - grin

Cristian Croitoru


  #53  
Old December 7th 03, 12:20 AM
Miro
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Cristian Croitoru" wrote in message
...



I think they mean multi-threading.

There are Fibre Channel, SCSI, IDE drive controllers.


  #56  
Old December 9th 03, 06:40 PM
Ray Setzer
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

What in the world does the basic computer user need with Raid5? They are
unlikely to have 250GB worth of data. Unless they are doing big time video
editing, in which case they should be moving up from basic Dell's to
workstation class machines.

Don't just stick something in your machine because you can. Put it in
becuase its what you need.


"David H. Lipman" wrote in message
...
Except...

You are not taking into account; the importance of the data, the

reliability factor and
the sheer speed that RAID 5 provides.

As for the cost of the system vs the cost of the disk sub-system -- it's a

moot point. It
has no bearing what so ever. What matters is the functionality,

application and the need
for reliability.

What happens if that 250GB drive dies ? Then what ?
Think about the backup alternatives for 250GB. AIT2, DLT etc. Think

about the time it
takes to back up 250GBs of data.
Using RAID, if one hard disk dies, the user still has access to the data

and the failed
drive can easily be replaced.

Think outside the box. Think about the - what ifs....

Dave


"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
| Dave,
|
| That's ridiculous. A $900 computer and $1500 worth of disk.
|
| 250GB works fine in a 4550.
|
| Tom
| "David H. Lipman" wrote in message
| ...
| Suz:
|
| Go RAID 5 and SCSI and you will not have the artificial barriers of

IDE
| hard disk
| controllers. Plus you a very reliable and very fast disk sub-system.
|
| Dave
|
|
|
| "Suzeann Loomis" wrote in message
| ...
| |
| | Help, please.
| |
| | I have been told that I can only add another 120 gigabyte hard drive
| | to my Dell 4550. But people at a local computer shop say I can add a
| | 250 gigabyte hard drive.
| |
| | Which is true? I need more space for my photography.
| |
| | Thank you.
| |
| | Suze Loomis
|
|
|
|




  #57  
Old December 9th 03, 06:46 PM
Ray Setzer
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Swappable drives are very handy. Lian-Li is one maker of these hand devices.
It allows you to just keep buying HD's whenever they are on sale. This
allows you to swap in whichever drive has the data you wish to work on.


"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
Suzeann,

I had a great laugh. All these people were giving you silly answers and
acting very condescending and you're a knowledgeable power user. Karen's
tools are great stuff -- my wife is a big fan too. I think your approach
(which is similar to mine) works great. My storage needs (over a terabyte

in
the house) are identical to yours. I'm an amateur photographer and do all

my
'darkroom' work on the computer. I recently upgraded to a decent digital

SLR
(Nikon D100). Every image is about 25MB. Those are small compared to the
120MB images from my 4000dpi film scanner.

The storage adds up fast.

I have a DVD burner, but at 60 cents a gigabyte for disk storage, fine

just
adding storage to be a better approach. I also use a Maxtor 200GB
USB2/Firewire drive which is very handy, but am going to look into the
drawer you mention. The downside is I have two drives in the open bays so
I'd have to give one up.

Run down to Circuit City if you have one and buy the 250GB drive for $149.
8MB cache and very quiet. Great deal!

Have fun.

Tom
"Suzeann Loomis" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 06 Dec 2003 02:25:11 GMT, "Kernelpanic"
wrote:


"Suzeann Loomis" wrote in message
.. .

Help, please.

I have been told that I can only add another 120 gigabyte hard drive
to my Dell 4550. But people at a local computer shop say I can add a
250 gigabyte hard drive.

Which is true? I need more space for my photography.

Thank you.

Suze Loomis

Suze,

I read all the post, from which alot of it got off the subject that you

had
posted. Did you try and contact Dell? If you have support for you

system,
I suggest you contact Dell, even though there may be those that will

oppose
it. Please post the firmware rev that you BIOS is using(Rev. A04 added
"UDMA support for 48-bit LBA hard drives over 137GB"), and what OS you

are
running on the system(i.e., WinXP Home, WinXP Pro SP1, etc...). You

should
be able to install a 250GB HD in your system, but it may depend on your

OS
and BIOS firmware for how big a partition can be. The new HD may come

with
a utility to help you partition your HD. If adding the drive as a 2nd
drive, your problem may be simply that you can't create a partition

greater
then 120GB(Actually it's slightly larger), but you can create a few
partitions on that new HD. I also hope that you are backing up your

files.


Windows XP Pro, Service Pack One. One gigabyte of ram. Thanks for all
your answers, everyone. No, I didn't contact Dell because the answers
here in this forum seem adequate. I had suspected that I was being
given false advice about the limitation, which is why I posted here.

I had a chance to buy Western Digital Caviar 200 gb drives, with the 8
mb cache, on a post-Thanksgiving day sale for $99 each, but passed
them up because I was uncertain, as in my original post, A nephew has
a 4550 computer and he also was uncertain if the BIOS would support
such a large drive.

Currently I use a 120 gb drive, and I have an identical 120 gb drive
(both partitioned into four partitions) in a slideout drawer (Computer
Geeks, about $7, I've used these for years). I use Karen's Replicator
(outstanding freeware) to backup the non-system partitions, and
Windows' own ASR backup for the system partition. That duplicate drive
sits in bubble wrap, in a large plastic baggie, under my car seat. It
simply plugs into and out of a drawer in a 5" bay.

I also do a second backup of data and photos into an 80 mb drive that
I put into a Plumax USB2 case. That goes elsewhere, outside my house.

Thanks again. There will be more sales after Christmas.

By the way, how soon will these Serial ATA hard drives be a regular
feature and will there really be any advantage to them? (I do mostly
photo work, with larger photos, more than 10 mb., and documents. No
games or spreadsheets.)

Suzeann





  #58  
Old December 10th 03, 01:28 AM
Tom Scales
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

True I suppose, but since my Dimension 4550 has 550GB I don't need to swap
very much.

Tom
"Ray Setzer" wrote in message
...
Swappable drives are very handy. Lian-Li is one maker of these hand

devices.
It allows you to just keep buying HD's whenever they are on sale. This
allows you to swap in whichever drive has the data you wish to work on.


"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
Suzeann,

I had a great laugh. All these people were giving you silly answers and
acting very condescending and you're a knowledgeable power user. Karen's
tools are great stuff -- my wife is a big fan too. I think your

approach
(which is similar to mine) works great. My storage needs (over a

terabyte
in
the house) are identical to yours. I'm an amateur photographer and do

all
my
'darkroom' work on the computer. I recently upgraded to a decent digital

SLR
(Nikon D100). Every image is about 25MB. Those are small compared to

the
120MB images from my 4000dpi film scanner.

The storage adds up fast.

I have a DVD burner, but at 60 cents a gigabyte for disk storage, fine

just
adding storage to be a better approach. I also use a Maxtor 200GB
USB2/Firewire drive which is very handy, but am going to look into the
drawer you mention. The downside is I have two drives in the open bays

so
I'd have to give one up.

Run down to Circuit City if you have one and buy the 250GB drive for

$149.
8MB cache and very quiet. Great deal!

Have fun.

Tom
"Suzeann Loomis" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 06 Dec 2003 02:25:11 GMT, "Kernelpanic"
wrote:


"Suzeann Loomis" wrote in message
.. .

Help, please.

I have been told that I can only add another 120 gigabyte hard

drive
to my Dell 4550. But people at a local computer shop say I can add

a
250 gigabyte hard drive.

Which is true? I need more space for my photography.

Thank you.

Suze Loomis

Suze,

I read all the post, from which alot of it got off the subject that

you
had
posted. Did you try and contact Dell? If you have support for you

system,
I suggest you contact Dell, even though there may be those that will

oppose
it. Please post the firmware rev that you BIOS is using(Rev. A04

added
"UDMA support for 48-bit LBA hard drives over 137GB"), and what OS

you
are
running on the system(i.e., WinXP Home, WinXP Pro SP1, etc...). You

should
be able to install a 250GB HD in your system, but it may depend on

your
OS
and BIOS firmware for how big a partition can be. The new HD may

come
with
a utility to help you partition your HD. If adding the drive as a

2nd
drive, your problem may be simply that you can't create a partition

greater
then 120GB(Actually it's slightly larger), but you can create a few
partitions on that new HD. I also hope that you are backing up your

files.


Windows XP Pro, Service Pack One. One gigabyte of ram. Thanks for all
your answers, everyone. No, I didn't contact Dell because the answers
here in this forum seem adequate. I had suspected that I was being
given false advice about the limitation, which is why I posted here.

I had a chance to buy Western Digital Caviar 200 gb drives, with the 8
mb cache, on a post-Thanksgiving day sale for $99 each, but passed
them up because I was uncertain, as in my original post, A nephew has
a 4550 computer and he also was uncertain if the BIOS would support
such a large drive.

Currently I use a 120 gb drive, and I have an identical 120 gb drive
(both partitioned into four partitions) in a slideout drawer (Computer
Geeks, about $7, I've used these for years). I use Karen's Replicator
(outstanding freeware) to backup the non-system partitions, and
Windows' own ASR backup for the system partition. That duplicate drive
sits in bubble wrap, in a large plastic baggie, under my car seat. It
simply plugs into and out of a drawer in a 5" bay.

I also do a second backup of data and photos into an 80 mb drive that
I put into a Plumax USB2 case. That goes elsewhere, outside my house.

Thanks again. There will be more sales after Christmas.

By the way, how soon will these Serial ATA hard drives be a regular
feature and will there really be any advantage to them? (I do mostly
photo work, with larger photos, more than 10 mb., and documents. No
games or spreadsheets.)

Suzeann







  #59  
Old December 10th 03, 04:14 AM
S.Lewis
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
True I suppose, but since my Dimension 4550 has 550GB I don't need to

swap
very much.

Tom



You're just bragging now, Tommy. How many internal disks? externals?
Controller card?


Stew



  #60  
Old December 10th 03, 11:47 AM
Tom Scales
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Two internals, a 250GB boot drive on the motherboard controller. A 100GB on
a separate controller (came free with the 250GB drive -- $149 total). 200GB
External, either Firewire or USB2 depending on my mood.

Big digital images (120MB each) take lots of space, particularly if you back
them up.

Tom
"S.Lewis" wrote in message
...

"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
True I suppose, but since my Dimension 4550 has 550GB I don't need to

swap
very much.

Tom



You're just bragging now, Tommy. How many internal disks? externals?
Controller card?


Stew





 




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