new HD

[CortJstr]

I need some help. I need more HD space so I'm asking for a new one for Christmas but I'm a bit lost.

I don't know how big of a drive my current comp will recognize.

I'm only using this drive for files so I'd like one that I can hook up to my new computer when I get it (hopefully next year). I'm running Win98SE so I'll have to use FAT32. Would I even be able to transfer a drive to an XP machine and have it recognize the files?

Because of this I'm thinking external. Does anybody have experience with external drives? Will using it over USB 1.1 make it too slow to even bother with?

[jough]

XP will read a FAT32 file system, although if you're going to use the drive with XP-only I'd recommend you format it in NTFS, which will allow for compression and better resource handing (not to mention smaller cluster sizes - all of which means more stuff on your drive).

USB 1.1 is pretty slow.  I'd recommend getting either a FireWire or USB2 external drive.  If your PC doesn't support either of these you can get a card for about $40.  It's well worth it.

Are you buying a new machine, too, or just using the new drive to stem the tide on your Win98 box until you can afford to upgrade?

[slink]

FAT32 won't limit your available space. FAT16 only let you use 2.1gb of any drive larger than that.
But as Jough said, best is to switch to either win2k or XP, and use NTFS, which, while not readable in 98, is a far better file system than FATxx. It not only offers better compression, but better insurance against heavy fragmentation, and faster and more efficient defragging (certainly with the right tool - Diskeeper say, not windows defrag, which is useless).
The other possible route you could go down, more future proof, is to get an SATA card and an SATA HD, which are faster than IDE drives. Any motherboard you buy soon will certainly feature SATA natively, and many already do.
I wasn't sure how much better they'd be, but I benchmarked my new one and it runs at more than twice the speed of my best IDE (both drives are Maxtor).

(edit: FAT32 does have a limit on size - 2TB)

[Choop]

One caveat of NTFS is that you can't read your drives if you boot with a rescue disk. Not that this would have to happen often, but, say your neighbor's kid is a script kiddie and breaks in to your house, then fsks with your kernel. While you can press charges against the dirty little bastard, you can't fix your machine, and you'll lose everything on it.

Not that a massive porn collection can't be rebuilt, but it'll take a long time. Some of your favorites might no longer be available.

[jough]

You can more easily recover an NTFS boot drive than you can a FAT32 boot drive.  I've had to do both.  Contrary to popular believe, you *can* make an NT boot disk.

Basically NTFS is better in every way over FAT32, unless you need to have your portable drive work on both Windows9x and NT-based machines.

[CortJstr]

Are you buying a new machine, too, or just using the new drive to stem the tide on your Win98 box until you can afford to upgrade?

The latter. So based on what you've said is buy a firewire/usb2.0 card and install it in my current Win98SE machine. Get an external drive and transer my files onto it.

Then when I get a new machine I'll hook up this drive, transfer the files onto its internal drive and consider reformatting as NTFS. But this is at least a year off, sadly.

And recommendations/warnings on brand?

[jough]

Get either a Maxtor or a Western Digital.  They're the most common, so this won't be difficult.

Then find an external enclosure that will hold a full-sized drive that's either firewire, USB2, or both, if possible.

That'll run you about $50.  The drive depends on capacity, but they've come dramatically down in price lately.

Anyway, you don't want to just buy an "external" drive - get a regular internal drive and an external inclosure.  It'll be cheaper, and easier to upgrade in the future.

Plus, if you ever want to just pop that drive into your PC later, you'll have the option.

[slink]

Get either a Maxtor or a Western Digital.  They're the most common, so this won't be difficult.

Although I'd recommend Maxtor over WD. I was running one of each recently, and the WD drive stopped working properly.
My experience with Maxtor, from 120mb to 120gb drives however - never a problem. I still have the 120mb drive, and the others, sat in static bags, in padded boxes, in case ever needed, and have taken data off them more recently too, ensuring they still work perfectly.

And vis a vis NTFS screwing up from boot disks, it is a problem with 98 era boot disks. I have made the error of trying to get fdisk from a 98 cd boot, and losing a hard drive to it.
I tried backup tools but they could only retrieve something like 8gb of the 20gb I had at the time.
So I snapped my 98 cd and vowed never to go near it again for safety reasons.

[CortJstr]

While I'm at it, how do I figure out what kind of RAM I can use? I've only got 192 right now.

I think I've got a 128, a 64, and a free slot.

[jough]

It should be marked on one of the chips.  You probably use SDRAM - but you'll need to know your bus speed so you can get the right speed of memory - i.e. PC100, PC133, etc.

[Asherdan]

On the memory front:  Crucial isn't bargain-basement on cost, but they do make it easy for you.  I inherited a Compaq box from an employer that confounded me & the local Fry's lackey to fit PC133 SDRAM into it that worked.  Used the drill down box finder and ordered, got my UPS shipment, plugged it in and forgot about it.

It was easy enough for me to pimp them a little.

Disclaimer: your milage may vary

[slink]

Used the drill down box finder and ordered, got my UPS shipment, plugged it in and forgot about it.

Well, assuming his mobo would take a pc133 SD, it'd be that easy. But if not he might run into problems.
Basically though, if it'll take a 128pin DIMM, you're either looking at SD or DDR. Aida32 http://www.aida32.hu/aida32.php will tell you what it is (under motherboard it has the bus speed and memory type).
If it takes SD a pc133 is the best choice.
If it's DDR, you can pretty much put any DDR module in and it will underclock itself, running at the bus speed. This allows for future proofing it to some extent.
For decent RAM either Corsair, OCZ or Crucial are recommended. I've had best performance from Corsair.

[CortJstr]

It should be marked on one of the chips.  You probably use SDRAM - but you'll need to know your bus speed so you can get the right speed of memory - i.e. PC100, PC133, etc.

Okay, I finally found this:

 128-MB 100Mhz 64Bit 4-clock CL=2 SDRAM UNBUFFERED DIMM
64-MB 100Mhz 64Bit 4-clock CL=2 SDRAM UNBUFFERED DIMM

I have 3 slots total. So does this mean that 3 128MB 100Mhz SD DIMMS will max me out? Or is it 3 256's?

Also I'm getting a rather . . . unpleasant noise out of my machine. I fear it's the HD (I'm getting another for X-mas, but still).

Is there any way I can ID a sickly HD? Or maybe it's just a fan. A dead fan did kill my original video card.

[jough]

As far as the memory goes - it really depends on your motherboard.  I couldn't tell you off the bat, but you DO have the book that came with your computer, no?

It should say how much max memory it can handle.

Also, three slots is HIGHLY unusual.  There are usually four on a desktop box, or maybe two on some cheaper machines (or somewhat packaged machines, like Compaqs or Dells, etc.)

As far as your HD, there's a tool that Steve Gibson wrote that is perfect for fixing and diagnosing hard drives called "Spin Rite" but I think it's kinda expensive.

http://grc.com

You can also test your network security there.  It's an amazingly good site.

[CortJstr]

Well I'll be damned. Gateway has a new utility for just this information.

Number of Memory Slots on Board: 3 (3 banks of 1)
Maximum Amount / Type of RAM that can be Installed:  
 384MB  SDRAM, PC100

They want $80 for a 128MB from an undisclosed company. That sounds a little steep to me.

Edit: Well I passed the security tests with perfect "invisible" scores but no help on the HD. But shutting down, opening the box, dusting, and checking all the screws seemed to help.

For clarification my manual is totally generic. It directs you to the gateway site for specific info on things like the color code of the soundcard and the stuff I just found above. It's really annoying, actually.