@ Chim
I’m certain this isn’t a processor issue as that doesn’t handle the formatting of a drive and what the maximum size can be, that is down to OS and hardware as far as I’m aware. Now XP is capable of handling drives up to at least 500GB (I think that I can possibly go up to 1TB) as I have two of them and a 160GB drive. But I can’t use the new very high capacity HDDs which use a different means of storing data on the drive.
So it is possible down to how the drives are formatted (FAT32 Vs NTFS) or hardware IDE drives Vs SATA drives. Another possibility is the Motherboard BIOS settings using a different BIOS LBA (Logical block addressing) setting, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_block_addressing. Note, by all accounts you can’t change this setting with data on the HDD as it would be lost, but having backed it up to a new drive then that might be possible.
I would ask the guy exactly why it can only be a 40GB max capacity as I don’t believe it has anything to do with processor.
Charley, it’s that there’s a significant difference between my system and yours.
You have a 40 Gig Hard Drive as your Main Hard Drive and it has 9.42 Gig of Free Space.
My Hard Drive is NOT a 40 Gig Hard Drive, so there’s no way it’s going to be able to match that 9.42 Gig of Free Space. My Hard Drive is only a 10 Gig Hard Drive to begin with.
Let’s see, aside of having Windows XP Home Edition on it, here is basically what I have in it right now:
IE 7
AOL 9.0 Security Edition
avast 7.0.1466 Free
MBAM Free
SAS Free
Opera 11.10
MS Office Suite 2000 Small Business
Photoshop 6.0
Foxit Reader
IrfanView
Puran Defrag
Media Player Classic
QT Lite
YTD Video Downloader
So SEE? All of that is in a 10 Gig Hard Drive … NOT in a 40 Gig Hard Drive. There’s no way I can match your 9.42 Gig of Free Space.
After the removal of the Hotfix Uninstallers the other night and performing a thorough Cleanup and bringing SAS back onto my Hard Drive, I believe I wound up with something like 3.6 Gig of Free Space. So, not bad considering it’s a 10 Gig Hard Drive. I’d say it’s about right.
I have NOT yet removed the approximately 90 Meg of downloads in the Software Distribution / Downloads Folder that was mentioned in another thread. It’s that the last I looked, no one had assured me with 100% certainty that it was perfectly SAFE to remove them.
As to whether there might be Hidden Folders with useless stuff in them? Quite possible.
But, I think I have things set up to where Hidden Folders are displaying.
But, I can’t say with absolute 100% certainty that I’ve looked in every nook & cranny for any useless, expendable Files.
There’s a lot of stuff that I of course don’t know what it is and therefore don’t know whether it’s safe to delete.
If the guy is saying you can only have up to a 40GB drive that as an upgrade would be massive compared to your 10GB drive. I was under the misunderstanding that you already had a 40GB drive.
David, I’ll check out that link later.
However, I would have thought that how many Address Lines a Processor has would determine what size of Hard Drive it could handle. I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that’s the key to that guy’s assessment that my computer can only handle a 40 Gig Hard Drive.
Theoretically I could send a follow up inquiry to him to get the lowdown details on his assessment.
But, I don’t know him at all. I only know his sister Online.
And besides, the one and only exchange that I had with him there on her Blog … I didn’t care for his attitude. He had never met me before, but yet had a very condescending, borderline insulting attitude toward me having the old system that I have. So, I didn’t care to pick his brain with any follow up questions regarding any possible other options.
The OS in conjunction with the BIOS settings are responsible for the management of the HDD, whilst having a low powered processor and little RAM will make that task slower, it shouldn’t restrict the size.
If the guy says you can only go up to 40GB, that is fine if you only have 10GB and is almost full 40GB would be massive by comparison. But not obviously as large as XP is capable of going, for whatever restriction he is talking about. If 40GB is possible I would bite his arm of for that kind of difference, it would certainly extend the life of this system.
If he is the one fitting the new HDD, I would take the opportunity to upgrade your RAM and if possible the CPU to whatever is possible on that motherboard. You could see some very reasonable system performance improvements for a relatively modest outlay.
Oh yeah, 40 Gig would be more than enough for my needs. Heck, the 20 Gig Hard Drive in my Backup computer, my Gateway Windows 98SE one would be enough. But, I wouldn’t want to mess around with switching out Hard Drives between my 2 computers and risk winding up with 2 non-working computers. I’d rather leave my Gateway Backup computer out of the equation.
Anyway, shortly after that guy had claimed my HP Pavilion could only handle an upgrade to a 40 Gig Hard Drive, I conducted searches Online and as I recall, I didn’t find any 40 Gig Hard Drives. All I came across were 60 to 80 Gig and above.
Oh, FYI, that guy won’t be touching my computer anytime soon … or ever for that matter. He’s from Venezuela. I’m in Texas.
As to the RAM in my HP Pavilion 6730?
There too, there have been differing opinions as to what it can take. Probably more than a year ago, I was recommended some website at Geeks to Go, which would test out my RAM and inform me what the Maximum RAM would be that my computer could handle.
Well, that supposed well-known website informed me that my HP Pavilion 6730 was already at its Max at 256 Meg. But, then here at the avast Forums I have been told before that that is not true. So, I don’t know who to believe.
For whatever it’s worth, this website confirms that my HP Pavilion 6730 can only handle 256 Meg of RAM.
In all honesty you could probably pick up a second user computer for not much more that trying to upgrade the old system. A search for your old dinosaur returns many hits and it does look like it is maxed out at 256 (2 X 128MB sticks) RAM, http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bph05747&lc=en&cc=us&product=58757. Though that link says it can only take win98se, which is clearly wrong.
So given all of that I really would be looking at a cheap system, there meant to be good deals in many of the computer discount stores. Where you could probably pick up one for a couple of hundred dollars, Radio Shack, some refurbished ones in there for $229 Compaq CQ5600F Desktop PC (Refurbished) and not bad specs when you consider it also has win7 home Premium 64bit.
Yeah, that might have been crucial.com. I couldn’t remember the name, but that sounds about right.
Yep, really a refurbished computer is probably a better route than trying to mess with upgrading the Hard Drive. I HAD conducted searches in the CompUSA and Walmart websites before. So that option IS there waiting in the wings for when I decide to pull the trigger.
Well, I’ll consider this topic RESOLVED.
Thanks, guys.
I at least regained 580 Meg of Free Space from Info acquired here at the avast Forums.
A refurbished system is certainly much less hassle than trying your own upgrade and for not much more money when you consider what else you would be getting.
He’s from Venezuela. I’m in Texas.
I’ll be in Forney on 11/9/2012
If your posts aren’t at least usb 2, then an external HD isn’t a good idea except for storage.
A rebuilt upgraded system certainly makes much more sense.
Yard sales, Moving sales, county fairs, or, contact a Computer Club close to home.
I’ve heard of Forney before, but can’t place its location at this instant.
The USB Ports on my HP Pavilion ARE 2.0, but for some reason, as per Windows XP Home, they are NOT High Speed.
My Gateway Backup computer on the other hand, now that one has 1.0 USB Ports.
On that one I cannot use my Flash Drives.
That one of course has Windows 98SE.
