I'm making a ftp-server out of an 350 MHz 256 MB Ram computer.
I saw that one can buy a 120 Gb harddrive for under 120 $ these days, so I want to buy 2 or more for this computer.
But... apparantly theres a limit for how big HDD:s you can drive from a certain motherboard. I've been searching the web and I just can't find anything about the ability to drive larger disks with old motherboards. Mine is a Microstar i810, does anyone know anything about this subject so I'm certain it will work before i buy the disks.
Ps. The Hdd:s I have in mind is the IBM Desktstar 180 GXP.
Best Regards,
Chris
I saw that one can buy a 120 Gb harddrive for under 120 $ these days, so I want to buy 2 or more for this computer.
But... apparantly theres a limit for how big HDD:s you can drive from a certain motherboard. I've been searching the web and I just can't find anything about the ability to drive larger disks with old motherboards. Mine is a Microstar i810, does anyone know anything about this subject so I'm certain it will work before i buy the disks.
Ps. The Hdd:s I have in mind is the IBM Desktstar 180 GXP.
Best Regards,
Chris
1. Update your bios to the latest version( check site msi ), and it will work, but not at 100% the speed off the HD's, MB support only ATA33 and ATA 66, sow ATA66 it will be.
2. Buy a ATA100 raid PCI card and attach the HD's to this controller, still if you dont update your bios you have to boot with this device, or else it's a no go.
Greetz Rudy / who run's his 160G FTP on a P200MMX
2. Buy a ATA100 raid PCI card and attach the HD's to this controller, still if you dont update your bios you have to boot with this device, or else it's a no go.
Greetz Rudy / who run's his 160G FTP on a P200MMX
Banned
Joined 2002
You should actually get a promise card instead. With is much better would let the hard drives run faster and would support the 2 x 120gig hard drives. If that old system is a 350mhz chances are it is ata 33 or 66. the promise card would take the full advantage of the drives 133ata. the cards are easy to install and there also cheap too.
p.s what kind of stuff will be on the ftp server..
The server that i use has 2 promise cards and uses the on board ata and has 690 gigs right now. : O )
p.s what kind of stuff will be on the ftp server..
The server that i use has 2 promise cards and uses the on board ata and has 690 gigs right now. : O )
Hi,
Actually either one would do although I see little point in using a raid card with just a pack of two disks.
The promise card should work too if speed is an issue but again I see little advantage in that for an FTP server.
If you want speed go scsi and use a real scsi raid card with at least 8Mb of onboard cache memory.
Don't expect them to come cheap though...
Cheers,
Actually either one would do although I see little point in using a raid card with just a pack of two disks.
The promise card should work too if speed is an issue but again I see little advantage in that for an FTP server.
If you want speed go scsi and use a real scsi raid card with at least 8Mb of onboard cache memory.
Don't expect them to come cheap though...
Cheers,
Banned
Joined 2002
My point was to get the Promise card. NOT RAID. was to help him support the 120 gig Plus hard drives.. and to buy a scsi 120 gig hdd you might want to sell your car heh to pay for it. The board that your talking about if im correct it wont support any thing above 60.o gig with the bios updated. so a cheap 40$ or less. promise card will do the trick.
Hi Jason,
I know what you're saying but Promise offers both, i.e. standard ATAPI cards to allow for ATA100 and 133 and also raid versions of those cards.
Again, don't let the announced speeds fool, they're measured peaks you'll never obtain in real life apps.
If the bios update doesn't support 60 Gb + HDs then the Promise card is a nice alternative but it take a PCI slot.
Another one that's free is a bios overlay file that fools the bios into thinking it has a smaller disk installed.
Most HD manufacturers have/had such soft on their site or it comes with the disk on a floppy back in the mid nineties.
I don't know if this was still further developped though.
Cheers,
I know what you're saying but Promise offers both, i.e. standard ATAPI cards to allow for ATA100 and 133 and also raid versions of those cards.
Again, don't let the announced speeds fool, they're measured peaks you'll never obtain in real life apps.
If the bios update doesn't support 60 Gb + HDs then the Promise card is a nice alternative but it take a PCI slot.
Another one that's free is a bios overlay file that fools the bios into thinking it has a smaller disk installed.
Most HD manufacturers have/had such soft on their site or it comes with the disk on a floppy back in the mid nineties.
I don't know if this was still further developped though.
Cheers,
Comment on post 7
Frank i don't really agree on that one. Onboard controllers have a CPU usage > 30%, while the raid cards have a ratio off <10% , this with the same data transfer.
With the raid card max data transfer will the double off the transfer off 1 harddisk ( well almost ), with the onboard controller you will only use 2/3 ( not 100% true ) off the maximum transfer off the HD 
Now, i dont think all off this matters, i gues you are running a simple 100Mbit network, if so don't bother on spending to mutch money on the raid controller, becouse it wouldn't matter anything on the max transfer throu your network, either way wil easely get about 10MByte/sec , still plenty for home usage
Greetz Rudy
Frank i don't really agree on that one. Onboard controllers have a CPU usage > 30%, while the raid cards have a ratio off <10% , this with the same data transfer.
With the raid card max data transfer will the double off the transfer off 1 harddisk ( well almost
), with the onboard controller you will only use 2/3 ( not 100% true ) off the maximum transfer off the HD Now, i dont think all off this matters, i gues you are running a simple 100Mbit network, if so don't bother on spending to mutch money on the raid controller, becouse it wouldn't matter anything on the max transfer throu your network, either way wil easely get about 10MByte/sec , still plenty for home usage
Greetz Rudy
Banned
Joined 2002
just want to add 1 thingy
DON'T USE THE SOFTWARE OVERLAY
if u ever got into throuble with your system and want to recover some data, it will be a lot more difficult if you used the overlay thingy.
@ Jason , 80G are supported by the board, check there site, and they also mention that greater disks have never been tested but are "normally" supported, wathever that means.
Still, for 50..75 bucks you can get a Raid card, for less then 50 bucks you can get a simple ATA133 controller, something to think about when are already spending 250 bucks on HD's
Greetz Rudy
DON'T USE THE SOFTWARE OVERLAY
if u ever got into throuble with your system and want to recover some data, it will be a lot more difficult if you used the overlay thingy.
@ Jason , 80G are supported by the board, check there site, and they also mention that greater disks have never been tested but are "normally" supported, wathever that means.
Still, for 50..75 bucks you can get a Raid card, for less then 50 bucks you can get a simple ATA133 controller, something to think about when are already spending 250 bucks on HD's
Greetz Rudy
Banned
Joined 2002
Just flash the BIOS first and buy the disk. Connect it and when it isn't recognised you can buy the Promise IDE card or RAID when you like. Most I810 boards I had recognized harddisks of 40 gb. Sometimes I had to flash them for that. Never tried bigger disks than 40 gb. I guess you have to try to find out as the change log of the BIOS files doen't mention anything about hd size limits that have been fixed.
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios/bos/spt_bos_detail.php?UID=116
Don't use the overlay software, it compromises speed. Besides that the Promise cards are relative cheap and offer extra connectivity for more devices with higher ATA speeds like ATA133.
Raid 0 is a waist of money when you want an FTP server at home. It'll cost you one extra disk that will only serve a higher throughput rate that is far beyond the bandwidth of 100 mb full duplex. In other words it'll cost you more money and it'll work faster when you work with it but as a server for normal use you'll probably notice none or little difference. Too little for the extra expense for the disk IMO. As a bonus your system will consume more power, generate more heat, cost more money and it'll make more noise too.
That is when people don't install the drivers for their IDE/ATAPI controllers. Intel offers the Intel Application Accelerator for the 810 and higher chipsets which make quite a difference in speed and systemload. Via offer their 4in1 drivers for those who have a board with a VIA chipset. SIS have drivers as well. Don't know about Nforce boards. Problem is that few people care to install them.
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/Product_Filter.asp?ProductID=663
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios/bos/spt_bos_detail.php?UID=116
Don't use the overlay software, it compromises speed. Besides that the Promise cards are relative cheap and offer extra connectivity for more devices with higher ATA speeds like ATA133.
Raid 0 is a waist of money when you want an FTP server at home. It'll cost you one extra disk that will only serve a higher throughput rate that is far beyond the bandwidth of 100 mb full duplex. In other words it'll cost you more money and it'll work faster when you work with it but as a server for normal use you'll probably notice none or little difference. Too little for the extra expense for the disk IMO. As a bonus your system will consume more power, generate more heat, cost more money and it'll make more noise too.
That is when people don't install the drivers for their IDE/ATAPI controllers. Intel offers the Intel Application Accelerator for the 810 and higher chipsets which make quite a difference in speed and systemload. Via offer their 4in1 drivers for those who have a board with a VIA chipset. SIS have drivers as well. Don't know about Nforce boards. Problem is that few people care to install them.
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/Product_Filter.asp?ProductID=663
Banned
Joined 2002
Hi,
Why is that?
O.K. I used to know a lot of P.C. technicians who sweat blood and tears trying to access such disks...because they didn't realise it was previously installed.
Once you know that it's just as easy to access as any other disk.
Otherwise hook it up as a slave on the primary IDE channel or as a master/single disk on a system that does recognise such a large disk size and access it from the OS.
One more thing, how many people know about raid, redundancy etc.?
Not many if you'd ask me.
And even less can successfully rebuild a lost disk...if you choose a raid card you'd better know what you're doing and you'd better buy a decent one.
The standard Promise AT 133 cards should be fine but cost money, on overlay file's for free...I know what I would do, especially as this is an FTP server which has quite likely bigger bottlenecks than diskaccess and transfer rates.
I do second the choice of the IBM HD though, they're about the best you can get.
Cheers,
Why is that?
O.K. I used to know a lot of P.C. technicians who sweat blood and tears trying to access such disks...because they didn't realise it was previously installed.
Once you know that it's just as easy to access as any other disk.
Otherwise hook it up as a slave on the primary IDE channel or as a master/single disk on a system that does recognise such a large disk size and access it from the OS.
One more thing, how many people know about raid, redundancy etc.?
Not many if you'd ask me.
And even less can successfully rebuild a lost disk...if you choose a raid card you'd better know what you're doing and you'd better buy a decent one.
The standard Promise AT 133 cards should be fine but cost money, on overlay file's for free...I know what I would do, especially as this is an FTP server which has quite likely bigger bottlenecks than diskaccess and transfer rates.
I do second the choice of the IBM HD though, they're about the best you can get.
Cheers,
Banned
Joined 2002
ibm DETHSTAR hard drive's suck. He doesn't want to build a raid he just want to put in 2 x 120gig hard drives not RAID i suggested a card that also had raid but will not be used in his application. He just wants the function of adding and having 120gig hard drives to be supported on his ftp server.
Banned
Joined 2002
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