How do i determin if my hard drive is ata 66 or ata 100

[polts_p]

Hi

Im goin to upgrade a friends pc for him. It has an 8 gig HD in it but i want to put another 40 gig one in as well. How do i know which type to buy?

I also need to no, if i put a cd burner in his computer, will i be able to put the harddrive it it only has two 5.25 or whatever size they are bays.

[bassvax]

Generally speaking:
Most pc cases come with 2 or 3 5.25" bays. Now I assume that one bay already contains a CD-ROM drive that should leave you a free one for the CDR or CDRW drive or there is something you are not telling us here.

The hard drive is usually a 3.5" internal device, meaning you would only see it if you opened the case. I suggest you discharge yourself of static electricity and open the case before you attempt to buy anything.

There are two IDE interfaces on the motherboard each will handle 2 IDE devices (such as 2 hard drives on one and 2 cd drives on the other). Suggest keeping members of the same family on the same leash with the masters set at the end of the leash. ps-don't forget to set the jumpers on the back of you IDE devices to either master or slave.

ATA 100-your mobo documentation is your best bet for this answer...dont have it? go to the site and download it. Basically, you can use the ATA 100 even if your mobo (this technology is backwards compatible for the most part) isn't that far advanced...you just won't get all the juice that you paid for. Money will help you decide...ps-don't forget the 80-wire 40-pin leash (cable) for the ATA 66/100 drives.

Motherboard issues-does your current bios support that large of a hard drive? Do you need an update? etc. Check the manual again.

So if you got a mobo that will support all this and you stick an ATA 100 on a leash with an ATA 33 I'm not sure your gonna get what you're looking for...I just ditched the 10GB HD and cut up the 46 GB into several manageable virtual drives (partitions).

I think my two cents has expired...send out the patrols if more info is needed. I suggest you take the time to sift through the PC Guide for there is an abundance of technical info that Charles has taken the time to write for our viewing pleasure. You can learn a lot from a (oops! wrong quote)

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Jerry