What issues are there when replacing a dead hard drive on an older computer?
My western digital 60 GB ATA-66 drive is a gonner. I would like to keep my old dinosaur of a computer running, but what can I expect if a put a new IDE hard drive into my computer?
- Newer drives are ATA-100 or higher, but my motherboard only supports ATA-66. Is this going to be a problem?
- Can I expect any BIOS issues? (I don't plan on putting any bigger of a drive in than before)
- I have the original CD's for Windows and Norton Internet Security. Will re-installation be seamless? For example, will my subscription to live-updates on Norton still be valid after re-installing the software on a new drive?
- Where would be the best place to find a cheap drive around 60 GB?
You shouldn't have a problem with a new hard drive under those circumstances. Your new drive will just run at the board's slower speed and keeping the size the same should alleviate any BIOS issues.
As for reinstalling Norton, it will likely just give you a new one-year subscription–it's done that when I've reinstalled it. If not, get access to your subscription info from Norton (likely an email) and contact them. I believe they have live chat support. They can help you solve that problem.
Your only problem may be actually finding one. I checked a couple of web sites and couldn't find one. Buy.com had a couple of 40GB's real cheap (under $60). Chances are good that if you find one it won't cost much.