Dead Hard Drive Circa 1998 - Best Replacement Option?

[+sixersfan105]

So I recently snagged one of my family's old computers from my parents' garage: a Compaq Presario 5032. I know, I know, nothing special, throw it away, etc. But the nostalgia factor is real and I want to get it up and running. It's got a 300 MHz Pentium II and I upgraded the RAM the other day from 64MB to 256MB (the max permitted).

 

Only issue is that the hard drive, a 5.25" IDE Bigfoot TX 8GB is dead. Well, not fully "dead," per se, as the drive itself flashes and hums but for sure isn't spinning up appropriately. So for all intents and purposes, it's dead, and it does not get recognized at all in BIOS or otherwise.

 

I did a little research and it seems like these are my options, in no particular order:

 

1) Obviously I could replace it with another 5.25" drive from that era, or a 3.25" from that era or a little newer, as it's a regular IDE/PATA interface that I'm working with. I probably wouldn't want to go too big from a storage standpoint out of fear of the computer being unable to recognize a larger capacity. Even if I get a brand-new old stock drive, with all of its moving parts, it would be prone to failures.
2) IDE to CF adapter. The solid state aspect is attractive, though a part of me feels like incorporating newer tech into this 1998 machine is cheating just a little bit. That said, seems like it could be a good option, so long as I get an "industrial" or similar CF card that is confirmed to be bootable.
3) IDE SSD - haven't come across much info on these but they seem to exist.
4) Microdrive (using an IDE to CF adapter) - read somewhere that microdrives last longer than regular CF cards, so that could be a decent option?

 

Any insight into the pros and cons of these - and potentially other - options would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[+OLD CS1]

Other than a replacement spinning rust platter drive (SATA-to-PATA adapters exist and are rather good*) your best bet would be IDE-to-CF or IDE-to-SATA with an SSD.

The problems you can run into include whether the BIOS will recognize the drive for its size.  I am not certain when it was dropped, but the jumper on drives to limit capacity has been absent for a while.  As well, some old BIOSes will have trouble with drives running 4k sectors (unless the drive has a 512 byte emulation mode.)  Honestly I am not certain how that works as I have never used a 4k sector drive on an old PC.  I have used them on my Amiga, which works just fine as I can set the sector size in HDToolBox.

 

You can get IDE SSDs, too.  Kingspec IDE SSDs are not terrible.  Or you could go with an IDE DOM which are available, inexpensively, in small sizes like 4GB, 8GB, etc.

[The Usotsuki]

Computers I used in the 1990s, for what it's worth, all used 3.5" HDDs.

[+sixersfan105]

6 hours ago, The Usotsuki said:

Computers I used in the 1990s, for what it's worth, all used 3.5" HDDs.

Yeah, the Quantum Bigfoot was an odd one, as it had a larger footprint when all of its competitors were the smaller 3.5" size. Luckily, my computer is fully compatible with the 3.5" drives, so long as they are IDE/PATA. I actually just picked up a Quantum Fireball Plus LM 30GB for $12.99 shipped, so I'm gonna give that a shot, since it was the most cost-effective option. 

[wierd_w]

Disk Manager and EZ-Drive will both work just fine with period versions of windows. (all the way up to windows XP.)  That will get you over the "Drive is too large" hump in most cases, as long as the drive is under 2TB in size. Larger requires 48bit LBA, which those overlays do not provide.

[+OLD CS1]

We used to sell Quantum Bigfoots BITD ('97/'98) and handle the subsequent RMAs. The brand got a lot better in its later days.

[+sixersfan105]

2 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

We used to sell Quantum Bigfoots BITD ('97/'98) and handle the subsequent RMAs. The brand got a lot better in its later days.

Yeah I had read that Quantum had a lot of issues with its Bigfoots. While constantly claiming they outperformed the 3.5" competition, Quantum also made 3.5" drives concurrently which outperformed the Bigfoots, so those claims mostly fell on deaf ears!

 

Apparently the Fireballs are solid, so hopefully I have some success with it. 

[+OLD CS1]

I think you will be fine.  For a drive of that age you are not expecting too much of it.  You would be surprised (or perhaps not) at the aged kit I come across that people are using for critical tasks, almost always with no backup.

 

 

[boxpressed]

Good choice to go with a 3.5" IDE drive. You can buy NOS "white label" IDE HDDs for about $20. They are name brand HDD, but you don't know which brand you'll get. I recently ordered a 120GB drive and received a 180GB Maxtor.

 

I use CF drives for my DOS and Windows 3.1 builds. I don't trust them with 98SE because of all the swapping.

 

The era where the P2-300 appeared was such a great era for gaming. Get a Geforce 2 card or a Voodoo 3 (if you're willing to spend $) and enjoy Unreal, Quake 2, etc. You can play demanding DOS games like Duke 3D and Blood with your stock video. I'm not sure if the Presario included an AGP slot, but all the better if so.

[+OLD CS1]

6 hours ago, boxpressed said:

I use CF drives for my DOS and Windows 3.1 builds. I don't trust them with 98SE because of all the swapping.

This is where I push DOMs instead of CFs.

[boxpressed]

3 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

This is where I push DOMs instead of CFs.

I've been meaning to try out a DOM solution. Do you have a brand you recommend?

[+OLD CS1]

37 minutes ago, boxpressed said:

I've been meaning to try out a DOM solution. Do you have a brand you recommend?

Transcend has been a standard bearer for me.  This brand works great and can be powered by the IDE port.

[+sixersfan105]

11 hours ago, boxpressed said:

Good choice to go with a 3.5" IDE drive. You can buy NOS "white label" IDE HDDs for about $20. They are name brand HDD, but you don't know which brand you'll get. I recently ordered a 120GB drive and received a 180GB Maxtor.

 

I use CF drives for my DOS and Windows 3.1 builds. I don't trust them with 98SE because of all the swapping.

 

The era where the P2-300 appeared was such a great era for gaming. Get a Geforce 2 card or a Voodoo 3 (if you're willing to spend $) and enjoy Unreal, Quake 2, etc. You can play demanding DOS games like Duke 3D and Blood with your stock video. I'm not sure if the Presario included an AGP slot, but all the better if so.

Thanks! Yeah hopefully my Quantum Fireball will do the trick. I was thinking about a video card upgrade. No AGP slots in this line of Presario, unfortunately. Stuck with PCI (and ISA lol). I'll probably wait to get it up and running and see how much I use it. I've noticed lots of counterfeit GeForce2 cards for sale on eBay - lame! 

[boxpressed]

14 hours ago, sixersfan105 said:

Thanks! Yeah hopefully my Quantum Fireball will do the trick. I was thinking about a video card upgrade. No AGP slots in this line of Presario, unfortunately. Stuck with PCI (and ISA lol). I'll probably wait to get it up and running and see how much I use it. I've noticed lots of counterfeit GeForce2 cards for sale on eBay - lame! 

If you want to spend the money, a Voodoo 3 PCI is the best choice. As for Nvidia, it might be difficult to find PCI versions of Geforce 2 cards, but I'm surprised to hear there are fakes of such common cards. Your best best might be ATI Radeon 7000 PCI cards (on up to Radeon 9250 PCI, but that's a little overkill).

[+sixersfan105]

11 hours ago, boxpressed said:

As for Nvidia, it might be difficult to find PCI versions of Geforce 2 cards, but I'm surprised to hear there are fakes of such common cards.

Yeah believe it or not it's almost only fakes or "clones" on the market these days for those PCI cards. Of course the listings don't make any reference to that, but that's eBay for ya. There are some authentic Voodoo's out there, but obviously for some big bucks. Have even seen some fake/clone ATIs. Might just stick with the stock graphics for now until an authentic card pops up that's worth my while. 

[Keatah]

On 5/1/2020 at 2:47 PM, sixersfan105 said:

So I recently snagged one of my family's old computers from my parents' garage: a Compaq Presario 5032. I know, I know, nothing special, throw it away, etc. But the nostalgia factor is real and I want to get it up and running. It's got a 300 MHz Pentium II and I upgraded the RAM the other day from 64MB to 256MB (the max permitted).

No no. I wouldn't throw it away. People that tell you to do that are just trying to be hip and artificially trendy or cool and putting on a show to be "with the times." A false bravado if you will.

 

And of course there's no denying the nostalgia factor. It's real. It's there. Enjoy it! It's a family computer.

 

On 5/1/2020 at 2:47 PM, sixersfan105 said:

1) Obviously I could replace it with another 5.25" drive from that era, or a 3.25" from that era or a little newer, as it's a regular IDE/PATA interface that I'm working with. I probably wouldn't want to go too big from a storage standpoint out of fear of the computer being unable to recognize a larger capacity. Even if I get a brand-new old stock drive, with all of its moving parts, it would be prone to failures.

Because of nostalgia I would replace it with the same model, or one of the same period. Get as close as possible in capacity and interface style.

 

If you want more capacity, add on a second drive.

 

On 5/1/2020 at 2:47 PM, sixersfan105 said:

2) IDE to CF adapter. The solid state aspect is attractive, though a part of me feels like incorporating newer tech into this 1998 machine is cheating just a little bit. That said, seems like it could be a good option, so long as I get an "industrial" or similar CF card that is confirmed to be bootable.

Cheating? Yes if it becomes your boot disk. You're changing a fundamental aspect of the system design AND operation. Especially operation.

 

Cheating? No if it is a secondary or tertiary add-on. I haven't yet gotten around to doing CF on my vintage 486. But it will BE AS AN ADD-ON and not serve as a primary drive. Changes the vintage experience for me too much.

 

Cheating? No if you just do extra add-ons. I put a 1.6GB HDD in a computer made in 1992. But it's a tertiary drive and considered expansion. The two original drives remain in place.

 

On 5/1/2020 at 2:47 PM, sixersfan105 said:

4) Microdrive (using an IDE to CF adapter) - read somewhere that microdrives last longer than regular CF cards, so that could be a decent option?

They do last longer so as long as you don't go banging them around or dropping them. DOMs and CF have a limited write capacity. All FLASH and EEPROM style memory does. And there is no way around it. DOMS are great (dare I say perfect?) for industrial control computers where there's minimal or no paging, no hiberfile, no big re-writes, or any of the excess bloat of a home/small business computer.

 

1 hour ago, sixersfan105 said:

Yeah believe it or not it's almost only fakes or "clones" on the market these days for those PCI cards. Of course the listings don't make any reference to that, but that's eBay for ya. There are some authentic Voodoo's out there, but obviously for some big bucks. Have even seen some fake/clone ATIs. Might just stick with the stock graphics for now until an authentic card pops up that's worth my while. 

Boards based on the RIVA-128 are the absolute fastest 2D DOS performers out there, especially the AGP ZX version. The PCI version is almost as fast, a 1 or 2% dropoff. That means 1 or 2 FPS loss in games like Doom. It also has 3D capability too. Early 3D capability though. Like only 16-depths and limited open GL support. But still you get some Direct3D support. And it set the stage for all of nVidia's future greatness.

 

You can also get a 3DFx Vooooo 3000, 3500, 4000, or 5500 or Banshee. That will get you "Standard" 3D of the day. Or go with an earlier Voodoo card with passthrough 3D and a regular 2D card like the RIVA-128 or your built-in graphics. Having one card for 2D and a Voodoo for 3D was hugely popular for a time. But I never liked that kind of setup. It was kludgey and drivers had to be set up just perfectly. And compatibility with window'ed 3D was non-existent.

 

I never really liked the early 3D days (because of expensive tedium) and having to have 2 cards. I settled on the Riva-128, upgraded to a TNT2-ultra, then several others from there and stopped at a 1080GTX today.

 

So tons of options really!

 

On 5/2/2020 at 11:42 AM, boxpressed said:

I use CF drives for my DOS and Windows 3.1 builds. I don't trust them with 98SE because of all the swapping.

Right on bro!

 

On 5/2/2020 at 11:42 AM, boxpressed said:

The era where the P2-300 appeared was such a great era for gaming. Get a Geforce 2 card or a Voodoo 3 (if you're willing to spend $) and enjoy Unreal, Quake 2, etc. You can play demanding DOS games like Duke 3D and Blood with your stock video. I'm not sure if the Presario included an AGP slot, but all the better if so.

The later days of the 486 is really when 3D PC gaming got going. And got better from there, if you could sort through all the specs of the cards. I got in on the "3D scene" with a Pentium II-266. There had to have been at least 10-20 main graphics chipsets at the time. More if you count all the variants and stripped versions and deluxe versions.

 

Whatever graphics chipset he gets I'd recommend something that can do 2D/3D in one card. Or stay period-correct with whatever came with the machine.

 

So many options!!

 

[Keatah]

14 hours ago, boxpressed said:

If you want to spend the money, a Voodoo 3 PCI is the best choice. As for Nvidia, it might be difficult to find PCI versions of Geforce 2 cards, but I'm surprised to hear there are fakes of such common cards. Your best best might be ATI Radeon 7000 PCI cards (on up to Radeon 9250 PCI, but that's a little overkill).

This is a good recommendation I can support.

 

[+sixersfan105]

8 hours ago, Keatah said:

No no. I wouldn't throw it away. People that tell you to do that are just trying to be hip and artificially trendy or cool and putting on a show to be "with the times." A false bravado if you will.

 

And of course there's no denying the nostalgia factor. It's real. It's there. Enjoy it! It's a family computer.

Thanks! I agree. I'm definitely holding onto it and am enjoying the process of getting it up and running again. 

 

8 hours ago, Keatah said:

Because of nostalgia I would replace it with the same model, or one of the same period. Get as close as possible in capacity and interface style.

 

If you want more capacity, add on a second drive.

I wound up purchasing a 3.5" Quantum Fireball Plus LM, 30 GB model, which came out less than two years after my Presario model. I think my BIOS will support the full 30 gigs, and at $12.99 shipped it was a solid deal.

 

Curious about everyone's takes on OEM Quick Restore/Recovery discs. Worth doing an install with a "new" HDD that way or nah?

[+OLD CS1]

One good thing about the original OEM discs is they will have all the necessary drivers for the hardware spec'd with the machine.  Any non-OEM expansions will be a hunt if Windows does not have the drivers built-in.

 

The bad thing about a lot of them is the inclusion of a bunch of crap-ware.

 

YMMV.

[boxpressed]

9 minutes ago, sixersfan105 said:

Thanks! I agree. I'm definitely holding onto it and am enjoying the process of getting it up and running again. 

 

I wound up purchasing a 3.5" Quantum Fireball Plus LM, 30 GB model, which came out less than two years after my Presario model. I think my BIOS will support the full 30 gigs, and at $12.99 shipped it was a solid deal.

 

Curious about everyone's takes on OEM Quick Restore/Recovery discs. Worth doing an install with a "new" HDD that way or nah?

It depends on whether you want the "out of box" experience or not. I prefer vanilla Windows 98SE without any bloatware, and it should run just fine if you have an Intel 440LX or 440BX chipset.

[+OLD CS1]

Anyone have experience with the unofficial Windows 98SE service pack?

[AtariLeaf]

I used a Sodial IDE to SD card adapter on a 486 DX 100mhz windows 98 machine and it works a peach 

[Keatah]

Does it support SDHC and SDXC cards?