Angela,

  A computer that old will not natively support a drive that large, but all
is not lost.
  Windows Me will work with large drives.

  If your PC has a free PCI slot you can buy an ATA PCI hard drive
controller that has its own BIOS to run the drive.
Here's an example of one for $29.00:
http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SD-SIL680-RAID
Another at http://www.cyberguys.com sells for $33.95 (part # 2020198).
Both of these are RAID capable, but you can ignore that and use them as a
non-RAID controller.

  The next trick is to get it to work in your system as you want it to.
  Do you have Windows Me installed on the 2GB drive and want the 20GB as a
second drive?  This is the easiest route.  Install the new card; boot and
install the cards drivers; shut down and connect the 20GB drive; boot, fdisk
and format the 20 GB drive.
  If you have the 2GB out of your system and are running Windows Me on the
1.99 GB partition, or you want to replace the 2GB with the 20GB as the only
drive, this gets more complicated.  Each controller card's instructions
should indicate how to do this; they differ in procedure.

  Budget permitting, you might also consider looking around for a later
model PC.  Fish around the ComputerGeeks
http://www.compgeeks.com/products.asp?cat=SYS (or other sites) and you'll
find used systems that might be money better spent.  An example is this
"refurbished" IBM 300PL PIII 600MHz Desktop for $199:
http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=IBM300PL-54
Note that it doesn't come with a monitor, keyboard, mouse, or OS, but buying
one and the needed parts, and installing the OS, might be less trouble than
attempting an upgrade on your old system, depending on your skill level.  A
killer system compared to your current PC.
  I also recommend that you avoid anything less than a "A Grade" system.
Read the descriptions carefully.
  I've bought 15+ computers from them over the years and have been very
satisfied.  Nope, don't work for them.

Fred Nielson


-----Original Message-----
From: PCBUILD - Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Angela Espinoza
Sent: Saturday, November 16, 2002 7:46 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Hard drive


My computer is old and I need more room, the drive is IBM
model number IC35L020AVVN07 as for the BIOS I don't know but I have a
processor mmx/200 mhz,  I was told that I would run in to problems running
this hard drive with the mother board I have I installed Windows ME I don't
know much but what can you recommend

Thank you

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