Upgrading or Replacing the Primary Hard Drive in a Compaq Presario ~ Important Information
Sep 14 '00
This review is basically a procedure for replacing the primary hard drive in a Compaq Presario. Due to the proprietary design of Compaq computers, this may not be 100% accurate for all Presario models. The models that this review pertains directly to are the Compaq Presario Desktop models 5441, 5440, 7495, 5900z, and all 5000 and 7000 series models bought after January 1, 2000. This also pertains to laptop models 1200, 1600, 1700, 1800 and 1900 series.
These computers have a partition on the hard drive that is split into two logical drives, C and D. The C drive is where the operating system and all user files are stored. The D drive is where the system restore information is located. Some of these models cannot be restored if the information on drive D is damaged or lost. This mainly applies to the newer models. All of these computers must use the D drive for restoration of the original OEM software that comes on the computer when purchased. Some models will copy the information needed on the D drive when the restore program is started, but others can not run the restore program at all without the information on the D drive. To be sure you are able to set up a new primary hard drive you should follow this procedure closely so you don’t have to go through the hassle of sending your computer to Compaq to have the system restored.
For detailed information on physical installation and use of the FDISK.EXE command, see my review titled “Hard drive installation in a nutshell” located at…
http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-4FA7-89651DB-3940C24D-prod6
First and foremost, back up all your personal data to a CD, tape or other backup media. Whenever working with your hard drive, always make a backup of your important data… just in case. After you have backed up your data, you must install the new hard drive as the slave on the primary IDE controller, or as the master or slave on the secondary IDE controller. This will allow you to continue booting to the original hard drive until the transfer is complete.
Using the FDISK.EXE command you must partition the new hard drive with two logical drives, just as the C drive is partitioned. The partitions do not have to be the same size as the partitions on the C drive but you must have two partitions in order to keep the restoration information in tact. You must create a Primary DOS partition first. After doing this you must create an Extended DOS partition with the remaining disk space. You should leave at least as much space for the Extended DOS partition that is on the original hard drives D partition.
After creating the partitions you must create a logical drive in the Extended DOS partition so you can use that partition. Once this is done you must reboot your computer so the partitions will take effect. This is important, if you do not reboot before using the new partitions, they can become corrupted and any data put on the drive may be lost.
After rebooting, you must format both the new partitions for use with an operating system. Since you are using a Compaq Presario, I assume you have either Windows 95, 98, 98 SE or Windows ME. All of these operating systems use the FAT32 file system so you can simply run Format from Windows and they will be automatically formatted to FAT32.
Most hard drives come with a floppy disk that contains software for copying partitions from your existing drive to the new drive. I strongly recommend not using those but instead get a copy of Norton Ghost and use that instead. Ghost will copy both partitions at once and is usually much faster and more reliable in doing so.
After both partitions are copied, you can shut down the computer and remove the primary hard drive. Move the new hard drive to the Master position on the primary IDE controller and make sure all your plugs are in place. When you restart the computer it should boot up to your familiar desktop and all your programs and data should be exactly where you left them on the old drive.
It is imperative that you copy both partitions on a Compaq Presario in order to be able to run the restore program should you need to. Without the restore information, you can’t load the proprietary drivers and software needed for the Compaq Presario, so this is extremely important on these computers.
I hope this helps you if you plan to upgrade your primary hard drive in your Compaq Presario.
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