What is the biggest hard drive the PC300PL will recognize?

If it makes a difference, mine is the horizonal version with a 450Mhz PII and 768Mb RAM.

I have an 80 gig in mine, no problems. I suspect that a BIOS of that vintage has the 137 gig limit. Of course, you can go over that with partitioning software.

> I suspect that a BIOS of that vintage has the 137 gig limit.

I don't think I'll be running out of space any time soon with a "limit" like that!

In a few years, I might have to downgrade to ME & ie7 or something because of changing internet requirements. what is the latest version of Windows that will run well (not just run) on a 450Mhz PII, and how much disk space will I have to waste on it?

I put an aftermarket CPU upgrade in that machine, 120Gb hard drive, 512Mb of ram, and it runs XP Pro quite well. ... JDH

Running "well" is totally subjective

I think WIN98SE would run well. I have run WIN2K on a 300MHz PII and I thought it was quite slow. I have no experience with WIN ME.

Depending on what you're using the computer for, I would think that 5 gigs is plenty for WIN98SE, and 20 gigs is plenty for WIN2K... but if you're storing videos, high-rez pics, tons of MP3s, etc, then you'd need larger drives regardless of operating system.

As jdhurst points out, a faster processor will let you run a later OS. There are many Slot 1 PIIIs out there that people are practically giving away. You can also find adapters that will let you run even faster Socket 370 PIIIs, but these may be a little pricey.

I have 98SE running on a 166Mhz PI MMX and it's fine. It was too slow to use on a 486DX4-100, and seems slow on the PII, but getting a second hand computer (free! The thrift shop wouldn't take it, and she couldn't get rid of it ! ) you almost always have to reinstall to get the former users bugs out. I expect it to fly when I get the new hard drive. ME/2000 should do pretty well when I have too...I hope.

Will a BIOS upgrade increase the hard drive limit?

I wrestled that demon a while back when setting up computers for my kids...

LINK


as I recall, latest version BIOS did it. I'll have to jump onto his PC and see what version is loaded.

Joe