thrillriderdan

Hello there,

I have a Windows 95 computer that is almost useless with its capabilities at the moment. What I plan to do is rebuild and upgrade the computer both for fun and to make it pretty good. I have very little experience with this sort of thing so I hope someone can help me out here.

The computer looks as though it was designed for Windows 95 and so nearly everything is out of date. The first thing I would like to do is replace the hard drive to something much larger. Currently the memory capacity is something like 500mb but I'm wanting to put GB's in there. So if I replace the hard disk will the other components in the computer be able to take it such as the motherboard?

Once this is complete I will be installing windows 98 on the system so will this be able to cope with the new hard disk? I would also then be adding USB and possibly a modem. Now, the slots that I'd put these in are free in the computer, however the back pannel has metal strips soldered over the holes to prevent me from adding anything. If I remove these will they still function or is it a warning not to use them?

I'll not go any further with my questions right now but I would be very grateful of any help or if someone spots anything I've missed.

Thanks,

Danny

simpswr

What brand/model is that pc?

thrillriderdan

Hi simpswr,

All it says on the front is I-Sys if that means anything to you? I can't find a model or anything like that written on it.

simpswr

Can yuu post a photo of the back pannel that has metal strips soldered over the holes

thrillriderdan

Yes, I'll try and upload a picture tommorow...

Thanks,

Danny

thrillriderdan

Here you go:







Thanks,

Danny

simpswr

That looks pretty standard . . just push or twist the covers off the slot you want to use and install the card.

thrillriderdan

Thanks I will do this later on when I get to that stage.

On my earlier question would it be possible to replace my 500mb hard drive with something much more substantial? To add to this, would it be possible to use the hard drive I already have alongside with another hard disk?

Would the mother board and such be able to cope?

Thanks,

Danny

simpswr

Probably not . . If the board is old enough that it camewith win95, there is likely a BIOS limitation . . I'd guess to 18.5 or 32 Gig. You might be able to download a newer BIOS update to get it to use larger drives. You can also use a IDE controller card to get around the limitations, but some older BIOS will not boot from a addin controller.

What brand/model is the motherboard?

OldGrayGary

Hi all


From the looks of it, that might be a 486 in there (original Pentium, possibly ... topping out around 233mhz).

I'd expect that this computer is really meant more for a hobby project, than for any day-to-day work.

The Bios limitation could be the 504mb barrier (hence the current 500mb drive ... large for its day). It was fairly common for boards 1994 or earlier not to have LBA (Logical Block Addressing) yet -- lack of LBA limits the capacity to the 504mb maximum.

The next few Bios barriers arrive at 2.048gb, 4.2gb, 8.4gb, 32gb . . . (and so on).

If you can keep it running, Win95 is probably as high a version of Windows as it will properly run.

It's a lot of fun to revive those classics -- have fun with your project.
. . . Gary

thrillriderdan

Thanks again Gary for your information. I might leave the computer how it is, for a time when I get old and boring and want to show my kids the 'Good ole day' (ha).

Thanks, Danny