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Compaq Presario 5460, circa 1999-replace Hard Drive?
Some time ago I posted a question on the feasibilty of getting the
QuickRestore disk for this 7-year old Compaq 5460. It came installed with Windows 98, 96 RAM memory, 8 gig hard drive, & I forget what processor(Pentium II or equivalent?). Turned out I could no longer order a QuickRestore disk directly from HP/Compq(they claimed they don't offer the disk for such an old computer). But my sister's boyfirend DID have a QuickRestore disk for his Compaq 5700-series computer, and that worked in this unit. Problem was that someone had loaded XP on it & I didn't have a password to log on, etc. So now it has Windows 98 once again, & seems to run pretty well(offline). I haven't tried it for the AOL 4.0 it has on it; I'm thinking I could get it to use an old AOL 7.0 disk I have. Should/could I install a larger hard drive on this? I can get an 80 gig Western Digital or Seagate for about $70 at any Walmart, but the online tech support at HP/Compaq rattled off some specs that say it can't take anything bigger than a 17 gig HD. Yet these new HDs state "for Windows 98" on the box. What's the answer? I'm figuring that if the processor, memory stick, & motherboard have no moving parts to wear out, replacing the hard drive should keep this thing going indefinitely. Seems like it would be a decent 3rd computer for the spare bedroom here, good enough for web-surfing & basic data entry or letter writing. Can someone offers pointers on this unit? Thanks. Dennis Forkel |
#2
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Compaq Presario 5460, circa 1999-replace Hard Drive?
Odds are that a computer this old will not provide native BIOS support for a
large capacity hard drive. The 17GB response from HPaq tech support may be accurate, though it is a little unusual. Old Pentium I systems mostly have a BIOS limit of 8.4GB, and Pentium II systems often have a 32GB limit. If you want a larger capacity hard drive, you should also get a 3rd party (e.g. Promise) hard drive controller to expand the limits of drive capacity. But, to be realistic, you would be investing more money that the system itself is worth. Two final observations: If the system has a large 5 1/4" Qunatum Bigfoot hard drive, get rid of the damned drive. They have possibly the worst reliability record of any model of hard drive ever. CPUs, memory, and motherboards do last a long time as a rule, but power supplies often weaken over time, and power supply fans fail when their bearings wear out. .... Ben Myers On 16 Nov 2006 15:20:07 -0800, "Dennman6" wrote: Some time ago I posted a question on the feasibilty of getting the QuickRestore disk for this 7-year old Compaq 5460. It came installed with Windows 98, 96 RAM memory, 8 gig hard drive, & I forget what processor(Pentium II or equivalent?). Turned out I could no longer order a QuickRestore disk directly from HP/Compq(they claimed they don't offer the disk for such an old computer). But my sister's boyfirend DID have a QuickRestore disk for his Compaq 5700-series computer, and that worked in this unit. Problem was that someone had loaded XP on it & I didn't have a password to log on, etc. So now it has Windows 98 once again, & seems to run pretty well(offline). I haven't tried it for the AOL 4.0 it has on it; I'm thinking I could get it to use an old AOL 7.0 disk I have. Should/could I install a larger hard drive on this? I can get an 80 gig Western Digital or Seagate for about $70 at any Walmart, but the online tech support at HP/Compaq rattled off some specs that say it can't take anything bigger than a 17 gig HD. Yet these new HDs state "for Windows 98" on the box. What's the answer? I'm figuring that if the processor, memory stick, & motherboard have no moving parts to wear out, replacing the hard drive should keep this thing going indefinitely. Seems like it would be a decent 3rd computer for the spare bedroom here, good enough for web-surfing & basic data entry or letter writing. Can someone offers pointers on this unit? Thanks. Dennis Forkel |
#3
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Compaq Presario 5460, circa 1999-replace Hard Drive?
Ben,
Fortunately, the 5460 does NOT have a Bigfoot drive. It uses a 3.5" Quantun, WD or Seagate drive. I agree however that sinking any money in a K-6/2 machine would be a waste. It shipped with a K-6/2 475 mHz processor. HH "Ben Myers" wrote in message ... Odds are that a computer this old will not provide native BIOS support for a large capacity hard drive. The 17GB response from HPaq tech support may be accurate, though it is a little unusual. Old Pentium I systems mostly have a BIOS limit of 8.4GB, and Pentium II systems often have a 32GB limit. If you want a larger capacity hard drive, you should also get a 3rd party (e.g. Promise) hard drive controller to expand the limits of drive capacity. But, to be realistic, you would be investing more money that the system itself is worth. Two final observations: If the system has a large 5 1/4" Qunatum Bigfoot hard drive, get rid of the damned drive. They have possibly the worst reliability record of any model of hard drive ever. CPUs, memory, and motherboards do last a long time as a rule, but power supplies often weaken over time, and power supply fans fail when their bearings wear out. ... Ben Myers On 16 Nov 2006 15:20:07 -0800, "Dennman6" wrote: Some time ago I posted a question on the feasibilty of getting the QuickRestore disk for this 7-year old Compaq 5460. It came installed with Windows 98, 96 RAM memory, 8 gig hard drive, & I forget what processor(Pentium II or equivalent?). Turned out I could no longer order a QuickRestore disk directly from HP/Compq(they claimed they don't offer the disk for such an old computer). But my sister's boyfirend DID have a QuickRestore disk for his Compaq 5700-series computer, and that worked in this unit. Problem was that someone had loaded XP on it & I didn't have a password to log on, etc. So now it has Windows 98 once again, & seems to run pretty well(offline). I haven't tried it for the AOL 4.0 it has on it; I'm thinking I could get it to use an old AOL 7.0 disk I have. Should/could I install a larger hard drive on this? I can get an 80 gig Western Digital or Seagate for about $70 at any Walmart, but the online tech support at HP/Compaq rattled off some specs that say it can't take anything bigger than a 17 gig HD. Yet these new HDs state "for Windows 98" on the box. What's the answer? I'm figuring that if the processor, memory stick, & motherboard have no moving parts to wear out, replacing the hard drive should keep this thing going indefinitely. Seems like it would be a decent 3rd computer for the spare bedroom here, good enough for web-surfing & basic data entry or letter writing. Can someone offers pointers on this unit? Thanks. Dennis Forkel |
#4
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Compaq Presario 5460, circa 1999-replace Hard Drive?
You never know when a Bigfoot will turn up. If they were absolutely circular
in shape, they would be good disci (discuses?) for a track team. And that's about all they were ever good for. There is still a hobbyist market for baby AT motherboards with K6-2 processors. I don't know why, but I don't mind. Sold three of them on eBay recently, not for a lot of money though. One buyer said the board replaced a blown board in a numberical control computer. Go figure. But sinking good money into upgrades for an AMD K6 system? No way... Ben Myers On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:25:13 -0500, "HH" wrote: Ben, Fortunately, the 5460 does NOT have a Bigfoot drive. It uses a 3.5" Quantun, WD or Seagate drive. I agree however that sinking any money in a K-6/2 machine would be a waste. It shipped with a K-6/2 475 mHz processor. HH "Ben Myers" wrote in message .. . Odds are that a computer this old will not provide native BIOS support for a large capacity hard drive. The 17GB response from HPaq tech support may be accurate, though it is a little unusual. Old Pentium I systems mostly have a BIOS limit of 8.4GB, and Pentium II systems often have a 32GB limit. If you want a larger capacity hard drive, you should also get a 3rd party (e.g. Promise) hard drive controller to expand the limits of drive capacity. But, to be realistic, you would be investing more money that the system itself is worth. Two final observations: If the system has a large 5 1/4" Qunatum Bigfoot hard drive, get rid of the damned drive. They have possibly the worst reliability record of any model of hard drive ever. CPUs, memory, and motherboards do last a long time as a rule, but power supplies often weaken over time, and power supply fans fail when their bearings wear out. ... Ben Myers On 16 Nov 2006 15:20:07 -0800, "Dennman6" wrote: Some time ago I posted a question on the feasibilty of getting the QuickRestore disk for this 7-year old Compaq 5460. It came installed with Windows 98, 96 RAM memory, 8 gig hard drive, & I forget what processor(Pentium II or equivalent?). Turned out I could no longer order a QuickRestore disk directly from HP/Compq(they claimed they don't offer the disk for such an old computer). But my sister's boyfirend DID have a QuickRestore disk for his Compaq 5700-series computer, and that worked in this unit. Problem was that someone had loaded XP on it & I didn't have a password to log on, etc. So now it has Windows 98 once again, & seems to run pretty well(offline). I haven't tried it for the AOL 4.0 it has on it; I'm thinking I could get it to use an old AOL 7.0 disk I have. Should/could I install a larger hard drive on this? I can get an 80 gig Western Digital or Seagate for about $70 at any Walmart, but the online tech support at HP/Compaq rattled off some specs that say it can't take anything bigger than a 17 gig HD. Yet these new HDs state "for Windows 98" on the box. What's the answer? I'm figuring that if the processor, memory stick, & motherboard have no moving parts to wear out, replacing the hard drive should keep this thing going indefinitely. Seems like it would be a decent 3rd computer for the spare bedroom here, good enough for web-surfing & basic data entry or letter writing. Can someone offers pointers on this unit? Thanks. Dennis Forkel |
#5
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Compaq Presario 5460, circa 1999-replace Hard Drive?
HH wrote:
Ben, Fortunately, the 5460 does NOT have a Bigfoot drive. It uses a 3.5" Quantun, WD or Seagate drive. I agree however that sinking any money in a K-6/2 machine would be a waste. It shipped with a K-6/2 475 mHz processor. HH "Ben Myers" If the system has a large 5 1/4" Qunatum Bigfoot hard drive, get rid of the damned drive. They have possibly the worst reliability record of any model of hard drive ever. My brother brought this Compaq 5460 up to me from North Carolina, having picked it up at a flea market for $40. It came with an NEC MultiSync 17" CRT monitor. Hence my sparse info on it, no paperwork came with it at all. I suppose I was lucky in getting it going with the QuickRestore disk. Once the cover was off I could see that the hard drive is a Seagate, which I believe has a good rep in the reliability dept. Also, I could see that all 3 DIMM slots are occupied; somebody added to the 64 & 32 MB slots & topped it off with a 256, totalling 352 MB of memory(verified added memory by checking system profile, which I hadn't yet done before). Yes, processor is 475 MHz. There are two USB ports on the back, I'm figuring USB.1 because of the age of the PC, or someone added them later. So I will hook up a Lexmark printer to it & we can use it for letters & printouts, at any rate. Wonder how long this will last, as a 1999 model? Too bad whoever added the additional memory(I assume they needed it when they put in Windows XP) didn't upgrade the HDD while they could still get a compatible after market hard drive of more reasonable size-say 20 gig. But it does function now, for however long it will last! It makes more sense to just pick up a cheap NEW Compaq or E-Machines at Walmart for $248-$300. Thanks to both of you for the advice on this. Dennis Forkel |
#6
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Compaq Presario 5460, circa 1999-replace Hard Drive?
At $40 with a good quality name-brand monitor and a good brand of hard drive,
the computer is fine for what you want to do with it. The USB ports are 1.1. The USB ports on many older systems still function in a limited way with USB 2.0 devices. Speed is very obviously limited. USB thumb drives and external card readers usually work OK, because they do not require a lot of power. However, devices, such as external hard drives and CD burners without their own power supplies, that draw a lot of power from a USB port will not work. A USB printer is usually a no-brainer with an older port... Ben Myers On 16 Nov 2006 21:10:39 -0800, "Dennman6" wrote: HH wrote: Ben, Fortunately, the 5460 does NOT have a Bigfoot drive. It uses a 3.5" Quantun, WD or Seagate drive. I agree however that sinking any money in a K-6/2 machine would be a waste. It shipped with a K-6/2 475 mHz processor. HH "Ben Myers" If the system has a large 5 1/4" Qunatum Bigfoot hard drive, get rid of the damned drive. They have possibly the worst reliability record of any model of hard drive ever. My brother brought this Compaq 5460 up to me from North Carolina, having picked it up at a flea market for $40. It came with an NEC MultiSync 17" CRT monitor. Hence my sparse info on it, no paperwork came with it at all. I suppose I was lucky in getting it going with the QuickRestore disk. Once the cover was off I could see that the hard drive is a Seagate, which I believe has a good rep in the reliability dept. Also, I could see that all 3 DIMM slots are occupied; somebody added to the 64 & 32 MB slots & topped it off with a 256, totalling 352 MB of memory(verified added memory by checking system profile, which I hadn't yet done before). Yes, processor is 475 MHz. There are two USB ports on the back, I'm figuring USB.1 because of the age of the PC, or someone added them later. So I will hook up a Lexmark printer to it & we can use it for letters & printouts, at any rate. Wonder how long this will last, as a 1999 model? Too bad whoever added the additional memory(I assume they needed it when they put in Windows XP) didn't upgrade the HDD while they could still get a compatible after market hard drive of more reasonable size-say 20 gig. But it does function now, for however long it will last! It makes more sense to just pick up a cheap NEW Compaq or E-Machines at Walmart for $248-$300. Thanks to both of you for the advice on this. Dennis Forkel |
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