[TheWolfe]

I found an old HDD that must have been in some really old computer I've taken apart, and so today I hooked it up through the IDE cable and gave her a look.

1.96GB! This thing is so old, just scrolling down to look at all the windows folders it has creates an old, static-y noise!

So my question is, can this thing be for any real use? Can any OS even fit on here (that isn't Windows95!)?

 

[Harrier]

XP might fit on it

But be aware you will get nothing more than the OS. No room for programs or whatever. So it's useless unless you install XP or another small OS on it and use your other drives to keep the data on. And being as it's so old, it's more likely to fail. I wouldn't bother

 

[tK FuRY]

I still have a few 500Mb / 1Gb drives in my closet lol.

Not much you can do with drives that small these days, you can do a huge ass non portable HDD Flash drive lol.

 

[Crooksy]

not worth it mate, just chuck it.

 

[TheWolfe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JordanWillis not worth it mate, just chuck it.

Indeed. What a waste. I was hoping it was 50gb or something. That's all I needed for my second computer =(

 

[T3h_Ch33z_Muncha]

smallest i have is 20GB :|

quantum fireball... they mean the fireball literally

 

[blupupher]

You can fit XP on a 1.6 gig HDD (I know, I have done it), but as said, not much room left for anything else.

If you nlite the install, you can get it down to around 1 gig.

 

[856Media]

The next best use for this is....

Theft Deterrent Device.... aka BRICK.

 

[gallocs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 856Media The next best use for this is.... Theft Deterrent Device.... aka BRICK.

LOL. It could be an awesome paperweight. Or you could open it, put on a plexiglass window, plug it into power and watch the read/write heads go wild! Then mount that to the outside of your case with a strobing LED and tell people your computer throws raves from time to time.

 

[T D]

Put the page file on it?
Assuming 2gb is enough, I've read very conflicting reports on how much should be allocated...

 

[gallocs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by T D Put the page file on it? Assuming 2gb is enough, I've read very conflicting reports on how much should be allocated...

That would make things in virtual memory PAINFULLY slow. This drive is probably god awfully slow due to low platter density as well as the fact that all around the technology is outdated. However, the essentials of the HDD and how it works are essentially the same. I still favor the brick idea...

On a side note. In general I usually allocate a minimum of 512 and allow the max to reach the amount of ram I have, 8192 MB. (Although I don't even think I truly need a page file...)

 

[JMT668]

Linux?

 

[carayan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gallocs LOL. It could be an awesome paperweight. Or you could open it, put on a plexiglass window, plug it into power and watch the read/write heads go wild! Then mount that to the outside of your case with a strobing LED and tell people your computer throws raves from time to time.

do THIS.

 

[nepas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gallocs LOL. It could be an awesome paperweight. Or you could open it, put on a plexiglass window, plug it into power and watch the read/write heads go wild! Then mount that to the outside of your case with a strobing LED and tell people your computer throws raves from time to time.

that idea is win!!

 

[gallocs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JMT668 Linux?

Linux...? Which distro is that small after installing it? (Note, I know little about linux. Please don't flame me.)

Windows 1.0 or maybe 3.1. I forgot it existed. If you've got an old 486 laying around you could try that.

 

[jeffries7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gallocs LOL. It could be an awesome paperweight. Or you could open it, put on a plexiglass window, plug it into power and watch the read/write heads go wild! Then mount that to the outside of your case with a strobing LED and tell people your computer throws raves from time to time.

This is a cool idea or you could drill a whole in it and where it around your neck

 

[Tohdman]

Just shoot it like that one guy did on here.

Windowed HDD necklace with sound reactive cathode ftw.

 

[gallocs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffries7 This is a cool idea or you could drill a whole in it and where it around your neck

That would be pretty heavy...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tohdman Windowed HDD necklace with sound reactive cathode ftw.

That would be interesting... batteries would be a PITA though. If you'd need ~10-30W of 12V power?

 

[NorthWoodPecker]

Win XP Pro SP3 is 1.6GB non-updated, so it should be able to fit but only just.

You can also compile your own custom 2k, XP and 2k3 installation to fit your needs / restrictions using nLite
I've had XP running as low as 350-400MB.

Anyways, probably not worth it since the disk is so old.

I vote for the rave or brick idea as well

 

[equimen]

You could always install Xubuntu on it. It only needs about 1.4 GBs. Try it