Availability of large IDE HD?

[irlandes]

I have an old e-machine, from around 2006. I remember, because the first Linux I installed, after the debian disaster, was Kubuntu 6.xx.

It has around 120 GB HD, IDE. It would be nice to have a bigger HD, so I could mess around with multi-boot again.

I went into Tehuacan, Puebla, and went to a computer type shop. They told me the only IDE HD available is 120 GB, and I have no desire to put in one that small, when it already has that in it. They said they were not making anything bigger now.

I do realize I could put another one in the back-up HD slot which is now empty and switch back and forth, but that is not what I want.

I theorize I can get anything here in Mexico, with patience, that I can get in the US, albeit at higher price and with delays.

So, I am wondering. In fact, I have several questions. Do I perhaps misunderstand and IDE never came bigger?

Next, if it did, is this 120 GB limit on IDE permanent because of obsolescence, or temporary because of disruptions in Japan? That is, will I someday be able to buy a bigger one IDE?

Or, must I plan on budgeting for a new machine with a large SATA? He said it is possible to get an adaptor, but it would be slow, and likewise I have no desire to do that.

I do have a 1TB external HD MY BOOK ESSENTIAL I bought last year, but with USB it would also be too slow for main HD. Great back-up system, though.

Any tips or bad-thought correction welcome and appreciated, thanks.

[saikee]

I believe the largest IDE disk is 500Mb as after that the Sata I took over. The IDE disk peaked at 133MB/s whereas Sata I started at 150MB/s. The Sata II doubled it to 300MB/s whereas the current Sata III is capable of 600MB/s.

If you get a Sata to IDE adaptor all you do is running the 133MB/s speed with the Sata connection. It should run OK.

You can do everything you want with IDE disk in a Sata disk as far as Linux is concerned. In fact Linux has dropped the recognition of the maximum 4 IDE devices convention of hda, hdb, hdc and hde and changed it to the Sata disk device name of sda, sdb, sdc ....etc in the kernel many years ago.

As far as Linux is concerned all IDE, SCSI, Sata and USB hard disks are named universally sda, sdb, sdc, sde, sdf,...... etc. The order is controlled by the sequence the motherboard submitting the devices to the Bios. There seems to be a standard that IDE is ahead of Sata in the device queue but as a standard a user can always rearrange the booting sequence and therefore change the device names accordingly with the bios setting. If a user has no interest in the hardware booting sequence then there is the alternative of using the current standard "universally unique identifier (UUID)" in Linux or "Globally unique identifier (GUID)" in MS Windows, which is the device naming system for all hard disks and partitions by a 128-bit unique number, regardless of the hard disk type or connection.

[irlandes]

That was a big help, answered all my questions but one, plus some I didn't ask.

That unanswered question had to do with current availability of IDE HD. It popped into my mind to use Amazon as a reference, and I learned there are a very few IDE HD. So, I guess it's an adapter and SATA HD.

There is a Caviar green 1 TB, WD10EZRX SATAIII for $89.99. I'd put the link, but can't remember if that is allowed or not.

And, there is a really cheap adapter, not sure if it needs cables from SATA HD, but will give it a try when I go back to US in October. Or, maybe bite the bullet and buy an SATA in Tehuacan? Not sure.

One of the reviews of the adapter reported very low speeds with adapter, most said it worked perfectly. The man in Tehuacan did say with adapter it would be slow, hard to say what is correct.

Anyway, I have a grasp of the issues, thus assume I can figure it out. Thanks ever so much.

[saikee]

You can run up to 2TB hard disk without much a problem. I haven't tried to put a Sata III adpator on a motherboard that originally runs only IDE disk. However I did install one for a motherboard that runs Sata II.

The Sata adaptor is plugged into the PCI slot so it can run faster speed if your mother supports it. My gut feeling is you should be able to run a Sata I or Sata II adaptor but may not be able to get the best or full speed out of these cards. You should however be able to run the hard disk as fast as the IDE UDMA 6 which is the maximum 133MB/s. Theoretically the Sata adaptor talks to the PCI slot so it could pick up much faster speed than the IDE UDMA 6.

The adaptor normally just provides the power and signal sockets. A standard adaptor will support 2 Sata disks. They are very cheap indeed and worth a trial.