Compaq Presario CDS 520 - Hard Drive Problem \ VOGONS

Compaq Presario CDS 520 - Hard Drive Problem

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by rick12373

Posted on 2012-07-07, 19:55

rick12373 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 513
Joined: 2007-03-01, 22:19
Location: Idaho, USA - Originally Fareham, UK

I have a Compaq Presario CDS 520 which is one of those all in one units with the screen built in. It is a 486 and until recently was working well. The hard drive which was the original one recently died. It was a 420 MB Conner CFS420A.

I searched around in my spare parts for another drive and the only spare I have is a 80GB Seagate Barracuda ST380011A. On this drive it says you can limit the size to 32 GB using the jumper selections. I have tried doing this and the Compaq cannot find the HD I have also set the Seagate to Master with the same results and used the Cable Select option. Can I use a drive this modern with a machine this old? If not will I have to find a much older HDD?

I have got it to detect it as Disk 1 Type: 65 but then I get a 1790-Disk 0 Error. When I boot from a floppy and run Fdisk it says I have a drive larger than 512MB and it asks if I want to enable large disk support. So it is like it knows it is there but it doesn't matter if I chose yes or no here because it says "Error Reading Fixed Disk".

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Reply 1 of 6, by nforce4max

Posted on 2012-07-07, 20:20

nforce4max Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2451
Joined: 2012-05-05, 22:55

Most machines from that era are usually limited to drives that are around 500mb in size while others go up to 8gb max. If you can't find a compatible drive then you might have no choice but to go with a 256 or a 512mb compact flash card using it as a ssd.

On a far away planet reading your posts in the year 10,191.

Reply 2 of 6, by rick12373

Posted on 2012-07-07, 20:23

rick12373 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 513
Joined: 2007-03-01, 22:19
Location: Idaho, USA - Originally Fareham, UK

I just tried a 6GB Quantum Fireball with even worse results. Looks like I might need to try SSD. Where in the States can I get the interface to get that to work, what is it I need?

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Reply 3 of 6, by Zup

Posted on 2012-07-07, 20:46

Zup Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1640
Joined: 2003-10-04, 12:16

I think that nforce4max is suggesting an IDE to SD or IDE to compact flash adapter and a SD or CF card, not a real SSD disk. You can buy it in dealextreme or ebay, they're cheap.

I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...

I'm selling some stuff!

Reply 4 of 6, by rick12373

Posted on 2012-07-07, 21:00

rick12373 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 513
Joined: 2007-03-01, 22:19
Location: Idaho, USA - Originally Fareham, UK

Like this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Secure-Digital-2 … =item41656bd5ac

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Reply 5 of 6, by Zup

Posted on 2012-07-08, 08:26

Zup Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1640
Joined: 2003-10-04, 12:16

IDE 44 is the connection in 2.5" hard disks (found in laptops), while IDE 40 is the connection in 3.5" hard disks. You'll need an IDE40 adapter.

Also, look at the connector of the adaptor. If it ends in pins (like the one you've chosen) it can be connected at the end of an IDE cable. If you see a connector with holes (like this other, it has to be plugged directly in the motherboard (and in some computers there is not enough space to do so).

I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...

I'm selling some stuff!

Reply 6 of 6, by rick12373

Posted on 2012-07-09, 17:25

rick12373 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 513
Joined: 2007-03-01, 22:19
Location: Idaho, USA - Originally Fareham, UK

I want the kind that I can add to the end of an IDE cable. So this one should be correct:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Secure-Digital-SD … =item2ebf69dd0a

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware

Main menu

Common searches