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From: Christopher Muto on 11 Feb 2010 20:14
dg1261 wrote:
> <snip>
>
> The key issue will be whether the 4550 bios supports 48-bit LBA. (I
> don't know if it does, or what improvements the bios updates provide...

with bios a04 and above it does.

From: Bob Villa on 12 Feb 2010 07:10
On Feb 11, 5:28 pm, "ChuckP" <drucelakex...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> I have a Dell Dimension 4550 with an 80gb drive.  I would like to replace it
> with a larger drive (350GB).  This will be a clean reinstall.
>
> My recovery disk does not have SP1 on board.  

This is an OEM disk (not a recovery) and it does have SP1.
(And Chris, 4550 has USB 2)
Update the BIOS and just add a 2nd drive.


bob

From: Geoff on 12 Feb 2010 08:14
On 11/02/2010 23:28, ChuckP wrote:
> I have a Dell Dimension 4550 with an 80gb drive. I would like to
> replace it with a larger drive (350GB). This will be a clean reinstall.
>
> My recovery disk does not have SP1 on board. My intent is to...
> 1) format a 130GB partition on the new drive
> 2) install Xp from recovery disk
> 3) apply updates to bring XP to sp3.
> 4) resize the partition to the full drive with EASUS or Partition magic
> etc.
> 5) reload all the pictures, videos and music which have forced this move.
>
> Current BIOS is A01, is there a real need to flash the latest A08 BIOS
> to get LBA support?
>
> Had a thought to resize partition to 8-10gb and then allocate remaining
> space to a second partition.
>
> Comments? Warnings?
>
> Thanks
>
> Chuck


certainly flash latest bios, then install new drive
From: William R. Walsh on 12 Feb 2010 11:32
Hi!

> My recovery disk does not have SP1 on board.

You should seriously consider slipstreaming the latest service pack to
the disc. It's not terribly difficult to do this and prepare a new
bootable CD. It might take an hour the first time you do it.

It will probably take longer to bring the "gold" installation you will
have afterwards to current levels, as you can't just jump to SP3 from
SP0 after installation.

Otherwise, the results of attempting to use the disk cannot be
guaranteed, although some Dell BIOSes do have workarounds for the 28-
bit LBA problem in Windows.

> Current BIOS is A01,  is there a real need to flash the latest
> A08 BIOS to get LBA support?

I'd be surprised if you needed to flash the latest BIOS for 48-bit LBA
support. However, given the number of other fixes that will have been
developed between A01 and A08, you ought to seriously consider doing
so anyway.

My own results have shown that even systems as old as the Dell
Precision 220 workstation have 48-bit LBA support, as does the newer
OptiPlex GX400 (roughly equal to a Dim8100). Earlier Pentium II and
III hardware usually only supports up to 137GB (although the BIOS
setup utility messes up the capacity display at smaller capacities,
the drives do work).

So I'd say the 4500/4550 systems should have it too.

William
From: ChuckP on 12 Feb 2010 09:55
"Christopher Muto" <muto(a)worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:Hfydnc5qrszvNunWnZ2dnUVZ_g2dnZ2d(a)speakeasy.net...
> dg1261 wrote:
>> <snip>
>>
>> The key issue will be whether the 4550 bios supports 48-bit LBA. (I
>> don't know if it does, or what improvements the bios updates provide...
>
> with bios a04 and above it does.

Thanks Chris and all for your replies. I have a hard drive to use and have
formatted a 130gb partition and will likely download drivers and update the
BIOS this weekend to A08.

Rather than clone the existing install, I want to do a fresh install from
recovery CD.
I am suspicious as to the integrity of the current install. May take a
little more time than the cloning, but I have lots of other things to do
while waiting for the next install prompt.

There are only 4 or 5 application software packages installed and I have the
CDs.

Hopefully by next week I'll have a adequately sized disk setup on a clean
OS.

All for free.

Thanks again to all for your input.

Chuck>


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