]> Tony Sivori <TonySivoriMSWO...@yahoo.com> writes:
]>
]>> So my questions are, if I buy a retail box HD (Western Digital, most
]>> likely) that is larger than 137 GB, shouldn't a drive that size come
]>> with a PCI IDE card in the box that will work even though my current
]>> IDE connectors are all in use?
]>
]> No. Why should it? Drives are drives, IDE bus cards are idebus cards.

]Because many BIOSes won't handle drives larger than 137 GB. And I was
]under the impression that some brands were bundling PCI cards with the
]drives. Probably, it is cheaper than getting the drive returned as
]"defective".

?? The controller and the bios are two different things. if the bios cannot
handle greater than 137GB then what has the controller to do with it? you
need to update your bios not your controller.

]>> Will I be able to install additional Linux versions to hdc and continue
]>
]> hde and hdf you mean.

]Huh? What happened to hdc? Never mind, it doesn't matter.

hdc is the first drive on the second ide controller, which on your system
contains the cdrom drive. hdd is the second drive on the second controller
which on your system contains the dvd drive. hde and hdf are the first and
second drives on the  third ide controller-- the new one you installed. (or
if your sysem has SATA controller, they will be e and f, and the fourth
controller will have g and h. )
.