OEM vs. Retail hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter mm
  • Start date Start date
M

mm

I hope this isn't too stupid a question.

OEM vs. Retail hard drive. I'm not concerned about the warranty,
but that I've never installed a SATA drive before and this will be the
only drive on the computer.

I have XP Home or maybe Pro SP3.

Does a retail box contain drivers or instructions that the OEM drive
won't include and SP3 won't have?

I have cables already, but I haven't chosen a drive. I've been
looking at http://www.directron.com because they have a good price on
a Thermaltake BlacX Duet Docking station.

Thanks.
 
I hope this isn't too stupid a question.

OEM vs. Retail hard drive.    I'm not concerned about the warranty,
but that I've never installed a SATA drive before and this will be the
only drive on the computer.

I have XP Home or maybe Pro SP3.

Does a retail box contain drivers or instructions that the OEM drive
won't include and SP3 won't have?

I have cables already, but I haven't chosen a drive.  I've been
looking athttp://www.directron.com because they have a good price on
a Thermaltake BlacX Duet Docking station.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Normally you just install the drive in a spare slot and turn PC on.
You will probably need to format it, but Windows will usually prompt
you to do that automatically. Drivers are part of XP.

The most difficult part normaly is working out how to remove the main
case of the PC. A philips screw driver and all will be OK

Michael

www.cnwrecovery.com
 
I hope this isn't too stupid a question.

OEM vs. Retail hard drive. I'm not concerned about the warranty,
but that I've never installed a SATA drive before and this will be the
only drive on the computer.

I have XP Home or maybe Pro SP3.

Does a retail box contain drivers or instructions that the OEM drive
won't include and SP3 won't have?

I have cables already, but I haven't chosen a drive. I've been
looking at http://www.directron.com because they have a good price on
a Thermaltake BlacX Duet Docking station.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

There aren't any special device drivers for different drives, that would
be a nightmare. They all conform to a standard specification, for which
you can use a single standard driver (usually supplied by Microsoft, if
you're talking Windows). The Microsoft driver will also work identically
whether you have older IDE drives, or the newer SATA.

Yousuf Khan
 
Normally you just install the drive in a spare slot and turn PC on.
You will probably need to format it, but Windows will usually prompt
you to do that automatically. Drivers are part of XP.
Click to expand...

Thank. It's only been 3 years since I put in an IDE drive, but I've
already forgotten what that required. Nothing, I guess. :) Maybe
that's why I forgot.
The most difficult part normaly is working out how to remove the main
case of the PC. A philips screw driver and all will be OK
Click to expand...

LOL. Well this was a DELL and I used a flat blade screwdriver to pull
back the side cover. Then later I realized that the rubber L moved
down to release the hooks. I'm lucky I didn't bend anything.
 
There aren't any special device drivers for different drives, that would
be a nightmare. They all conform to a standard specification, for which
you can use a single standard driver (usually supplied by Microsoft, if
you're talking Windows). The Microsoft driver will also work identically
whether you have older IDE drives, or the newer SATA.
Click to expand...

Thanks. BTW, I did look at several webpages about this and they just
confused me.
 
mm said:
I hope this isn't too stupid a question.
Nope.

OEM vs. Retail hard drive. I'm not concerned about the warranty,
but that I've never installed a SATA drive before and this will be the
only drive on the computer.
Click to expand...
I have XP Home or maybe Pro SP3.
Click to expand...

Then you are fine if you meant SP3 Home and Pro.
Does a retail box contain drivers or instructions that
the OEM drive won't include and SP3 won't have?
Nope.

I have cables already, but I haven't chosen a drive. I've been
looking at http://www.directron.com because they have a
good price on a Thermaltake BlacX Duet Docking station.
Click to expand...

OEM drives are fine.
 
mm said:
I hope this isn't too stupid a question.
Click to expand...
OEM vs. Retail hard drive. I'm not concerned about the warranty,
but that I've never installed a SATA drive before and this will be the
only drive on the computer.
Click to expand...
I have XP Home or maybe Pro SP3.
Click to expand...
Does a retail box contain drivers or instructions that the OEM drive
won't include and SP3 won't have?
Click to expand...

No. HDDs do not need drivers, and in fact you cannot get any.
HDD controllers are a different stpry, but their drivers
do not come with the drive either. Best find out what
controller you have and get the drivers beforehand from
the manufacturer web-page. That is if you plan to do
a new installation. If not, the drivers should already be
in there.

On a new installation, it is also good to have some way to
access the web and burn CDs in case you do need some
specific drivers after all.

Arno
 
Thanks. BTW, I did look at several webpages about this and they just
confused me.
Click to expand...

That does not surprise me. There are a lot of incompetent people
out there that still insist in distributing their wisdom.

Simply remember that for HDDs, you need a driver for the controller
(may already be in the OS, but does not need to be for Windows),
but that HDDs themselves never need drivers.

Arno
 
No. HDDs do not need drivers, and in fact you cannot get any.
HDD controllers are a different stpry, but their drivers
do not come with the drive either. Best find out what
controller you have and get the drivers beforehand from
the manufacturer web-page. That is if you plan to do
a new installation. If not, the drivers should already be
in there.

On a new installation, it is also good to have some way to
access the web and burn CDs in case you do need some
specific drivers after all.

Arno
Click to expand...

Thanks Arno and Rod.

And all the answers here were clearer than the webpages!

I have already dl'd a copy of all the drivers to another computer and
will probably burn them to copy to the new computer.

The question about XP Home or Pro is a complicated XP question, which
I guess would be OT for this ng, but I'll gladly tell it/ask about it
if encouraged to.
 
I understand. Now, the more complicated answer, which Arno has already
alluded to is whether or not your hard drive "controller" needs a
driver. The HD controller is usually built into the motherboards these
days, so the driver for that controller is included into the overall
driver for the motherboard. However, it is still possible to buy an
aftermarket controller card, also known as a host-bus-adapter (HBA),
which you would plug into one of the internal PCI expansion slots. That
type of controller would need its own driver to be supplied, because the
operating system would need to know how to communicate with that HBA.
Once the OS knows how to talk to the HBA, then any hard disks you plug
into that HBA will just use the standard disk drivers too.
Click to expand...

I get it.
So if you're just buying a new hard disk (SATA or IDE) and just plugging
it into one of the existing motherboard controller plugs, then you have
nothing to do, the driver for the motherboard controller has already
long-since been installed when the system was first setup. But if you're
also installing a new HBA controller card into the system, then you'll
have an additional driver to install.
Click to expand...

Well, I hope I won't have reason to get a new controller card.

It only has 3 slots and I can't remember now but I thought I had plans
for two of them. One slot has a modem now, which would be good for
the once a year fax I send and the once a year fax I receive.

One may well be taken up for, get this, a second parallel port, one
for the scanner and one for the printer (neither of which I really use
and I'm not buying another one. I have another printer in the
basement.)

I'm pretty sure I had the third one allocated too. But if not, I want
to have an empty slot for "later". :)

Thanks.
 
One may well be taken up for, get this, a second parallel port, one
for the scanner and one for the printer (neither of which I really use
and I'm not buying another one. I have another printer in the
basement.)

I'm pretty sure I had the third one allocated too. But if not, I want
to have an empty slot for "later". :)

Thanks.
Click to expand...

These days, things like parallel ports and RS232 serial ports are best
handled through the USB port adapter. You should get a Parallel-to-USB
adapter rather than waste a PCI port on it.

Yousuf Khan
 
These days, things like parallel ports and RS232 serial ports are best
handled through the USB port adapter. You should get a Parallel-to-USB
adapter
Click to expand...

Maybe, but that would cost money. I already have the card.
 
mm said:
Thanks Arno and Rod.

And all the answers here were clearer than the webpages!

I have already dl'd a copy of all the drivers to another computer and
will probably burn them to copy to the new computer.

The question about XP Home or Pro is a complicated XP question, which
I guess would be OT for this ng, but I'll gladly tell it/ask about it
if encouraged to.
Click to expand...

We do see a bit of drift away from the topic of the group at times, no real harm in that.
 
... I've never installed a SATA drive before and this will be the
only drive on the computer.

I have XP Home or maybe Pro SP3.

Does a retail box contain drivers or instructions that the OEM drive
won't include and SP3 won't have?
Click to expand...

If the SATA drive will be your boot drive, then, during your Windows
XP installation from CD, you will need to provide a pre-installation
driver for your SATA controller, usually via a floppy diskette or USB
stick which you access with the F6 key.

- Franc Zabkar
 
Franc said:
If the SATA drive will be your boot drive, then, during your Windows
XP installation from CD, you will need to provide a pre-installation
driver for your SATA controller, usually via a floppy diskette or USB
stick which you access with the F6 key.
Click to expand...

Nope, not with XP SP3.
 
Arno said:
Nope.

Not even SP3 has all drivers.
Click to expand...

It does for the absolute vast bulk of SATA controllers now, or more
strictly the absolute vast bulk of SATA controllers are designed so
that no driver from floppy or USB stick is needed.
Only way to tell for sure is to try.
Click to expand...

In practice its very very rare to need a driver from floppy or USB stick for the SATA boot drive with XP SP3.
 
We do see a bit of drift away from the topic of the group at times, no real harm in that.
Click to expand...
Thank you. It turns out the question is either settled, pending some
actual results, or needs time to be rephrased. So I'll put that on
hold, until I have the right questions to ask.
 
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