-> Yeah I got back on and downloaded the Maxtor over 32 Meg.
-> drive installation PDF which primarily deals with
-> MaxBlast.
-> Stuff in there I've never seen before about enabling an extra
-> jumper and using MaxBlast to "maybe" see the full capacity drive
-> or possibly needing a new Ultra-ATA drive I/O card.

-> Problem is the H.P. users manual makes no mention of
-> jumpers that may or may not exist to disable onboard
-> I/O and I've not yet looked into whether the recommended Maxtor
-> I/O card even requires any onboard jumper needs to be moved.

That is becaue the Disable function nowdays is in the BIOS Setup and not
done by MB jumpers.


-> Seems some systems BIOS's won't even allow the large drive to be a
-> bootable drive but merely additional storage :-(

Never run across that one.

-> More research before I buy.
-> Or I can chicken and buy a Maxtor 20 Gig available at CompUSA
-> now for 65 bucks along with the additional mounting rails.
-> The H.P. BIOS goes to 32 Gig.

you can go biger by using the Maxtor Boot Sector program usualy. IT
fools the bios into thinking the Drive is 32 gig or smaller.  The
MAXBlast program checks on the install and should tell you the Driver is
needed.

-> Wish that H.P. manual was more technical as I'd just slap an
-> Ultra-ATA133 card in there and take full advantage of the new drive.

The instructions that come with the ATA 133 card should tell you how to
set u7p as a nadditional Controller i nAddition to hte one on the MB.
But depending on the BIOS you might not be able to make the New Drive
the Boot Drive. BUT I don't see that as a problem at all. Just keep the
old drive as the Boot drive and have your Cake(Larger Hard Drive) and
Eat it(Boot form the old drive)!!! :-) :-)
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