I recently aquired a pII 400mhz micron computer. I peeled it apart to check out what kind of hardware it had, and couldn't figure out how big the HDD was. On the one I installed a window in, it said right on the sticker that it was a 4 gig HDD. This one doesn't tell me, so I was wondering if there is someway to translate whats on it to figure out how big the HDD is. Its a Maxtor drive, model # 90840D6, HDA/Uplevel 06A, PCBA/Uplevel 04A, Unique/Uplevel 15A. Cylinders 16276, Heads 16, Sectors 63. Jumper J50 Master/Single on, Slave off.

Can someone please tell me what all that means and how big this thing is?
thx

It is an 8GB drive

godfoot, you be fast...

Google works wonders for finding stuff like this I might add. Just put in the maker and the model and you will be amazed at what comes up.

Ok, but is there anyway to determine what size it is by whats written on it? Like for example you have 16276 cylinders, x 16 heads, x 63 sectors = 8gb? Or some sort of formula for determining it? Just curious

Yeah but you need to know how many bits/bytes per sector there are I believe. I would have to do a little searching in my "Tomes of Knowledge" (A+ Cert book) for that answer...

cyllinders isn't important in this calculations. Sectors and heads are what matters and how many bits per sector. Most of that information is primarily to make sure you were getting an identicle HDD for RAID configurations.

But like I said just google the Manufactures and Model # and you will prolly get about a gazillion links with that info in it.

Yeah I figured I could google it, but what if I was in the middle of the Sahara desert, and came across a HDD and was forced at gun point to determine what size it was? But thanks for your help, I'll do some research and see if I can figure it out that bits per sector thing.

Ok, according to this website: http://keppanet.netfirms.com/keppanet/supports/harddisk.htm there is 512 bytes per sector. Now I have no clue what I am doing, but if you take 512bytes X 63 Sectors you get 32256. If you take that number and multiply it by the number of heads, 16 you get 516096bytes. Now if you take that number and multiply it by the number of cylinders, 16276, you get 8,399,978,496bytes which translates to 8gig. You'll probably laugh at me, cuz this is probably not how you really determine it, but if you use the info on the 30GB hd that was used on that link, and the same math that I just did you get 30,729,646,080 which strangely enough is 30GB.

HAHA I just checked this on the 4GB HDD I modded a window into, if you take 512 bytes X 63 sectors, X 15 heads, X 8912 cylinders you get 4,311,982,080 bytes. Guess whats printed on this drive for drive size? 4311.9 MB

Quote: Originally Posted by RAA_Kr1cH what if I was in the middle of the Sahara desert, and came across a HDD and was forced at gun point to determine what size it was?

That's a simple one...you stick your finger in the muzzle of their barrell, raise one eyebrow and ask them why the arn't getting their college education, one click at a time just like the rest of us?