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General discussion

External SATA drive and IDE

Oct 6, 2010 8:11AM PDT

I have a Dell GX620 running XP Pro with an internal SATA drive and an external USB 2.0 SATA drive enclosure (2 dual drive bays, max 2 terabytes). Can I swap this external drive back and forth with my other PC, a Dell GX270 running XP Home and an internal IDE drive.

Discussion is locked

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No. Here's why.
Oct 6, 2010 1:01PM PDT

XP Home (notice no service pack?) is limited to 127GB drives. Once you get to about Service Pack 2, that limit is gone and it should work.
Bob

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Other considerations.
Oct 6, 2010 1:02PM PDT

While moving some USB drive about is supported (as we install the service packs) we know we can't swap the OS hard drives about.

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If you're talking about swapping an external HDD
Oct 6, 2010 1:18PM PDT

between 2 PCs...believe that should work. That would require that both PCs have an interface common to the external drive...USB or eSATA.

Let us know.

VAPCMD

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more system stats
Oct 6, 2010 8:34PM PDT

The XP Home has had Service Pack 2 (and most program updates) installed. Both machines have USB 2.0 compliant ports.

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(NT) Should work then. Just try.
Oct 6, 2010 8:41PM PDT