Unofficial eMachines Forums

Hi I just bought the series model eMachines EL1200 Desktop, slim tower and my model is the
eMachines EL1200 - 06W, can anyone direct me where to buy a larger hard drive like a ebay auction link etc. It came installed with a 160 gig drive but would prefer a larger one any help will be appreciated.

Having looked at a few photos of this newish compact model, I'd think you can add any standard 3.5" SATA II drive if you firdt remove the optical drive. Western Digital 500GB Caviar Green would be a good choice on a 220W supply.
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=338

I don't know what issues you will have transferring the OS over, but the free download of Windows 7 RC1 would be fun to try. You can also add a dual core AMD4050e and up to 2X 2GB of DDR2-800 memory by the look of it.

hi and thanks I found the drive on ebay for 55.00 to 65.00 plus I'm going to buy the 4 gif memory, hers my ??? cany I just do a fresh install with the restore recovery discs I created at first start up to install on a new blank hard drive ?
here's the ebay auction list of the larger drives , I'm correct on the view list I hope, I can buy one of these blank and install my restore recovery discs on a new drive here if I buy one from ebay sir

shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38&_nkw=Western+Digital+500GB+Caviar+Green+%0D%0A&_sacat=See-All-Categories&_naf=1

I like to eBay myself sometimes, but only for obscure items. For stuff like drives and memory, I'd prefer to have a warranty and prospect of exchange if probs.

Here's the similar eMachines EL1200-05W model:


NewEgg have the WD Caviar Green here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136149

Standard 2X 2GB Kingston Value RAM here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134641

It's just possible that eMachines have fitted low-profile memory in this compact like these 2X 1GB sticks:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134635

If I was you, I'd check first. This is a new model to me. Unplug the machine and touch the case before components. If you have restore disks, you shouldn't have any issues reinstalling the OS on a new drive. It would be wise to download and burn Western Digital's setup CD-R in advance to make formatting easy.

Hi steve, and thanks so much, yes I'm going your route with shopping at newegg.
That's about same price with ebay, but on that site, there's warranty, and I surely now have the info. I need.

Last thing to buy is the firewire pci card, roughly $12.99 on ebay. Yes nice slim tower very small and sleek, and fast.

Huge flat screen, not loaded with pc junk, just came out I march 2009 manuf. date.

Has xp, no big deal, will install vista when upgradest are finished. Paid $398.00 @ walmart.....screaming deal.

p.s. can you send me the link for Western Digital's setup CD-R
you have been great help , highly recomd. you anytime , regards cdrt.

Always worth looking at a PCs internals before an upgrade. You never know what you are going to run into...lol

Quite likely that only a low profile firewire card will fit. In fact it looks like you will only have a PCIE X1 spare if you lose what I assume is a modem.

Here's the link for Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2 for DOS (CD):
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=608&lang=en

You'll need to burn the ISO image to CD-R.

Tell us how it goes, my friend. That's the best way to help others.

hi dave yes I have one avail slot that is for my use for the firewire pci card , infact its here on ebay for 12.99 free ship , its a must have for my needs and the pc allow up to 4 gig ram so I'm going the route you suggested and the hard drive the site you mentioned , here's the link to the low profile card

http://my.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Mye ... eVisitor=3

thanks for rapid response, yes once funds are avail and items installed I will return with a feedback lynn

Hi dave yes I have probs... couldn't wait and did a error but assume it cane be fixed.

Yes I haven't ordered the new hard drive yet and just can't stand having two partitions the os and the data d drive ' hidden partiton'.

Well the pc came witha 160 gig drive and its exactly split up to the two drives os and data d drive hidden recovery partiton.

So anyways with no additional programs installed, I can't stand that it shows only avail free space on c drive of almost 70 gigs .

Well the other portion space is on the data d drive. I then went to mycomputer properties and intentionally right clicked on the data d drive to format, said successfully formated.

Also went to the program called disc utility to remove the data d drive from my system.

But once I restarted I see in mycomputer properties the data d drive is gone now .

But why on earth does my c drive the os drive I'm talking about now, still have little avail space close to 70 gigs avail. after,

Since I removed the data d drive recovery partion. I want to see my c drive with more space.

Yes I have recovery discs but don't want the data d drive partion placed back into my system any ideas my friend .

If you formated your D drive it only deletes the data (in your case the recovery files), it does not merge the two partitions. You still have both partitions except know the D partition is empty. Vista and Server 2008 have a utility which lets you merge and create partitions, I don't know if XP has something similar. But I am sure their are free alternitives in the web.

Hope this clears somethings up.

Hi last member, okay here's what was just done since my last post.

1 - reinstalled the iso image recovery discs x 2 , it than put me back to half of 160 gig roughly 69 gigs but the data hidden partition was still useing the other half of my space.

2 - got mad and said alright so than my next thing was a xp disc was installed to completely format the enire blank blank system.

3 - than installed vista and bam there is my 160 gig drice c drive that is. Well actually its showing 151 remaining avail. space, but hey now I'm feeling better. When the new drice 500 gig recommended from dave, than that will be installed and vista placed on that. And yes I'm currently useing the installed memory of 1 gig of ram, but hey its a fast pc. Over all a headache with the previous probs. of the system recovery taken up half to half, that won't fly with me.

last but least if needed be to install my iso recovery discs, it will appear again as 69 avail free space and the other partition useing up the remaining to 160. But all and all ALL is well now......anxious to buy the 500 gig drive and 4 gigs of ram, don't taze me bro....but all will go swell let's hope and thanks again, ps over all this pc rocks fors 398.00 and huge screen and flat that is and for 100.00 bucks for a upgrade of 4 gigs ram and 500 gig drive the upgrade is worth it, can't wait to order the two items lynn....thanks folks.