Looking for a decent IDE controller

[drfsupercenter]

OK I was curious about reformatting with this partitioning.

Usually I delete the partition then make it again, which lets me format. But I don't want to delete the partition since it's my main partition and the data is the secondary one. What do I do in this case?

[Chewy]

believe it or not, windows xp(CD) will let you delete the primary partition and
reinstall and will leave the logical drive on the extended alone.

just format the primary if you feel safer

[drfsupercenter]

What do you mean, can I format without deleting it?

[Chewy]

practise makes perfect, and you seem to be getting plenty

[drfsupercenter]

Yeah but I don't wanna wait for 2 hours for it to install then find I f'ed it up.

That happened before, I reinstalled, put the wrong video driver, screwed it up and had to reformat twice in one day.

But now it's more important as I have data on the other partition.

[drfsupercenter]

OK, UPS estimate says it will be here today.

Should I hook up the 60GB drive then reformat, or other way around?

[Chewy]

what are you doing, reloading windows?

get the card inserted and transfer any extra data to the drive then power down and disconnect all drives but the system one you are loading windows on.

[drfsupercenter]

OK.

I will need help with that partitioning, since currently I have a 30GB Windows partition, how do I delete/reformat it without messing the other data partition up?

[Chewy]

windows cd will see the old install and ask if you want to repair it, no!
then give you the option to delete that partition orreformat it.
go slow take your time and read everything

I deleted a 160 gig data partition one time, dumber and dumbest!

[drfsupercenter]

So I say reformat not delete? UPS just came with my IDE controller, I installed drivers, after I figure out jumper settings I will put this 60GB drive in and transfer data, then I'll be ready.

[drfsupercenter]

OH CRAP
I think I blew my power supply.

It had an extra power thing so I plugged it in to that hard drive. I pressed power and 2 seconds later it turned off. It turned on and off several more times.

So I took the drive out, unplugged it and everything... but it still won't turn on. It just flashes and dies. Flashes and dies. I had this happen before, I think it was just totally blown then.

So what should I do, go to Micro Center and buy a better power supply? Or maybe the one from our 10-year old Compaq that has a corrupted HD would work for now? I am using my mom's computer... but it's kinda important that my PC turn on. I could buy more fuses if you think that would help, but that happened last time as well, it just kept blowing every fuse I put in it (however, that one broke in a different manner.)

I just don't get why Dell would put an extra power thing in there if it would blow the power supply to use it?

[drfsupercenter]

OK I found one at micro center for 10 bucks after rebate, 450 watts.

My power supply came back to life but the PC is running like it has 10k memory.

[drfsupercenter]

DANG AGAIN

I bought a power supply for $20, but it's SATA and only has 3 IDE outputs. The SATA ones are these sleek black things.

So I gotta return it and buy another one?