Thread by @RetroTechChris

The Compaq Deskpro 6000 is back up and running with a new hard drive. Of course, I hit a few issues along the way, some unrelated to the HDD replacement. Let's talk about them briefly in a 🧵 here!

To get started, I decided to use the Dell Precision Workstation 220 to help with transferring data from the failing HDD to the new one since it was on the desk and is more accessible than the Compaq. We can see we have three HDDs detected (Dell, old Compaq, new Compaq). Good!

Here is the old Compaq HDD (not original to the system) and the new HDD that we will be installing, side by side. On the left, we have a Maxtor Fireball 3 (20GB), and on the right we have a Seagate ST320413A (20GB). The Seagate will replace the Maxtor.

I decided to install BootIt Bare Metal on the HDD while in the Dell. I actually ended up making the Seagate drive the primary master drive to do that. But this was actually premature, more on that in a minute...

For the Deskpro 6000, you can either run setup and diags from disk or from a HDD partition. I made some disks on the Dell using Compaq SoftPaq 15674, made some really crummy disk labels, and popped the diags disk into the Compaq downstairs!

And, now it's time for our first problem: yes, the HDD has to be completely empty. Ugh. So I deleted the BootIt partition (not shown, sorry!) and from there setup was slow, but it was a breeze. I launched computer setup from the partition to test. Perfect!

Okay, from there, back upstairs to the Dell (my FitBit tells me I am getting lots of steps in 😂). I reinstalled BootIt Bare Metal and copied over the partitions from the old HDD to the Seagate, piece of cake.

Now for my second problem I hit, and this one is unrelated to the HDD upgrade: another plastic clip broke off that holds on the faceplate. I glued it back on with some plastics bonder, and it seems to be holding. Still using duct tape to hold the top clip in place. Good enough.

The third problem I hit, also unrelated, is that the "CMOS battery" was dead. I have a "replacement" computer clock battery that takes AAA batteries. Unfortunately, the positive lead wire is also flaky, so I had to repair that a bit. Anyway, all back together now.

Well, anyway, that will do it for now! Hopefully this drive works out.. I am starting to wonder if this machine has a bad PSU or otherwise that is resulting in eating HDDs. Doubtful, I think it might just be cursed. Thx for following along!

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