Artbrooks -

Dell doesn't give a lot of details, but the short verdict is that your Dell 4300 is really marginal to be running WinXP. Max RAM at 512MB is marginal but in spec. I'm not sure the processor speed is really "in spec," although it should limp along okay.

Dell does give a motherboard identification, but the chipset identification is "generic" and they don't indicate what BIOS chip is used. The 512 MB max memory probably indicates a BIOS without the augmented Int13H/Int21H capabilities needed for larger internal (EIDE) drives.

If you wanted to open up and look for the BIOS to get an exact identification, there might be a BIOS update, but the low RAM limit implies a "reelly cheep chip." While you might be able to replace the BIOS chip with a better compatible one, that's akin to building a new machine; and it's almost certainly not worth it given the other specs on the machine.

They do indicate that you've got USB connectors, but don't give any info on the internals for them. They almost certainly are USB-1, which will work okay with a USB-2 device plugged in, but will be rather slow. USB devices get power through the USB connector, and an external HD might draw enough to interfere with other USB devices on the same hub, if you have any connected. You could handle that with an external hub with its own power transformer if it's applicable (~$20? extra). WinXP should take care of the hub setup automagically via plug-n-play.

The machine has 4 PCI slots where you could plug in a USB-2 adapter card, but the "default" configuration shows them all used by original equipment devices. If you happened to "not get" one of the devices, you might have an open slot, but I'd doubt there is one available.

You should be able to use a larger EXTERNAL USB drive, since the interface built into the drive translates everything to something the computer can read. All the computer sees is "USB bits" going in and out. Without more detail on the built-in USB it's hard to guarantee anything, but if any USB devices work, a USB hard drive should, although in this case maybe s..l..o..w..l..y. because of the USB-1 port.

Worst case, if all else fails, you could find a friend with a more capable computer to partition a larger USB EXTERNAL drive into 100GB slices that your machine would see as several separate drives when you plug it back into your machine, although I don't think that would be necessary.

John