Question:
Hi Everyone!
I am thinking of getting a new hard drive, as the one i have now is getting quite small as I am using it more and more (it is 80gb). Ive been looking around places for one and have seen one in PC World for £68.55 - Hitachi, Product Id (757698) (on the website). Also i have a coverplan with them on my comp so if i was to upgrade they would come replace the new hard drives disk space.
Can someone please give me advice on wheter there are better deals elsewhere and if this is a good deal.
Thanks
Daniel
Answers:
You can usually pick them up cheaply on ebay but if you're concerned about installation and you can get it done free then it's worth considering.
Another thing to mention is that storage is most readily and easily available these days in USB form. If you're just wanting to store a load of MP3s and Photos (ie stuff that you dont mind accessing ever so slightly slower) then you can buy a USB hard drive off the web, plug it into your USB port, and have the storage available instantly. Another benefit of this is that you can move it between computers if you want to etc.
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Well....it's not about the installation.
I know this may sound quite bad....but PC World/ PC Service Call have had to replace 3 hard drives and i think that I just have bad luck with them!
PC World said that if i was to take my coverplan details...they will be able to add that on the system and if i was ever to have a problem with it they would replace it at the same size i bought.
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try ebuyer - fitting a hard drive is simple.
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Might be worth it then if you think you'll have to replace it.
Internally your motherboard will only support a limited number of drives, and your computer's case my further limit this. It's possible that they might replace your drive instead of adding a new one. In which case wave bye bye to all that software and data you have loaded unless you can reload it from CD for example. Just a couple of things to consider, there's really no right answer.
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Hitachi are what used to be IBM drives and their reliablity is poor I have 2 120GB drives which I have replaced with Western Digital becasue of the reliability problems with them.
I would be very warry about buyng a drive from ebay, I know lots of people have but drives are inportant and 2nd hand isnt always a good thing as they do wear out over time. Buy new and you always have the warrently to fall back on and someone to replace it in the first year.
Firstly make sure you get the right conenction SATA or IDE if it is IDE you could be limited to a ATA100 drive contoler which will only support a drive up to ~133GB ATA133 supports drives over ~133GB. Tell us the make and model of your motherboard and I will find out what your pc will take if it ia branded PC tell me the make and model again and I will try to find out more. If your local to me I will come and help fit it for you also (Manchester)
I recomend Western Digital drives I have 4x 250GB drives by them and they are on 24 hours aday no problems. up to 320GB you should be looking at less than £90 the next jump to 400GB is about £170.
Check out for prices they are very good and alot cheaper than PC world.
Fitting a drive is easy, it only gets dificult if you want to replace your existing drive witht he new one but copying the drive is pretty easy too. It is always best to install Windows on a new drive rather than coppying it over as it clears your system of all the junk that builds up over time and you should get almost new pc performance again with a fresh install.
If I can be of any more help let me know. Im a PC engineer btw
John
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Hitachi are what used to be IBM drives and their reliablity is poor I have 2 120GB drives which I have replaced with Western Digital becasue of the reliability problems with them.
I would be very warry about buyng a drive from ebay, I know lots of people have but drives are inportant and 2nd hand isnt always a good thing as they do wear out over time. Buy new and you always have the warrently to fall back on and someone to replace it in the first year...............
Well, I'm a bit embarrassed to say what my computer is!!
It is a Medion Microstar 2201 - http://www.pcservicecall.co.uk/layout.aspx?ID={eeead0bb-d0b0-47f0-a8a1-301d86ca04cd}&CatID=!!2ea571f5-83da-472f-a6cd-28103085e077}
I don't know how to check wheter my computer will take a large hardrive (over 133gb), but it is only a few years old so i dont know. i don't think i will have a problem installing the hardrive myself, how hard can it be lol!
Also, if Hitatchi are abit unrelaible, how is samsung....pc world have a 250gb harddrive on there for a few pounds more???
Thanks to everyone getting back to me so quickly...i really appreciate it! Thanks!!!
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And all of those thorny issues is why I recommend a USB hard drive. You'll find it cures that headache right up.
Always remember though a hard drive is only as good as it's last backup.
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A USB drive is great for occasional storage but no good for replaceing a system drive, the aditional power connectors and extra wires internal is much better and a lot faster especially if they dont have USB2.
Most PC's can support 4 IDE drives from 2 ports SATA drives require a port for each drive.
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A USB drive is great for occasional storage but no good for replaceing a system drive, the aditional power connectors and extra wires internal is much better and a lot faster especially if they dont have USB2.
Most PC's can support 4 IDE drives from 2 ports SATA drives require a port for each drive.
My understanding from the original post was that it was simply to add extra storage and not replace a system drive.
Regarding the drive limit, most people have at least one CD/DVD drive, sometimes two. And once you have a hard drive and a floppy drive in use a lot of cases, especially for branded systems, do not have the capacity to house an additional 3.5inch drive.
I'm not suggesting that you dont use an internal drive, i'm just warning you that it might not just be as simple as getting a man round to install it for you if you dont have the room for it thats all. Most people have USB ports free, and the advantage of essentially no fitting/installation is pretty clear.
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My understanding from the original post was that it was simply to add extra storage and not replace a system drive.
Regarding the drive limit, most people have at least one CD/DVD drive, sometimes two. And once you have a hard drive and a floppy drive in use a lot of cases, especially for branded systems, do not have the capacity to house an additional 3.5inch drive.
I'm not suggesting that you dont use an internal drive, i'm just warning you that it might not just be as simple as getting a man round to install it for you if you dont have the room for it thats all. Most people have USB ports free, and the advantage of essentially no fitting/installation is pretty clear.
I dont have a problem installing a hard drive, as i think that if i was to have a prblem, someone could help me. Yes... i do have spare usb ports, but doesnt it take energy or something out of the motherboard - or does it contain a plug. i personally think that i would need an internal one as the speed of getting the documents/files may become a problem....also, i regularly back up my data na dit doesnt take me long to install software...so now im in two minds..
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I dont have a problem installing a hard drive, as i think that if i was to have a prblem, someone could help me. Yes... i do have spare usb ports, but doesnt it take energy or something out of the motherboard - or does it contain a plug. i personally think that i would need an internal one as the speed of getting the documents/files may become a problem....also, i regularly back up my data na dit doesnt take me long to install software...so now im in two minds..
Always go for a internal hard drive if you can USB drives should be a last resort only they're slow and expensive.
IDE will allow 4 devices to be connected: so if you have, say, 2 DVD/CD drives fitted and 1 hard drive you can fit one more device: the hard drive.
Take a peek inside the case: have a look where the hard drive is and see if theres room to fit another. If so there you go. It needs to plugged into a spare connector on the IDE cable (the same as plugs into the other HDD/drives) and it needs one power (molex) connector to be available and away you go!
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Samsung arnt much better but they are better
Im looking in to your pc spec now
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Never ever ever ever buy a hard drive from Ebay or any other unknown source. They are a very delicate device and if mishandled they can fail very quickly. It has also been known for "seconds" to be sold off cheap.
For me certainly, money is secondary to the integrity of my data and not having to spend long periods of time restoring data is primary.
There is not a huge difference in price between different brands of similar size so go for a Seagate and play safe.
You can also go to the Seagate website regularly and analyse your hard drive using their diagnostics and see if it is about to fail.
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Hiya
Its a Microstar MS-6583 motherboard Which I think uses the SiS 646 chipset There is no information about this motherboard in English or other language I can understand on the web I have contacted MSI to see if they will tell me anything.
John
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80Gb is a lot of data, is this all music and video's?
You could always consider software compression (unless all this data is mp3's and mpg's which won't compress any further) and a good tidy up instead. cleanmgr etc..
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Software compression was only ever usefull in the days of 2 and 4GB drive that cost £100 a GB and is no solution for current PC requirements, the extra demands made on the PC to decompress for use isnt worth it especially when you can get 320GB drives for under £80 now and the fact that most files now already use compression mp3, divx jpg not that many files can be compressed much more.
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It is as useful now, as it has always been, and with modern processors and ram has no performance impact. As you and I said, it is no good for compressing already compressed video and music files.
This is a money saving site.. £80 is £80.
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if its purely for storage of file get an external hard drive, as for the slow ness im not sure where people are getting this info from because its exactly the same drive as you put in your pc just in a nice case with some adapton wires, or better still get a fast seagate 7500 rpm hard drive and by an external case to put in it yourself.
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Agreed roswell. Technically I beleive the speed difference is in the transfer rate (especially if you are not using USB 2), however having used these in the past I noticed no discernable speed drop.
As for power, most external USBs are not "bus powered". That is you need to plug it into a power socket as well as your computer, however there are some which draw their power from the PC itself (or the USB hub if you have one of those). In either case there will be no performance penalty on your PC.
Compression is another good answer albertross and is worth considering. There is a slight performance penalty to pay for this, but I say try it. If your PC slows down or the files dont compress well then you've lost nothing, just uncompress and resume your search for a hard drive.
I agree the 80gb storange you have is usually sufficient for system files and program files, beyond that if you're storing large files then either an internal IDE or an external USB drive will be perfectly adequate. If you're still in two minds then open the case, and have a look to see what you'll be able to get away with. If you have hard drive slots available then an internal one is a good solution. If you have no slots available then consider an external.