A Buyer’s Guide to Hard Drives

Posted by on 06/01 at 08:00 AM Permalink
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Your hard drive is arguably the most important component of your laptop or desktop computer. Without it ... well, all you have is memory, a power supply, a CPU, and a few other odds and ends. If a computer’s CPU is the brains, then the hard drive is the heart and lungs of your PC.

Sometimes, though, you might find that you need a new hard drive. But buying one isn’t always easy. There is a tangle of terminology to deal with, and there are a number of factors that you have to consider before putting your money down. Regardless of why you need a hard drive, this TechTip will arm you with the knowledge that you need to choose the one that’s right for you.

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    Posted by DW  on  06/01  at  03:09 PM

  1. Nicely written article for those who have desktop computers, but what about those who have notebooks/laptops?

    I’m sure many people would be interested in that article considering that notebooks/laptops outsold desktops.

    Thanks again for the article and keep up the good work.

    Sincerely,
    DW

    2. Posted by Ian  on  06/01  at  03:14 PM

  2. I know someone around your office thought this article was unnecessary, but thanks for writing it.  As a computer technician in a customer-facing job, I regularly have to tell people their data is gone due to failed hard drives.  “Save early, save often” was the credo in the early years of PCs, and it’s as true today as ever.  The analogy I use most often to explain hard drive failures is simple.  “Hard drives are like tires—it’s not a matter of *if* you’ll have to replace it, it’s *when*.” The more people that understand that it really IS necessary to have a backup strategy, the better.

    3. Posted by Fred's Electronics  on  06/01  at  03:26 PM

  3. I don’t know why you are trying to sell large hard drives when no windows that you have from Microsoft supports hard drives larger that 137 gig’s.  I am using windows XP and the most that I can use is 200 Gig’s successfully.  Just a word of advice.

    4. Posted by Thomas Donegan  on  06/01  at  03:28 PM

  4. I download,music.video and pictures but I don’t
    save them long on my computer,instead I burn them to CDs or DVDs. This way if my computer crashes I haven’t lost everything and I have no need for more than an extra internal 80GBs.

    5. Posted by Milton McFarland  on  06/01  at  03:31 PM

  5. What is the easyist way to take the operating system files and outer files from a ide hard drive to a sata 300 drive?

    6. Posted by David Schultz  on  06/01  at  05:54 PM

  6. I agree with the manufacturer recommendations.  I have had good luck with Western Digital and VERY BAD LUCK WITH MAXTOR!

    7. Posted by David Parker  on  06/02  at  02:03 AM

  7. This article failed to advise two things to do before toatal failure happens. One is backing up your data. The other is how to transfer the data from the old HDD to a new one.

    8. Posted by Melvin C. Duncan  on  06/02  at  04:55 AM

  8. I am thinking about getting a larger primary hard drive but don’t know how to transfer data from primary to new drive. I don’t want to lose my operating system (XP) I have all my data on a back up drive but don’t have XP on nor know how to put it on there.  Otherwise I could simply Twin the new primary with the secondary.
    Thanks
    See my web site I write and have 19 books on it.

    9. Posted by Derek Birkenfeld  on  06/02  at  11:04 AM

  9. I am surprised that the article did not say any thing about no board cache.

    10. Posted by Curt M  on  06/02  at  02:16 PM

  10. The following text is copy and pasted from the article.

    Note: This TechTip offers a good look at the differences between IDE and SATA drives.

    After this comment, nowhere is this addressed.

    11. Posted by George Shaddock  on  06/02  at  02:58 PM

  11. This post is redundant since I am also concerned about transferring my Windows XP Pro and all “C” drive files to a new hard drive. While I would like to install a new and larger hard drive as well as a new motherboard that supports sata drives, the thought of attempting to transfer everything or having to re-install everything stops me cold. Any recommendations?

    12. Posted by D. Reinsnorfer  on  06/02  at  05:44 PM

  12. IDE and SATA are both behind the times.
    SCSI is the fastest, even now.
    Should have mentioned that.

    13. Posted by Manu P  on  06/08  at  08:11 AM

  13. I think at the moment the future is SAS disk.

    14. Posted by Melvin C. Duncan  on  06/09  at  08:31 AM

  14. Well, the above article helped me understand the difference betwen IDE and sas disks it didn’t tell me a thing about how to transfer data and operating systems from old to new hard drives. Can someone please explain how this is done? I have seen tech’s do it with a patch of some kind to allow them to run the new and old drive at the same time but since I operate on a shoe string I don’t want to pay someone else a hundred bucks to do something I may be able to do my self. I have two seagate 80 gig drives the C drive according to my HDD life monitor is 62% and the F drive is 92% I believe I need to do something to the C drive but not sure what. All data is backed up on DVD’s I bought a burner especially for this purpose. Mel.

    15. Posted by Melvin C. Duncan  on  06/09  at  08:54 AM

  15. Tips on buying a hard drive. How about tips on installing a hard drive. The how to’s on that would be of great interest to us old fools who don’t know squat about the deal. I have bout three and installed one myself but wasn’t sure I did it right. Since it was a secondary I just twinned it with the primary and hoped that did the trick. I tried following the instructions and believe I got it right. since it is working and I can access it I guess I did it ok but a pro’s advice and instructions would be very helpful for the future. I am sure my primary will go kaputt any day now. Mel.

    16. Posted by Sanford Freeman  on  09/12  at  09:08 AM

  16. You left out some important information about replacing an internal hard drive.  I know of one manufacturer which send out new hard drives that can’t be used until they are formatted.  I wish you had included instructions on how to do that since my computer will not recognize the drive until formatted.

    17. Page 1 of 1 pages

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