New Hard Drive
Hi,
I'm looking for a new hard drive but I'm a relative novice when it comes to things to do with hardware. My old Samsung 160GB one broke down after 4years of use the other week but I'm tempted to use Samsung again as I've found this deal,
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=312836&cks=ASS&assoc=5A39DAA7-10EA-4BCF-889D-E46501023430
It's 400GB and only £75, no idea how good a deal that is but it's the best I've found so far. What do you think?
Couple of questions also, what else should I look for in a hard drive apart from the number of GBs? Does the number of GBs have much impact on speed cause I'm thinking I might change my DDR RAM to speed up the PC while I'm at it.
Any help greatly appreciated.
I'm looking for a new hard drive but I'm a relative novice when it comes to things to do with hardware. My old Samsung 160GB one broke down after 4years of use the other week but I'm tempted to use Samsung again as I've found this deal,
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=312836&cks=ASS&assoc=5A39DAA7-10EA-4BCF-889D-E46501023430
It's 400GB and only £75, no idea how good a deal that is but it's the best I've found so far. What do you think?
Couple of questions also, what else should I look for in a hard drive apart from the number of GBs? Does the number of GBs have much impact on speed cause I'm thinking I might change my DDR RAM to speed up the PC while I'm at it.
Any help greatly appreciated.
0
Comments
http://www.pctechonline.co.uk/home/product_detail.asp?id=676&catid=15&show=2
2 reasons
firstly seagate have never really failed me and they come with a 5 year warranty which i BELIEVE is more than most other companies offer
secondly it has a 16mb buffer as opposed to 8mb on the samsung which will give better performance
upgrading your ram is often a very good idea but first you need to be sure that your computer slowdowns arent software related
often ppl are quick to upgrade not realising that if they maintained their PC then it would be running quite sufficient
how much ram do you currently have?
these days 1GB seems to be the standard, 512MB the minimum, but it also depends very much what you use your pc for
if you give us some more details we can instruct you further
Sounds like Seagate's a good choice these days.
Those are good points you make re: upgrading memory. Just to give you a little history. We just went through diagnosing issues he was experiencing on his system. The culprit was his failed HDD. There's no software, etc. at this point. You can find the thread here.
just i wouldnt want the guy to go out and spend a load of money on RAM only to find out it was overkill!
Going to order the Seagate now as I've waited long enough without my own working computer and I'm getting withdrawal symptoms lol. A technician at my mums work has recommended selling the whole thing in parts cause of it being 4 years old but I think once I change the hard drive that'll be it sorted for another while.
By the way, do you guys have any links or tips for installing the hard drive and stuff cause this will be the first time I've changed one. And any links to free software would be extremely helpful too as I've lost a lot of cds so things like different versions of Microsoft Word, Excel etc.
Thanks guys
Just come on back here when you have it. Go to the HARDWARE>STORAGE forum. We'll help you out. In the interim, perform some searches in your favorite search engine on "install hard drive" "build your own", etc. You'll find some helpful sites that way.
Question: Did you purchase an EIDE drive? IOW, you didn't purchase a SATA drive by mistake right? Just checking! :smiles:
TIP//::
Keep the electrostatic dissipitative bags that your new electronic components are packaged in. These ESD bags useful for storing and transporting electronic equipment safely.
I ran my A64 with no case next to me for a year plus. Bumped into the vid card all the time. Ganked and pulled on power cables...no problem. Your skin has too much resistance for electricity to take your body as a path compared to circuitry.
EDIT://
W/ respect to one's body having too much resistance etc., that is exactly the problem. The charge that is built up on one's body is readily discharged through an electronic device which offers a lesser path of resistance (to ground if the electronic device is connected to the (grounded) mobo, case, etc.). If the device is not connected to the computer, then it is a matter of the principal of "water seeks its level". If you touch something, an exchange takes place. The result is you and the object settle at having the same charge or "potential". It is this "exchange" that causes the damage. In either case, literally thousands of volts can be discharged to the electronic device from the handler in the form of one electrostatic discharge ("exchange"). Sensitive electronic devices simply can't take the hit and are damaged or degraded by the event.
Ok, sometimes that (opening the case) can be a real bear depending upon the case design. Some proprietary cases are next to impossible to get into w/out a knock down drag out. Consider yourself lucky to have gotten off easy!
(1) Is the old HDD still in there? If it is, great! Just hold the new HDD in your right hand and pull the connections off the old HDD and place them directly on the new HDD.
(2) Now let that dangle and get the old HDD disconnected.
Let me know when you've gotten this far...
(2) Now let that dangle and get the old HDD disconnected."
Done, New hard drive still in anti static wrapping but connected. Old hard drive out of the casing bit. Should I screw in new hard drive into casing bit and then put casing bit back in? I have to change some drive jumper thing don't I?
Ahhh! Sorry, MathsPar... I missed your post.
Ok, go ahead and take the ESD wrapping off. (Save it though. It's handy to have as I mentioned earlier)
Now, in terms of mounting the drive in the housing, go ahead and do that. Use the current (old HDD) as an example of how to do it.
W/ respect to the jumper, yes, you're correct. You'll need to set the jumper. It may or may not need to be placed in the same physical position as your current HDD as the jumpers may be laid out differently.
If you are using only one HDD on that IDE channel, then you will need to set the jumper to either MASTER or SINGLE (no jumper). It depends upon the manufacturer. Look on the PCB (printed circuit board) on the bottom of the drive for etching that parallels the jumpers - or look for a diagram on the top of the drive that shows you where the MASTER setting is.
Move the jumper to MASTER. (Note: w/ some jumpers - Seagate is bad about this - you'll need a pair of needle nose pliers to get hold of the jumper to move it. Others have a little groove you can grab w/ your finger nail to pull the jumper out)
Let me know when you've gotten this far.
BTW, what model drive was it you got?
Seagate
http://www.pctechonline.co.uk/home/product_detail.asp?id=676&catid=15&show=2
Off to find some pliers..
Ok, now fire her up. As soon as you power it on, hit the button on your CD-ROM drive to eject the tray and slip the OS CD in....
Let's see if she'll boot into your OS setup....
I still have recovery disks from Advent from when I was trying to fix my old Hard Drive, one was for scanning and erasing, the other was for "recovering" windows XP I think. Would that second disk work?
Is borrowing an XP disk off of a friend illegal? Mine possibly might be at University but its 50/50 chance. Is Linux any good, that's the free Operating system yeah? Could I install that (if those recovery disks dont work) and then once I find an XP disk install XP?
A flood of questions there but I did warn you haha.
That's my PC up and running, the Advent recovery CD loaded up XP fine and now everything seems to be working
You've probably saved me hundreds on a repair bill or a new PC/laptop and I've ended up with over double the memory. You have no idea how grateful I am.
Haven't got the Internet up and running on it yet though. Put in the same USB stick that used to work but I reckon I need to configure it in some way or another to get the broadband from downstairs. Any tips?
Lol I'm still a bit paranoid the thing's going to break down again but there's no indication it should, just my paranoia
Right, off to configure things to my liking. Do you have any tips or anything I should do now to help/configure the PC or sort the internet? Still can't believe you managed to help so much thousands of miles away. Cheers.
I think I do and you are most welcome. Frankly, this is what I live for in this business. It's those moments when the user gets that big fat grin on his/her face when s/he has done something s/he never thought s/he could do before. It's really a rush. You just need the drivers. Go to the manufacture's web site and look up your model USB NIC (network interface adapter). Download and install its Windows XP drivers. That's just shell shock. It'll wear off. :bigggrin: Get AV and firewall software installed a.s.a.p. Pat yourself on the back, MathsPar. You kept your wits about you and trudged through this entire ordeal even though you'd never done anything like this before. Not everyone can pull that off. You done good!!
Ahh yes, the miles thing... I've been around this business a (very) long time and it still amazes me. I started before this whole Internet thing really got off the ground. It's mind boggling how much it's progressed in such a relatively short amount of time. Makes you wonder where it'll be 20 more years from now...
Happy Trails MathsPar!! Enjoy!!
Away to search the rest of this site for good software to download.