Help buying HDD!!!, going insane

[maximus01can]

Good Day all,

I'm kind of stumped on what to buy for a HDD. So many choices so little time...I've looked through the archives, but it doesn't seem to cover what I'm looking for so I'll start a new thread. I'm doing alot of video/DVD stuff and it's really chewing up the space. So I'd like to pick you propellers......(sorry...lol) about what I should be buying. I like to dabble some, but after reading through the archives, I understand that I'm a little more computer challenged than alot of you here. So these are my questions and dilemma's. I'm not necessarily looking for the most expensive just for bragging rights, just the best bang for the buck

1) Internal HDD? (Your choice and reason)

2) External HDD (Your choice and reason) I already have Firewire card installed and working.

3) What should I transfer from my existing 20GB Internal HDD to the new drive?

4) I think I have alot of stuff taking up space on my present HDD but don't know what to delete etc. I can only seem to account for around 10GB and properties tells me I only have 2GB of free space left. Any pointers?

5) Can previous versions of windows hotfixes be deleted from the Add/Delete programs list?


6) Last but not least. Can I just plug and play when I get the new drive or do I need to specify the old drive as the master and new as slave?

Well that's probably lots for now.....

Thanks for all the help,
Max

[ArcticFox]

1)Internal HD – Want size and speed? Get a 120GB Western Digital 1200JB Special Edition. Just speed? WD Raptor (37GB) SATA drive.

2)External – Maxtor makes good ones that use Firewire and USB 2.0, check those out.

3)Transfer all the obvious documents, saved games, application preferences, and whatever else you think you will need.

4)This is a bug with XP, and no one really has an answer. I’ve seen it on a couple systems I’ve worked with, and theirs not much that you can do about it currently.

5)I don’t fully understand what your saying.

6)You obviously have to shut your PC down first. It depends on what you do with your PC, and how many drives you have. If you use one hard drive and 1-2 CD drives, put the HD on it’s own channel and the CD drives on another. If you dupe tons of CD’s, stick your primary burner on it’s own channel, then the other CD/DVD drive and your HD on another. Master/slave settings don’t matter, as long as you have them set differently. Avoid Cable Select, it’s worthless and grinds your speeds down quite a bit.

[Omardeth]

if the drive is just for storage i would get external . much easier to change out when it is full . forget sata it isn't worth the money for the difference in speed . plus the size of the drives that give some performace boost are small and costly .

as for external , it is cheaper to get a external case like this one and install a harddrive into it like this one and you have 160gb of easily movable storage , using firewire or usb2 for a final cost of about 130$ . if you bought a premade external you can only get a 80gb for about this price .

i wouldn't take anything off you drive already installed other than the things you are storing on it . i would keep all the programs that you run on it and use the new drive for storage .

also the advantage of using firewire or usb2 external drives , usb2 is a tad but faster but they are both about the same , is you can add as many drives as you want pretty much . you get a full drive just add another and you necver have to open your pc or even turn it off .

hope dis helps

[I am the 0mega]

And don't forget the Raptor isn't 37GB, it's 36GB ^_^

Also, if you want the fastest possible .... get a 15k RPM scsi for an incredibly high price.. ~_~

[Chuckiechan]

I would be inclined to get a large internal HDD, say a 120 Gig as suggested, and plug it in as a slave. It will have it's own drive letter which you may want to rename as "photos" or something. You will be able to send stuff directly there or drag and drop.

If you need portabilty or storage way over 120 Gig, then definately go with externals and plug them in as needed.

IMHO...

[Uncle Bob]

For the DVD stuff, would I be out of place suggesting a Raid card and 2 80-100gig Hdd's??? Omardeth probably has these items in stock.

[ArcticFox]

Originally posted by Uncle Bob
For the DVD stuff, would I be out of place suggesting a Raid card and 2 80-100gig Hdd's??? Omardeth probably has these items in stock.

Not necessarily, but it adds another wallet of cash to the total cost of the project. With SerialATA though, RAID comes on motherboards by default, so if you go SATA it's no more expensive than however much the drives cost.

[Scott Tiger]

I'd have to agree with Artic Fox's advice here. I don't know much about the SATA stuff but it would have to be really unreliable for me to choose anything but those drives for a new build right now. Given that most of the RAID cards out there cost almost as much as motherboard with SATA RAID it would be logical to buy a new motherboard over the card.

[Uncle Bob]

I suggested the raid card because, if I understand him correctly he has an existing rig, Hdd too small, does a fair amount of DVD/CD work. Isn't raid 0 supposed to be a good way to handle
his needs?



Just for that I want my $0.02 back.

[Scott Tiger]

From that perspective your suggestion is spot on. You were just reading the original poster's post a bit closer than I was. Your $0.02 was worth much more than mine was. . .

Overall I think the newer Mobo would be a better option if RAID was a consideration though.