Buying a new hard drive

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vxdesigns

New Member
Hi how is everyone today. Long time no see, well i have been busy with work and my website. Anyways I would like an opnion from you guys and gals regarding an hard drive issue

1)for the past month or so my hard drive makes a weird clicking noise(this happens randomly once or twice a week or so) and right after that my computer hangs up/crashes and i have to reboot it. I am guessing my hard drive is dying out and the clicking noise is made when the hard disk spindle stops spinning and then tries to spin again thus crashing my windows XP. This is not a spyware/virus problem as i have installed a new copy of windows XP and scanned all of my drives with no virus or spyware to be found. So i want to know whats your opinion on this.

2)even if my hard drive is not dying i will still have to purchase a new better and bigger capacity hard drive. So i want to know what are the majoy/key points to consider before buying a new hard drive ??? Is there a step to step guide out there which i can read and then decide which hard drive will suit my needs

My computer:
Windows XP, Service Pack 1
Intel Celeron, 1.1Ghtz (1100mthz)
128mb Ram
15gb HDD (Harddrive)

Thx in advance
 
it just depends on whether your looking for sata or pata if your looking for pata seagate are good if you are looking for sata then there is a choice between sata 1 or sata2 how fast the hdd spins ie 7200 or 10'000 a good middle of the road sata drive is the maxtor diamondmax 10, if you have the money the Western Digital Raptor X is one of the best but pricey both of these sata drives have 16mb cache
 
#1 that drive is going bad, get a new one soon and if there's anything left on the drive that wasn't already wiped with the reinstall, back it up
#2 for that computer, you'll need an ATA/IDE drive (means the same thing) NOT sata as it will not be compatible. Look for rpm's (7200 is standard and is what I'd suggest assuming it's a desktop) and cache size (8mb will probably be the biggest you will find below 250gb). As far as size, all depends on what you want to put on, I'd suggest looking for a new computer in general in the near future as that one is getting dated anyways, but there's really no reasonto get smaller than like 80gb. As far as brands, I personally like maxtor, but western digital and seagate are also fine
 
Thx a ton for your replies meanman and suprasteve. After i posted here i have been searching on google and other places to get what ever info i could get my hands on to get an idea myself of what a harddrive is,how it works and which one will be right for me. I came across many new terms and found out their meaning but there are still a few things i would like to ask you people.

1)what is an interface and why so many different types of them ???
ATA 100, EIDE ATA-100, Ultra ATA-100, Serial ATA-150
I see the newer drives have higher number infront of their interface why is that, is it that thats the speed of the interfaces ??? I already knew my computer uses ATA/Pata/IDE interface but "suprasteve" you have confirmed it.

2)also is it possible for me to change the interface of my computer ??? I have seen interface adapter which are quite cheap, are they compatible to all systems ??? Will they work with my Asus Tusi-M motherboard ???

3)i also read somewhere that to get the maximum pottential from a harddrive i should purchase a harddrive which has interface speed matching to my computer. How can i find out whats the interface speed for my computer ???

4)why do they have OEM term describing a harddrive ??? What is this and is it important to have it ??

5)last but not least is it a good idea to get a refurbished hard drive which costs half of what a brand new one costs ??? It is comming with a 6 months warranty. Why yes or why not ?

My computer:
Windows XP, Service Pack 1
Intel Celeron, 1.1Ghtz (1100mthz)
128mb Ram
15gb HDD (Harddrive)
Asus Tusi-M Motherboard

Thx in advance i really appreciate all your help.
 
Ha, I was about to say it's ok but not great, and then I realized that's Canadian dollars, whoops! Anyway, that's a pretty good deal, you need to make sure that you mail-in the rebate, it's pretty good without the rebate, but that's what really makes it good. Plus TigerDirect is one of the two companies I deal with on-line when ordering stuff, so they're really good...
 
that's an excellent choice for a hard drive, maxtor's are my personal favorite, but the only thing I think is it may be overkill for your current computer, I mean you're coming from a 15gig drive, but then again it's hard to argue with the rebate, and when you get a new computer, you can put that drive in it too
 
a great hdd but you could do a search to see how much this one is Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 make sure to get the pata version it has a higher cache
its 16mb but if to expensive the other drive is good
 
Thx for your replies guy i really appreciate all of the help you guys have provided so far. I just have one last question some1 told me i should get a HDD which interface speed matches my computers, and some1 told me my computers interface speed is compatible upto ATA100. The new HDD i am thinking to buy(the above link) is ATA133 , will this be a problem ? Or can i still use the neww ATA133 without burning my whole system down ?
Thx in advance
 
StrangleHold said:
It will be fine, it will just run at ATA-100-UMDA 5
Click to expand...
What exactly do u mean ? So basically it wont run at ATA133 ? Meaning i should buy the same harddrive which is ATA100 (if possible) if it cheaper then the ATA133 ???
 
You could, but later if you upgrade your board and it has ATA-133, the ATA-100 harddrive would only run a ATA-100
 
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Ok i got it, thx for all your kind replies people, you guys have really helped a noice like me. I appreciate all the genuine help you people have provided. Definately going to recommend these forums to everyone i know :)
 
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