replacing harddrives? - noob

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i know jack all about computers but i want to upgrade/replace my harddrive. I have a bunch of questions i need answered.

1. Can i replace my current harddrive with any harddrive? or does it need to be the same "brand"/company?

2. I'm currently using an Intel quad 2 cpu q6600 with 3gb of ram. What do you recommend i move up to? is there a similar harddrive with more memory?

3. How difficult is it to switch the harddrives yourself? Can anyone give it a bash with a step by step guide they found on the net or is it something only a computer savvy person could attempt?

4. which site has the best deals on harddrives?

5. Would i be just as well buying a new base unit? if so can you hook up a base unit to any monitor/keyboard etc or would i have to buy a new monitor that is compatible with the base unit?

6. I'm using a packard bell Imedia X2414 if i was to change the base unit what should i upgrade to? (if there is anything specific like a new imedia base unit).


((seperate question))
I'm also wondering if there is an age factor for example my parents have had the same desktop computer for about 4-5 years now and it is running extremely slow. Is it possible just to upgrade the harddrive/buy a new base unit or would i be better just buying a new computer for them?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
 
1. any brand would do but you have to make sure your new hard drive is SATA connector (all new ones are, just make sure it doesn't say IDE on the box it comes in, site it is on etc)

2. Hard drives don't affect the processor, memory, anything like that, there are different levels of performance but not ones that won't work with certain processors or memory

3. anybody can replace them. It is 2 wires, a couple of screws, slide it out, slide the new one in, screw it in, put the 2 wires in, done.

4. if you are in the US

www.newegg.com

if you are in the UK

www.overclockers.co.uk
www.scan.co.uk

5. No it wouldn't be better to buy a new base unit. For your standard (still good) hard drives, maybe £40 or so (i am guessing about $60 then), for your higher up, maybe £120 or so, it is more depending on the size obviously. Compare that to your few hundred £/$ or even few 1000 if it is performance system and there is a huge price difference.

As to whether you would need a new monitor, mouse keyboard etc, no, they are generic and work with all units so long as they have the correct connectors, which all generally would, it is all USB for mice/keyboards and virtually every other peripheral now and for monitors it is either VGA or DVI, but you can buy adapters to make pretty much anything go to anything, so even if you DONT have the correct socket, you can get an adapter to make it correct :P

6. It depends on what you need it for. If you are gaming then a high end system, if you are making videos/pictures you will need a mid with lots of memory, if you are only browsing the internet, listening to music, making word documents etc a low end system would do.

other question. there is no age factor, you can simply upgrade the parts as and when you need to, there are pieces of software that can clean your system pretty well, or you can upgrade the entire computer if you need to when you feel it needs to be done.

Also, as far as upgrading hard drives go, you can have more than one hard drive, so you don't need to replace the other, you could get a new one and then use the old one for storage, as the emptyer a drive is, the better it performs.

If you want to speed up the system a little without upgrading hardware then get this piece of software. It cleans your hard drive of all of the junk that is on it.

If you could explain your situation, your needs from the computer, your price range for the fix you want and where you are (country wise) we can offer further advise, possible products to use etc
 
thanks for the help it's appreciated.

I'm living in the U.K and the reason i'm upgrading my own pc is pretty much just because i feel i should upgrade it there's no specific reason i just fell it's time i got a harddrive that gives better perfomance.
My parents computer is an entirely different matter. It is a fairly old computer, although they wouldn't class it as old they've had it for 4 or 5 years now and technology has moved on quite a big. They have a compaq presario sr1609 which has 512mb ram. This just isn't enough ram for them anymore. The computer is extremely slow I'm actually considering buying a new base unit for them because their disc drive is faulty as well. It seems to have a specific taste now, if it doesn't like the disc it just doesn't read it lol.

I think i'm going to buy a couple of harddrives from pc world tomorrow but before i do i was wondering if there is a huge price difference between buying online and buying in store? for the sake of £10 i would just get in the store but if a website sells them for £40-£50 cheaper then i would definitley buy online.

I'm hoping to spend no more than 200 maximum on the two harddrives. Is there any specific harddrives you would recommend?

Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHZ
3GB RAM

that probably makes more sense to you than me^ :p i'm familiar with ram but that's all lol. That's what i'm using currently. I'm not sure on the specifics of my parents computer.

So if there's any specific Harddrives or even just a certain brand that i should be looking to buy please let me know.

Thanks again.

P.S will these harddrives come with XP/Vista or will i need to buy XP/Vista and set it all up myself :S


Edit: I have bought 2 new harddrives but i'm now struggling with how to make a recovery disc for vista and XP. I've been told the recovery disc for XP will most likely be a cd and the recovery disc for vista will probably be a DVD but i've still no idea how to create one that i can use to install the factory settings once the harddrive has been replaced.
 
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seagate or western digital (WD) are recognised as the "best" brands of hard drives.

What hard drives did you get? Are they the same? What size are they? Where from/how much?

Buying online can deffinately be cheaper than buying in store. When you go to PC world, currys etc the staff know jack s**t about computers other than what is printed on the box, and even then they only know how to read it, not what it actually means, and it is generally people similar to the that shop there so they can make them pay huge amounts over what the product is worth because they don't know the worth.

£200 worth of hard drive is a little over what it will cost unless you want a solid state drive, but that is 1. overkill for your system, and 2. too expensive for your price range as you could get a vry small one for your costs.

I would say get 2x

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-245-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=940

and 1x

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CC-025-AD

What the second thing does is plug into a PCI port (the ones that the sound card, network card, video cards etc go into)(the bottom left of your mothboard as you open the case up) and it lets you use RAID technology. What that does is links 2 hard drives to make them seem as 1.

This has several advantages but ofcourse some disadvantages. There are 2 main types of RAID configuration: RAID0 and RAID1.

RAID0 is for performance. It links the 2 drives so that when you install something it installs part of the program onto each. This means that when you use the program it will come from 2 places, effectively doubling the retrieval speed. The total capacity is the same as both drives added together. However, because the programs go onto 2 drives and the drives can't work independantly, in the unlikely even that one breaks then the other can't be used on its own so you lose the data from both even though only 1 has broke

RAID1 is for stability and storage. It stores the same data onto both drives so there is a backup of the information. They work together storing the same thing so the data is more secure and less likely to be lost, but the total volume of the drives is the same as only 1, so effectively you halve the storage you actually have. The perofmrance is not improved over 1 drive either because it is retrieving from only 1 place instead of the 2 of RAID0.

I would recomend, should you as i said above, putting the drives in RAID0 as it is performance that you want and then storing music, pictures, important documents on your current drive to 1. speed up the 2 main drives by keeping them empty and 2. keep it more secure incase the main drives go wrong.

As for your parents computer, if you can find out what system it is then upgrades can be found for you because RAM is a picky thing to get. You need to get correct pins, correct match sticks, usable frequencies, usable sizes etc, it isn't just going out, getting 2 1GB sticks and then they will work, there are different types of 1GB sticks, there are different types of every size stick and different brands, models, different things for ones which would seem the same
 
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for my parents i picked up a western digital 320gb EIDE drive, their computer is quite old so it's EIDE and not SATA. I got the guy in the store to check it for me lol.

For myself i bought a Hitachi 500gb drive. (SATA)
I spent just over £100, around 50 for my parents drive and 70 for my own.


I've just finished writing a recovery disc for both my computer which sues vista and my parents computer which uses XP. My only real question now is what happens after switching the harddrives, do i just stick the disc in and it loads everything up or is it a lot more complicated? I've read instructions that talk about formatting etc and i have no idea what they're talking about lol
 
i ran into a few problems while trying to remove the harddrive from my Packard bell Imedia x2414. It doesnt have screws it has brackets of some sort i can't work out how to open up the side panel :s all help is welcome as usual.
 
If i get what you mean it has a cover over the side of the hard drives and disc drives. If that is right, you should be able to pull off the parts covering the screws.

As for the side panel, at the back of the case there should be a couple screws or maybe a latch to take the side panel off.

If you can't work it out take a picture or 2, host it at image shack or photobucket and post it up here
 
i managed to replace the harddrive in my own pc, i've got it up and running perfectly so thanks for your help with that.

My parents pc is proving to be more troublesome. I can release the side panel no problem and i disconnected the current harddrive but i can't get it out of there. I must have unscrewed every screw i could see but it still only lets me pull it out about a 3rd of the way then seems to stop. I had a look and couldn't see what was stopping it.
There is a green plastic panel above it with some sort of switch/button and i'm certain that switch/button is some sort of release mechanism but it doesn't seem to be working.
 
There may be, on the other side, another screw which doesn't hold it in, it just keeps it to slide on. The end of the screw itself sticks out from the side of the drive and keeps it lines up, but can't come out of the groove unless it is unscrewed.

If the plastic thing is is covering pretty much all of the side then the flap thing should look empty underneath. Just take it off(may be hard) and underneath will be another screw or another screw hole, but be sure that it is some kind of flap and not some kind of mechanism, otherwise you may end up dropping something out that you don't want to ;)

What brand/model of PC is it?
 
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