What HDD?

Zaphod B

Greetings, I come seeking wisdom from the fountain of tech knowledge.

I've been planning to pop a second HDD in for a while now, and finally decided what I'm after is 160Gb, 7200 rpm with an 8mb cache. Then I realised the range on offer and remembered I don't know a thing about HDDs. Based on my limited knowledge I've guessed that a Maxtor, Seagate or Western Digital would be the best to go for, and came up with a shortlist of possible candidates..

: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 160GB UDMA133
: Seagaet Barracuda7200.7+ 160GB UDMA100
: Western Digital Caviar 160.0GB UDMA100

These are all listed as having virtually identical seek times, they all claim to be super-efficient, super-quiet etc... my question is, would I ever actually notice the difference between any of these? Is there any significance in UDMA133 as opposed to UDMA100 that will affect me in my day-to-day computerisificationism? Or should I just pick one at random?

Thanks.

Ooh, extra bits I forgot. I'm keeping the 60Gb HDD I already had; I know usually you'd keep the OS on the smaller drive but in this case I'm pretty sure the smaller drive runs at slower speeds; should I still keep the OS on it? Also how likely is it that I'll need a fan? If I need one, what kind and where does it go? Sorry to ask so many questions, but as I said I have no experience of this at all

Thanks again.

moridin

which one has the longest guarantee?

Last two drives I bought were Seagate SATA ones, and they're very nice indeed.

If your board supports 133 then get a drive that supports it is what I'd say...

I'd probably put your OS on your fastest drive, but if you don't want to reinstall everything then hey, leave it as it is and partition the new drive so that the next time you need to install you have space on it to do so

Drazhar

Get neither of those three

Samsung P80 160gb. Sweet drive, very quiet.

Col_Loki

The difference between UDMA133 and UDMA100 performance wise is practacly nothing so dont let that be a big factor. Generally WD are good solid performers, segate are thought to be the quietest drives.
I have 2 WD 120gb 8mb cache drives and im very happy with them, if your thinkin of a silent system then mabye go for segate.... other than that you wont really notice the bit of noise that comes from the Hard Drives .

If your motherboard supports SATA then that might be a wise choice as the cables are very neat.

If your running an AMD system you run the risk of having to get a new IDE controller if your hard drive is over 137gb, has been a problem in the past when people get say a 200gb hard drive and the system only recognises 137gb.... bit of a bummer. No such problems with intel (from what ive heard) . Think its VIA chipsets (not sure about NForce)......

unkel

You won't really notice benefits of ATA133 over ATA100. Very short and crude comparison (bear in mind that performance differences are not major):

: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 160GB UDMA133
performance medium, noise medium

: Seagaet Barracuda7200.7+ 160GB UDMA100
performance lower, noise quiet

: Western Digital Caviar 160.0GB UDMA100
performance best, noise loudest

As Drazhar says: don't forget the Samsung. It has received good test results recently, but has not been a major player on the HDD market like the above three have

unkel

COL_LOKI crossed your post there - making mine pretty much redundant

Originally posted by COL_LOKI
If your running an AMD system you run the risk of having to get a new IDE controller if your hard drive is over 137gb, has been a problem in the past when people get say a 200gb hard drive and the system only recognises 137gb....

AFAIK only on older mobo's. Have had several mobo's that did not have this problem. Some BIOS upgrades can solve this as well. Make sure you check if your mobo can handle 137+GB drives

Zaphod B

Thanks lads, think I'll go for the WD. I'm not sure what the mother board is but the CPU is an Athlon 1800+, so that IDE issue may rear its ugly head. What is the cost/difficulty of installing a new IDE controller?

Nitrox

Would go Seagate or Samsung, just recently got two 160 Gb samsung drives and it is very fast and very very quiet!! No need for extra fans as it is also cool.

unkel

A cheap controller would still set you back about €25, but installation is simple: just plug in the pci controller card and connect the drive. If I were you I would:

1. check if mobo (with/without BIOS flash) can handle 137+GB, if so go and buy the drive

2. if the mobo can't, instead of buying the controller card, consider buying a new mobo. This is a cheap upgrade of your PC

If you go this route it is worth considering whether you should buy a IDE or a SATA drive

OfflerCrocGod

Go for the Seagate!!! the WD drivers are noisier and much hotter, meaning you could end up needing a fan.

Stephen

I installed a new WD120GB/7200rpm drive a few weeks ago, its much cooler than the IBM deskstar 40gb/7200rpm that it replaced. I don't notice any difference in noise, but my fans are very loud anyway so they're probably drowning out any HD noises.

The IBM drive has found a new home in one of those removable drive caddy things

MarkR

Hadte to branch off, but where did you get that caddy? I'm looking for a 3.5 one. I've a 60 gb drive which i'm replacing with a spanky new drive...

bla

komplett are doing them go to cases then click on cases for hd+cd two different types datafab and emagic, i have a datafab and a friend has an e-magic and tbh the datafab even tho its slightly more expansive is much easyer to get the hard drive into the case and to change the drive if neccary plus it has dual firewire slots for dasiy chaining

Zaphod B

Thanks (again) for your help. I've found the manual for my mobo and it doesn't mention a maximum drive size; is there another way of checking short of calling up the supplier?

moridin

get the revision of the BIOS you're using from your boot up screens and check it off the manufacturers webpage

Zaphod B

Aaaaaargh. The HDD is on its way and I find out the BIOS won't accept it. So I go to ASUS website to find a guide on updating BIOS, only to find that it's either poorly translated from another language or just really badly written; lets say it's hardly comprehensive. I downloaded the flash utility, but the readme file with it tells me it will only work in DOS mode - not in DOS prompt. I'm on XP here and can only seem to get command prompts, not DOS. On top of that it tells me to make a system disk first using "Format A:/s". Well /s is an "Invalid parameter" apparently. Can anyone tell me how I'm actually supposed to update my BIOS? Thanks.

astrofool

www.bootdisk.com get a win me boot disk and get to dos that way, remember tho dos can't read ntfs so put the files on a floppy disk and load them to the ram drive or run it from disk (if u're sure the disk ain't gonna fail )

Zaphod B

Thanks but everyone disregard my thread about BIOS, I just flashed and updated it no problem (but nearly shat meself doing so). Bet you thought you could all go and relax now eh? Not bloody likely. I must waste more of your time

I'm planning to have Windows on the 160Gb, and use the 60Gb as basically a drive for backup and for MP3s and other such media (who will be the first to suggest I have pr0n then? ). Currently Windows is on the 60 gigger. I'm assuming once the OS is on the 160 I have the 160 as master? But in the meantime I have the old 60Gb HD to format and 50Gb of files on it that I don't want wiped. I can see it happening like this:

1) Copy all files I want from old HD to new HD.
2) Format old HD
3) Copy files back to old HD
4) Install OS on new HD

Does that sound about right? Or am I getting hopelessly confused? Also is there any real point in me creating partitions on the 160Gb HD, ie for the OS, for videos, games etc? Or does that just complicate matters more than necessary?

Thanks once again

elsoldemayo

Originally posted by Zaphod B

1) Copy all files I want from old HD to new HD.
2) Format old HD
3) Copy files back to old HD
4) Install OS on new HD

If you format the old HD before installing OS on new one when you will have no OS at all.

1) Install OS on new HD
2) Copy files from old HD to new
3) Format old HD
4) Set new HD as master, old as slave

I think that should work... although I am still hungover as i tpye this so....

joePC

Yeap elsoldemayo has it right...

Does your MB support SATA not a huge preformance boost but a nice slim cable........

SATA All the way -_-

Zaphod B

Sorry to drag this up again but the HDD is now lying around and I'm too scared to install it yet I just want to make sure I don't lose the stuff I have on the existing drive, so could someone tell me if this is what I'm to do...

1) Physically install new HDD (with new HDD as SLAVE) on top of old HDD
2) Partition new HDD
3) Install Windows on new HDD
4) Copy files from old to new HDD.
5) Format old HDD
6) Set new HD as Master, old as Slave

That's me plan of action, just wanted to check if it'll work or if there's a problem with the bits that involve installing an OS on a slave drive, and having the OS on both drives simultaneously.

Thanks

whosurpaddy

Originally posted by Zaphod B
Sorry to drag this up again but the HDD is now lying around and I'm too scared to install it yet I just want to make sure I don't lose the stuff I have on the existing drive, so could someone tell me if this is what I'm to do...

1) Physically install new HDD (with new HDD as SLAVE) on top of old HDD
2) Partition new HDD
3) Install Windows on new HDD
4) Copy files from old to new HDD.
5) Format old HDD
6) Set new HD as Master, old as Slave

That's me plan of action, just wanted to check if it'll work or if there's a problem with the bits that involve installing an OS on a slave drive, and having the OS on both drives simultaneously.

Thanks

yea your pretty much on your way there. the only thing id say is if your worried about losing files on the old hdd, then after step 2, remove the old hard drive and set the new one as master while u install the os on the new one. pop it back in as slave once the os is on the new one.

i.e. no chance of losing files from old disk when its not in the machine.

1) Physically install new HDD (with new HDD as SLAVE) on top of old HDD
2) Partition new HDD
3) Install Windows on new HDD
4) Copy files from old to new HDD.
5) Format old HDD
6) Set new HD as Master, old as Slave

moridin

Why complicate things?

Take out your old drive, stick the new one in as master, install it, then set the old one to slave and pop it back in.

No needing to fiddle with lots of jumpers and no way you 'll end up formatting your current data.