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Need new/external drive for my 6 year old Dell

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  • 22-02-2010 10:43pm
    #1
    Kashkai
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,399 ✭✭✭


    My 6 year old Dell Dimension 8300 is getting on a bit and after upgrading the graphics card, sound card and memory, the hard drive is now 90% full and making "weird noises" - crash approaching???

    So I'd like a recommendation as to a what type and where to buy a new hard drive - external one a good idea?

    Thanks


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    #2
    Solitaire
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 18,377 Mod ✭✭✭✭Solitaire


    Are you sure its the HDD making the noises? If it is and its clicking, BACK UP YOUR STUFF NOW!!! :eek:

    As for new HDD? It depends on the size of your old one; a slightly larger model is obviously best. A 320GB or 500GB SATA drive such as a Samsung Spinpoint F3 is your best bet. Odds are the old drive is IDE but AFAIK the standard mobo in the old-style Dimensions had a couple of SATA headers. Any newer mobo (if you replaced it at any point) will certainly have some.

    And an external drive is always nice, especially for backups! If you like bringing data or backups around with you get a cheap 2.5" external HDD if you want. If you have TONS of media files you might want to consider a big 3.5" external drive instead - they're the size of a fairly hefty hardback book but they typically boast 2-4 times as much capacity as the equivalent 2.5" model and are slightly faster to boot (not that you'd notice on a USB2 connection!).


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    #3
    Kashkai
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,399 ✭✭✭Kashkai


    The existing drive is IDE and is a paltry 120GB.

    So where do I buy the new drive? PC World are expensive imo. A larger drive would be preferable as I have lots of stuff on DVD's and CD's I want to transfer over, plus if I have to back up the old drive, I'd need a large capacity on the new external drive to ensure that everything can transfer over in case a crash is imminent.

    How would I go about changing the existing drive. The graphics card and sound card were easy to do. But swapping out the pcs "brain" might be trickier? Am I right?


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    #4
    zodac
    Registered Users Posts: 555 ✭✭✭zodac


    Komplett have a pretty good selection. There's the Samsung F3 1TB drive for ~€77. Not only a drive that will perform well, but one with a lot of space too. :D

    Keep in mind, if you change your graphics card, a dual slot one may not fit in your card, and even single slot ones may (read: will probably) need a new PSU too.


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    #5
    Solitaire
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 18,377 Mod ✭✭✭✭Solitaire


    Here's a trick: carefully disconnect the current drive's cables (those IDE ribbons can be a pain) and turn on your now-HDD-less PC. See if the same sound is still emanating from it. If there is at least your HDD isn't dying and you have a while to get a new one and/or back it up. If it is the HDD that's making the funky noise then limit using the PC to a bare minimum until the new drive's in and operational, or at least until you have your backups done.
    Prosperous Dave wrote: »
    The existing drive is IDE and is a paltry 120GB.

    So where do I buy the new drive? PC World are expensive imo. A larger drive would be preferable as I have lots of stuff on DVD's and CD's I want to transfer over,

    This isn't a bad price, plus if you live near Dublin or the northeast you have the option of picking it up from the Pick-Up Point in Blanchardstown and skipping the shipping charges ;)
    plus if I have to back up the old drive, I'd need a large capacity on the new external drive to ensure that everything can transfer over in case a crash is imminent.

    If the old drive is 120GB the external drive wouldn't need to be large or expensive - it'd be a bigger worry if you had a ton of downloads from the internet that are not otherwise available in physical format as you have to back them up on DVD-RWs or said external drive along with your documents. At least your DVDs are physically there and can be reloaded on after a disaster.

    A small 2.5" drive can be had for under €50 and still have more capacity than your old drive! Even 320GB models can be had for well under €70 nowadays :) Its only the 750GB-2TB external drive capacities that are limited to the big enclosures.
    How would I go about changing the existing drive. The graphics card and sound card were easy to do. But swapping out the pcs "brain" might be trickier? Am I right?

    More like its long-term memory ;) But yeah, its a pain. Physically its a breeze (just make sure your PSU has SATA power connectors and you have a SATA data cable lying around somewhere!) but once its physically there you have to get all your old stuff on to it!

    First: get an external drive (even a lend of one if you reconsider buying your own) or a very big SD card (if you have a reader, and would you really just happen to have a pricey 32GB memory card just hanging out of you? :o) or a whole stack of DVD-RWs (not very practical - I speak from years of cold hard experience! :(). You need to grab your personal documents off the drive. Nine times out of ten everything should be in the Documents And Settings or (Vista onward) Users folders on the HDD. Either limit yourself to copypasting the contents of each user's My Documents folder into new folders on the backup device (with their names on the folders) or if you want to preserve program settings simply grab the whole Documents and Settings folder and copy it across to the backup. Just bear in mind the latter method has to be done from Safe Mode as the current user logged on can't have their folder copied in one go as it'd interfere with the OS, so computer would indeed say no :rolleyes:

    Once you've backed up everything important you can either go ahead with installing the new drive, installing your OS/recovery disc on it, reinstalling all your latest hardware drivers and critical programs such as antivirus, Firefox, firewall, 7Zip/WinRAR etc. Then stick on your saved documents from the external device and finally reinstall any application you need to use as you go along. Or you could be lazy/play it risky and try to transfer the entirety of the old drive on to the new one by hooking them both up and using specialist disc cloning tools. Of course, seeing as the old disc is nearly full you'd be transferring <120GB of stuff from an old, slow, damaged disc and it simply might not survive the process, in which case you'd have to forget about cloning, reformat the new drive and start again with method one above. See why I told you to back up your stuff before trying anything else? ;) And even if you succeed you'd be back to your ratty old OS install. A clean reinstall is always lots of effort but it has the bonus of taking out the trash in the process :D


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