Which hard drive?

[samwise]

I'm running out of space on my 40Gb hard drive at home (desktop machine), so am thinking its about time for a format, re-install etc of Windows XP Pro.

What is the current thinking on the £100 or less hard drives - standard ATA100 MB. Preferably it would be quite quiet etc.

I haven't bought a new drive for about 4 years, so no idea what is flavour of the month now, I just don't want to end up with the Fujitsu issue I had (logic board died and lost all the data on it - luckily I only really lost all my emails and about 2 weeks of docs etc, as I had a backup prior to that).

 

[cookie]

not much in it IMO, but i do like samsung spinpoints.

cheap
reliable
quiet
used to be the only OEM drive with three year warranty (seems not anymore )

 

[(RIP) Proff]

I've bought an External 300gb H/D from envizage2000, [great feedback and great warranty] on Ebay in Feb, cost £105 inc delivery. plugs into USB port,
It's now been joined by another one as "Gizmo 1" is now full of films .@£92.75+£9 pp for "Gizmo2"
Quiet, fan cooled and dead easy to use, it's just plug and play.
'nother good thing about it is, when I visit my sons I take it with me and d/l to their 'pooter H/D's any films or pics they want.

 

[(RIP) Proff]

Item number: 8810754560
Even better deal, available now

 

[Greg Masters]

It's now been joined by another one as "Gizmo 1" is now full of films

What sort of films?

Greg

 

[(RIP) Proff]

What sort of films?



OI !!!! get out of my H/D
I happen to have some of the finest 70's and 80's "ART" films on my H/D dance pize
Films starrring such wonderful actresses as Kay Parker and Desiree Cousteau
Just because "some" folk view them as > type films, it's not my prob

 

[Fanum]

What sort of films?



OI !!!! get out of my H/D
I happen to have some of the finest 70's and 80's "ART" films on my H/D dance pize
Films starrring such wonderful actresses as Kay Parker and Desiree Cousteau
Just because "some" folk view them as > type films, it's not my prob

Lovely though she may be, that could lose someone their job

B

 

[Fanum]

PS Samwise....I've got a pair of Medion Hd 2 go USB drives..250gb, USB 2, 89 quid each......from Aldi

They're silent and the good thing about USB drives is you can take them along anywhere and copy stuff to/from any PC........no drivers needed with XP so they're plug'n play, and you can isolate them easily by just unplugging them should you need to

(one of mine gets unpluggged every time the kids are here............'art' films are somthing that should be appreciated only by those who understand them )

 

[cookie]

have i got hold of the wrong end of the stick again?

why's everyone suggesting removable drives?

 

[Wizard]

have i got hold of the wrong end of the stick again?

why's everyone suggesting removable drives?

Because it means he won't have to re-install Windoze and all the shite that goes with it, but no-one's actually said that.

I'd be inclined to go the USB drive route myself, but if you really want a new internal, I don't know of any issues with drives from any of the major manufacturers ATM.

 

[(RIP) Proff]

Lovely though she may be, that could lose someone their job

B

sorry Fanum point taken, but it's one from my personal collection, having met said lady in the flesh , so to speak,
Is this one more acceptable??

 

[(RIP) Proff]

PS Samwise....I've got a pair of Medion Hd 2 go USB drives..250gb, USB 2, 89 quid each......from Aldi

They're silent and the good thing about USB drives is you can take them along anywhere and copy stuff to/from any PC........no drivers needed with XP so they're plug'n play, and you can isolate them easily by just unplugging them should you need to

(one of mine gets unpluggged every time the kids are here............'art' films are somthing that should be appreciated only by those who understand them )

My Point exactly Fanum.
I now have 3 external Hard drives.{680 gigs in total} easy to share, easy to D/L off someone elses 'pooter, no problem to transport and easy to hide from the Rugrats, or in my case the GrandRugrats
Also you don't invalidate your warranty or service contract by breaking seals to install internal ones.
BUT I would always recommend geting one with an internal fan {whisper ones} as my mates blown 3 x 250 gig supposedly heatsink ones, one day he will learn

 

[Deleted account 220427002]

a 320gig

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/023695

 

[redcastle]

Maybe ive got the wrong end of the stick too.
First off look at the prices on the site cookie suggested. A top brand IDE drive still comes in 30quid cheaper than the cheapest external drive

Theres no need to reinstall anything, buy a drive put the jumpers to slave and stick it in the machine. Now copy all your important stuff onto it and delete it from you 40gigger (even better do a reinstall on the 40gb and still have a massive slave, nothing like a fresh start)

External hard drives have a slow transfer rate (even the firewire ones) compared to IDE or SATA, are expensive, unreliable and clutter your desk and your plugboard(s)

Get one if you must cart 250gb of data around with you but FFS dont rely on it for backups because this

my mates blown 3 x 250 gig supposedly heatsink ones

is not uncommon. In the last year ive tried to recover data from about 10 or 12.

Blimey, a little bit of a mini rant there. What makes you think I dont like external hard drives ?????

Im not trying to be combative im perhaps just a bit tired (bless)

 

[cookie]

Theres no need to reinstall anything, buy a drive put the jumpers to slave and stick it in the machine. Now copy all your important stuff onto it and delete it from you 40gigger (even better do a reinstall on the 40gb and still have a massive slave, nothing like a fresh start)

that's the way i'd go.

i do have a removable drive, but that's to backup the backup

no fan either, got me worried now

still, it's only used a couple of hours a month.

 

[SOAA]

http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductsList.asp?Category=147&SubCat=HDR-IDE&Name=&Page=1
Have a look at the drives available on the link above.
I would recommend going for the Maxtor brand of hard disks. I have got 4 hard disks in my PC and they're all Maxtor's and they perform flawlessly

 

[Fanum]

http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductsList.asp?Category=147&SubCat=HDR-IDE&Name=&Page=1
Have a look at the drives available on the link above.
I would recommend going for the Maxtor brand of hard disks. I have got 4 hard disks in my PC and they're all Maxtor's and they perform flawlessly

An 'art film' connoiseur if ever I met one

 

[samwise]

Thanks everyone, yes I am looking for an internal, the 40Gb one will be re-installed and used as Windows + Ghost of 2nd drive, new drive will be data storage with ghost image of 1st drive (bit of built-in redundancy )

Not sure yet whether I'll be loading up XP Pro SP2 or Server 2003 SP1 on the C: (my laptop is my primary computer with XP Pro SP2, with the desktop relegated to storage and for my flatmate to use).

Is there a big enough difference between ATA133 and SATA (or SATA II) that would cover the costs of getting an SATA PCI card (MB only has ATA-compatability)?

 

[cookie]

Is there a big enough difference between ATA133 and SATA (or SATA II) that would cover the costs of getting an SATA PCI card (MB only has ATA-compatability)?

i wouldn't bother.