computer hard drives

[elmer91]

anyone know anything about them? what brands are good, which is better, an internal or external, anything at all. i need one for my dell, only got 40gb. please help.

[ballisticpb]

i use western digital in all my compters. depends on how your computer is set up and what you are trying to do with the drive to give you an acruate choice on what drive you need.

[Titanium]

Maxtor and western digital are my favorites. but Maxtor preferably.

[<DRS>GPF]

ive used nothing but seagate for years.. still have a 10gig in one of my older pc's that runs like a champ and has 0 surface errors as of this spring.

unless the others have stepped up, seagate is the only one with a 5yr warranty, which says something about the reliability.

be sure to check the connectivity..

with a factory installed 40gig, its very likely you have an EIDE type as opposed to SATA type of interface.

[Franky G]

I would only go with Seagate as well ! I got 6 of there 500GB SATA2 HD's in my server setup in RAID and it runs 24H a day 365 day per year got those in there for 2 years now still running strong ! :D

[MOFO]

Originally posted by Titanium
Maxtor and western digital are my favorites. but Maxtor preferably.

My experience with Maxtor drives - they are the WORST! I oversee about 2000+ products within Western PA that are PC based. Maxtor hard drives ALWAYS fail way before Seagate or Western Digital (part of my job is to track perfomance and failure rates within our product line).

As a matter of fact, one of my servers in our office is starting to die (data drive) - guess what? Its a Maxtor thats less than a year old too!

My vote would go with Seagate.

[elmer91]

how would i find out what type i have? and all i plan to do with it is just have pictures, music, word documents, that kind of stuff. i just need to expand a little with the 40gb. i am leaning towards an external so i can take it places if i really have to. i have been reading reviews online and have found that most people say that western digital and seagate are the best, i have found that maxtor is 50/50 with people liking it or not liking it. i saw in an ad the other day a 500gb simpletech for $120. is this a good brand? for what i am using it for, how much more memory should i get?(my old computer was a 120, and i think i need a little bit more than that.)

[MOFO]

Originally posted by elmer91
how would i find out what type i have? and all i plan to do with it is just have pictures, music, word documents, that kind of stuff. i just need to expand a little with the 40gb. i am leaning towards an external so i can take it places if i really have to. i have been reading reviews online and have found that most people say that western digital and seagate are the best, i have found that maxtor is 50/50 with people liking it or not liking it. i saw in an ad the other day a 500gb simpletech for $120. is this a good brand? for what i am using it for, how much more memory should i get?(my old computer was a 120, and i think i need a little bit more than that.)


I will restate what I said (I have too much data that supports this) - do not go with Maxtor.


I just picked up a new Segate 500gig hard drive for our server at work - $99 @ Bestbuy! Not a bad deal!

[elmer91]

that is a great deal. was it an external or internal?

[elmer91]

here is a link for all of the specs for my computer. there are a few variations, mine is the small- mini tower
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/opgx280/en/ug/specs02.htm

[MOFO]

Originally posted by elmer91
that is a great deal. was it an external or internal?


Internal.

Both SATA and PATA are available at that price.

[elmer91]

ok, but i have no clue what mine is. is there a way to find out easily? and how hard is the installation process? sorry if i am asking too many questions.

[MOFO]

Save yourself the headache and just get an external USB hard drive of you just need extra storage.

I personally have 3 external Seagate hard drives - from 1 to 2 years old and they've worked great!

[Ron89]

Funny that a Hard Drive thread popped up. Like 2 days ago, the spindle motor in my old hard drive locked up and I lost EVERYTHING. Senior project, car pics, projects, book keeping...etc. It was TERRIBLE. From now on, no more of this crap-I am going to back up everything.

[<DRS>GPF]

Originally posted by MOFO
Save yourself the headache and just get an external USB hard drive of you just need extra storage.

I personally have 3 external Seagate hard drives - from 1 to 2 years old and they've worked great!


agreed..
that would be the "path of least resistance"..

[elmer91]

thanks for all the help. probably gonna go with a 250gb external, either a seagate or western digital.

[j_cyrus3]

All of my drives are Western Digital. I have 4. No problems yet. I have a 200GB external and have no complaints. Go with WD, they're great.