needing new hdd

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wizdumb

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so i'm interested in my buying a new internal hdd, now i have a few questions

1> how do i know (find out) if i need a ide or sata drive - or doesn't it make a difference

2> i'm ok to spend between r500-700, which is probably not the best budget, but what can i get for that amount

3> and how difficult is it to transfer/re-install the data from my 80gb, as i want to make the new hdd the main drive - or is it better to keep the 80gb as the primary
 
wizdumb said:
so i'm interested in my buying a new internal hdd, now i have a few questions

1> how do i know (find out) if i need a ide or sata drive - or doesn't it make a difference

2> i'm ok to spend between r500-700, which is probably not the best budget, but what can i get for that amount

3> and how difficult is it to transfer/re-install the data from my 80gb, as i want to make the new hdd the main drive - or is it better to keep the 80gb as the primary
Click to expand...

1.)

Most Motherboards nowdays support both. It's only an older board that will have IDE only. You will need to buy whatever your pc supports. If it supports both SATA and IDE them go for the SATA option. Make sure the required cables are present before buying the drive. You don't want to buy the wrong one etc.

Drive Cables
SATA = http://lagwar.com/home/wp-content/uploads/ultraflex-sata-cable-2.jpg

IDE = http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/images/cable-ide.jpg

Drive Power
SATA = http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/SATA_power_cable.jpg

IDE = http://www.magicbox.co.za/shop/images/upfile/CAB-PWR054-1b.jpg

2.) Don't know - I only deal with wholesalers themselves.

3.) Not hard at all but I would suggest keeping 80gb as the primary and the 500gb or some such as the secondary - reason for this is if the 80gb goes belly up you still have all your movies etc on the 500gb.

4.) Don't get a Seagate 500gb - That particular model has problems and will die. Google Seagate 500gb problem - or some such and you will see what I mean.

5.) Goodluck

J
 
Last edited:
cool thx for the jsheed, so iet seems like i have ide hdd...

...and as for the seagate, from all that i've read and having my good experience with my external 500gb WD drive, i'll stay away from seagate for while
 
Your board might still have sata even if your current drive is ide.

A WD 320 is 650. I think a 500 is 800.
 
Ive got a 40gb WD hdd from 2003:D

Have you seen WD's new eco-friendly hdd range?
haha .. sorry for off topic news... I recently bought a new hdd.
Went for the seagate purely for the price and availability. Otherwise Samsung or WD would have been my first choice.
 
I have both ide and sata on my board, most boards support it. If it's IDE only then it's probably a very old system, so spending 5-700 on a new HDD might be overkill?
 
jsheed_sa said:
1.)

Most Motherboards nowdays support both. It's only an older board that will have IDE only. You will need to buy whatever your pc supports. If it supports both SATA and IDE them go for the SATA option. Make sure the required cables are present before buying the drive. You don't want to buy the wrong one etc.

Drive Cables
SATA = http://lagwar.com/home/wp-content/uploads/ultraflex-sata-cable-2.jpg

IDE = http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/images/cable-ide.jpg

Drive Power
SATA = http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/SATA_power_cable.jpg

IDE = http://www.magicbox.co.za/shop/images/upfile/CAB-PWR054-1b.jpg

2.) Don't know - I only deal with wholesalers themselves.

3.) Not hard at all but I would suggest keeping 80gb as the primary and the 500gb or some such as the secondary - reason for this is if the 80gb goes belly up you still have all your movies etc on the 500gb.

4.) Don't get a Seagate 500gb - That particular model has problems and will die. Google Seagate 500gb problem - or some such and you will see what I mean.

5.) Goodluck

J
Click to expand...


Would a 750gb HDD be fine though?
 
PokerKing said:
Ive got a 40gb WD hdd from 2003:D

Have you seen WD's new eco-friendly hdd range?
haha .. sorry for off topic news... I recently bought a new hdd.
Went for the seagate purely for the price and availability. Otherwise Samsung or WD would have been my first choice.
Click to expand...

Don't forget to update your firmware.
 
so this is my mobo p4m900t and the wording says
Serial ATA is the next generation ATA specification that provides superior performance. With up to 150MB/s data transfer rate, Serial ATA is faster than current Parallel ATA, while providing 100% software compatibility
Click to expand...
so would my borad be able to take a sata drive?
 
wizdumb said:
so would my borad be able to take a sata drive?
Click to expand...

YES.

From the specifications it says the board has 2x SATA ports.

Have a look at this image of your MB
P4M900T-M%20_V1.0.jpg


The SATA connectors are located on the bottom right (corrected, I don't seem to know my left from my right anymore) hand side of the board just below the Serial ATA writing. It's the two little black connectors.

The normal PATA connectors (blue and white) are directly above the serial ATA writing.

Edit:

As for your budget you should be able to get a 400GB drive at least. PC Zone sells 400GB Western Digital drives for R599.
 
Last edited:
Ja, there is a risk, but most guys on Prophecy look after their kit, and there are always warranties included etc.

There are even brand new/sealed HDDs.
 
unless they leave some goodies on the drive, i don't i'll go for that route...

...but lets go check anyways
 
If you can try and get a drive with 32MB cache though. Dunno if the 500GB drives come with more than 16MB though.
 
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