Hard Drives

[smashmaster]

So I have a 1tb hard drive and am going to need more space soon. Basically I need a decent hard drive with 2-3tb of space for a decent price (I haven't looked around much yet). I also was unsure about setting up a second hard drive if someone could explain that to me that would be great. I know how to install it in the computer I just don't know how to set it up. Last off Im going to need to buy a second sata cable does it really matter which one I buy? Thanks.

 

[Dexcom]

I know....... Nothing about this xD

 

[smashmaster]

I know....... Nothing about this xD

I know a little just not about 2nd hard rives . Thanks anyway.

 

[The_Man]

You just need a Sata cable, plug it in, and pretty sure thats it

 

[smashmaster]

You just need a Sata cable, plug it in, and pretty sure thats it

Im not sure :/. Thanks though

 

[The_Man]

Im not sure :/. Thanks though

just tweet @SkandhaRaj he'll answer it for you

 

[Col_StaR]

So I have a 1tb hard drive and am going to need more space soon. Basically I need a decent hard drive with 2-3tb of space for a decent price (I haven't looked around much yet). I also was unsure about setting up a second hard drive if someone could explain that to me that would be great. I know how to install it in the computer I just don't know how to set it up. Last off Im going to need to buy a second sata cable does it really matter which one I buy? Thanks.

First off, let's talk Brands. Buy Western Digital, HGST (WD rebranded), or Toshiba, as they have the highest quality and lowest failure rate over time. Don't buy Seagates, as their failure is 8-10 times higher than the previous two.

Next, interfaces. SATA has three variations: SATA I, SATA II, and SATA III (AKA, 6.0gb/s). Most drives nowadays are SATA III, but not all motherboards support SATA III ports; they just have the slower SATA II's. If you know your motherboard has SATA III ports, be sure that it's plugged into the SATA III hard drive. Otherwise you have bottlenecked speeds.

Installation is easy. Honestly, you just connect the SATA cable, SATA power cable, toss it into your rig, and turn it on. Then you need to run Disk Management in order to format the drive for your usage. You can find guides for that online.

Lastly, price. For your purposes and size, the Western Digital Red and WD Black series are good. Get the 2 TB WD Red if you want a good, large, stable drive for a good price. If you want faster and have an extra $30 to spare, get the 2 TB WD Black. If you have a Newegg account, watch their newsletter for coupons, because hard drives are on sale quite often.

Also, you will need a SATA cable. All SATA cables are cheap and reliable, and there's not really a difference between them. Pick the one that's cheapest with the best ratings and is as long as you need it to be. Having a right-angle plug is a plus, too.

Hope that all helps.

 

[MoLoToV]

^ to add on that, try to het one that runs 7200 RPM, it'll be a bit quicker then the average ones. ( faster data transfer )

 

[smashmaster]

First off, let's talk Brands. Buy Western Digital, HGST (WD rebranded), or Toshiba, as they have the highest quality and lowest failure rate over time. Don't buy Seagates, as their failure is 8-10 times higher than the previous two.

Next, interfaces. SATA has three variations: SATA I, SATA II, and SATA III (AKA, 6.0gb/s). Most drives nowadays are SATA III, but not all motherboards support SATA III ports; they just have the slower SATA II's. If you know your motherboard has SATA III ports, be sure that it's plugged into the SATA III hard drive. Otherwise you have bottlenecked speeds.

Installation is easy. Honestly, you just connect the SATA cable, SATA power cable, toss it into your rig, and turn it on. Then you need to run Disk Management in order to format the drive for your usage. You can find guides for that online.

Lastly, price. For your purposes and size, the Western Digital Red and WD Black series are good. Get the 2 TB WD Red if you want a good, large, stable drive for a good price. If you want faster and have an extra $30 to spare, get the 2 TB WD Black. If you have a Newegg account, watch their newsletter for coupons, because hard drives are on sale quite often.

Also, you will need a SATA cable. All SATA cables are cheap and reliable, and there's not really a difference between them. Pick the one that's cheapest with the best ratings and is as long as you need it to be. Having a right-angle plug is a plus, too.

Hope that all helps.

Thanks, that helps allot, The only problem im having is finding a video ive been looking for awhile and haven't seemed to find a very helpful one yet, any you would recommend? I also really love the black drives even though they cost a little more.


Edit: Col_StaR , I found a video to help me the only question I have is am I going to need to install windows on my new drive or will I just be able to download things to it and it will show up on my computer. Sorry about bad grammar im on my phone.

 

[smashmaster]

^ to add on that, try to het one that runs 7200 RPM, it'll be a bit quicker then the average ones. ( faster data transfer )

Thanks, my current drive is 7200 thanks for reminding me that had totally slipped my mind.

 

[Col_StaR]

^ to add on that, try to het one that runs 7200 RPM, it'll be a bit quicker then the average ones. ( faster data transfer )

Yes, this too. Only reason you'd ever use 5,200 rpm hard drive is for big storage of something you don't use often, like media files on a home network or messes of documents for a business.

A good comparison video of 5200 rpm speeds vs 7600 rpm speeds: LINK.

MoLoToV : ever tried one of the 10,000 rpm drives, the WD Raptors? Those things were pricey, but blazing fast. They were SSD's before SSD's; too bad they're now basically obsolete due to the improvements and prevalence of SSD's, but they're still cool.

the only question I have is am I going to need to install windows on my new drive or will I just be able to download things to it and it will show up on my computer. Sorry about bad grammar im on my phone.

That really depends on what you want to do with your hard drive, and how you want to configure it.

The way you described the set-up in your original post, you planned on keeping your old hard drive that already has Windows on it and simply add this drive as an additional drive to it. This means that you'll have your old drive that your computer will boot Windows from, and then the new second drive that will hold all of your additional data.
This is the easiest set-up, since you're simply adding a new drive on top of an already functioning one. All of your programs, data, and Windows functions will not be changed since we haven't changed the old drive. Just slap in the new hardware and run Disk Management to format the drive (thus turning raw storage space into storage space Windows can allocate data to), and you're done.

The only time you would need to reload Windows is if you wanted to have Windows on your new drive instead of your old drive. I would suggest this if there's a definitive speed boost between your old drive and your new drive; if you do find that you can upgrade performance by using SATA III with a new drive, I would put my OS on that drive. It's more inconvenient, but you'll get performance boosts in the long run.
That's a bit more of a complicated process, and I don't think that's what you want to do, so I'll just leave it at that.

 

[MoLoToV]

MoLoToV : ever tried one of the 10,000 rpm drives, the WD Raptors? Those things were pricey, but blazing fast. They were SSD's before SSD's; too bad they're now basically obsolete due to the improvements and prevalence of SSD's, but they're still cool.

I've never seen those really, heard a bit about that they had a high failure percentage compared to the slower HDD's though :S