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How To Buy Hard DriveThere a few things you need to know about hard drives that can save you a lot of headaches when replacing your current model. And then there's the trick of transferring data and software, which should be easy but can be an adventure without the proper software. OK, you've got a sick hard drive or maybe you are running out of storage space. Regardless of why, you've decided to take the leap and get a bigger and faster hard drive for your desktop or laptop computer. Each flavor has some common factors but each come in a different form factor (physical size of hard drive). Laptops take the 2.5 inch form factor and desktop units take a 3.5 inch factor. The next two important technical issues are the interface (PATA or SATA are most common) and the spindle speed (expressed in RPMs) or how fast the platters can spin. The interface is all about the amount of data that can be written or read, the spindle speed is all about how fast the data can be written or accessed on the platters. Both can have a huge impact on how fast your computer operates. Let's talk interface for a moment. For many years PATA (often known as IDE) comes in several flavors but the most common is the basic IDE which uses a 40 pin connection (looks like a ribbon) and optimum transfer speed is 100 MB per second with bursts up to 133 MB. SATA (known as serial ATA) has a much faster transfer speed at 400 MB and bursts up to 600 MB. PATA is also more of a power hog (very important in laptops) and does have other software limitations. SATA is the winner in every comparison on transfer speed, power consumption, and software compatibility. And last the spindle speed can allow your hard drive quicker access to write or read data. The most common speed is 5400 RPM (basic or moderate). Next up is 7200 RPM (good) and the 10,000 RPM which is very fast. Once you start looking at the prices, you'll see that speed is the single difference in the more expensive hard drives. Next biggest cost factor is the amount of storage space. So here's the four things to look at when you buy a hard drive:
We can save you a little time and effort on doing your research when you buy your next hard drive by giving you our best choices. Having been in the computer repair business for over 20 years we get to see what works best in the real world in both performance and reliability. So here's our best recommendations for both laptops and desktops that provide the best value (not necessarily the cheapest). Hard Drive PricesLaptop Hard Drive - 2.5 inch model
Desktop Hard Drive - 3.5 inch model
If you want to go for the ultimate Desktop hard drive, go here to read about Western Digital's 300 GB VelociRaptor SATA 10,000 RPM model: 10000 RPM Hard Drive It is the front runner in high performance Desktop hard drives and runs around $300. I've got two and couldn't be more satisfied with their speed and reliability. You can also check out the new Solid State Drives here: Fastest SSD. These SSD type drives have no moving parts so it allows for speeds well above any traditional design. Now the tricky part, transferring your operating system and data from old drive to the new drive. There are several software programs designed to this very thing but spending $50-$75 for a one time deal is a little pricey. You can find the software and instructions here for around $20 (plus a ton of other useful information and utilities to do many things on your computer): Hard Drive Repair. We
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