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For Your Computer” Buying the Right Hard Drive For Your Computer So you made the decision to buy a hard drive for your computer but with hundreds of different models and types of hard drives, what do you look for? Your hard drive is the where all your programs, operating system and data will be stored so obviously it's something you should think about. Whether you want to use it for photos, games, music, business or something portable, you will need to figure out how much space you'll need on your hard drive. But there are other major factors in your buying decisions and in this article, we'll weigh them so you can make the right choice. The first thing you have to figure out so you won't waste your time is to find out what format you'll need your hard drive in. There are two formats - IDE and SATA. The most common and popular format is SATA. You'll have to look through your computer to see which kind of format it's laid out to work with. The next step is to determine how much space you're going to be using. You should always overestimate the amount of space you need by 25% as most computer users end up with more files than they predicted. There are now hard drives ranging from 250GB to 1.5TB in capacity. The best buy is a 1TB hard drive if you're planning to use that much space as the prices for these big hard drives have gone done in price considerably. However, most people will only need around 500GB in space which will cost anywhere from $70-$100. Next, how are you going to use the hard drive? Are you replacing an old hard drive from your old computer? Do you want extra space for movies and pictures? Do you want a portable storage solution? Or something for your business? If you are planning to replace your old hard drive, remember that you'll have to reinstall your operating system and back up your old files into a burned CD (also DVD) or save them into another hard drive. If you want extra space for movies, music and pictures, you'll have to decide if you want to replace your hard drive or just use it as an external one. You can buy a separate hard drive and an external hard drive case or a hard drive that's already comes in a case. The pros of buying your own hard drive and case is that you can choose which case and hard drive are going to be used. The cons is that it's going to be a bit more costly. But what about a hard drive for the office? If you want a back up of your files in case of a computer crash, I recommend an external hard drive. If you're moving in and out of offices with files, I recommend a portable USB hard drive (although they have limited storage capacity). Choosing Your Brand Now that you've weighed all your options, it's time to choose which company to buy from. The major manufacturers are Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, Samsung and Toshiba. Seagate hard drives range from a wide array of prices depending on the model. But recent reviews reveal that their quality control is not top notch and many users have their hard drives crashing or not working with their computer. For business the Hitachi Deskstar has been the hard drive of choice due to their speed, capacity and long term dependability. Most consumers however, opt for a Western Digital for the price and value. These hard drives are for the average user but also can be used for businesses on a budget. If your budget is low, the cheapest brand right now is Samsung with positive reviews coming in for their new hard drives. Toshiba mainly produces hard drives for notebooks and is compatible and works well for most notebooks so you should only look at Toshiba for replacing an old hard drive. And if you're looking at the specs, I highly recommend a drive with 7200 RPM and 32MB cache. This is very common in the latest drives and is important in the speed (searching and transferring of files) in your hard drive. Portable hard drives are typically 5200 RPM and a bit costlier by the GB of space so don't expect a speedy, cheaper hard drive compared to the non portables. So what's my recommendation on which hard drives to buy? My personal choice would be a Western Digital or Samsung for every day use and a Hitachi for business. These have been proven to have a long life before failure, great value for your money and positive reviews. |