New Hard Drive advice pls

Archer

Archer

Archer

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Joined
15 Jul 2005
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46
I am close to filling up my 160gb drive and want to install a new drive for no more than £65. Which drives are the best in terms of speed, reliability etc at this price range?

Any help would be appreciated as I was looking at the Maxtor 6V300F0 DiamondMax 10 300GB 7200RPM SATA II 16MB Cache but have been told that Maxtor are quite unreliable(?)

thanks in advance for any help / advice. :)
 
Thanks a lot for your help guys.

Div0 - I think I will go for that drive, seems like a pretty sweet deal.

I have never done any meddling with the inside of a pc before though, so would I find it easy to add another drive?

Cheers.
 
Its really easy!!

Just plug it in - the same as the current one.

You'll need a data cable and a power cable and that's it!!

You should have spare power cables on your PSU, or you may need an adapter. Check and see before ordering, as you can order an SATA power adapter along with the drive, for a few quid.

You may need a data cable, unless you have a spare one that came with the motherboard?!

Cables can be found here

If you have any problems with the drive being recognised or anything - then its probably just a bios setting. I doubt you'll have any issues, but if you do, just post back here.

there are loads of people who can offer help and advice :)
 
If you havnt ever worked inside a PC its a good idea to read a few guides, for safety, and to ensure you don't release static onto the hardware.

I'm quite surprised you're being told to just plonk it in, very unprofessional and risky advice to someone whos never been inside a PC.
 
Ok yes maybe I skipped a few of the basics - but TBH just because someone hasn't worked inside a pc before, doesn't mean they don't have some common sense ;)

You are right.....but I assumed that the OP was concerned about the technical difficulty of installing a HDD, rather than a full guide on working inside a PC!! :)

But it is worth mentioning I suppose...

* Don't open up the pc and plug/unplug anything with the machine turned on.

* Static is bad - so dont roll around on your carpet and then stick your hands in the pc ;) You can buy anti-static wristbands, but most people just touch something like a radiator every now and again. Static isn't such a big deal as it used to be.

* Hard drives are very robust, so you'd be extremely unlucky to damage it even if you tried! - but avoid touching other things in the PC as much as possible, especially as you shouldn't need to touch them.

In general, the less you touch/change, then the less that can go wrong.

But seriously installing a new drive is VERY easy - don't let the previous post worry you!! He made a valid point - I should have mentioned some of these things already, but they are mostly just common sense stuff.

You will be fine :)
 
Yes it is very easy, i just wanted to make a point of ensuring the user has a good knowledge of the do's or dont's.

I'm sure you'd feel bad if he came back here tomorrow saying his PC won't boot at all now or something to that degree.

You'd be surprised how many people don't have good common sense, and i'm not implying the OP doesnt, i'm just saying, if you're going to suggest something make sure you cover all the bases, or it could be you that looks bad if something goes wrong.

Peace ;)
 
There are limits to how much you can tell someone on a forum though ;)

You can't exactly hold their hand and be there every step of the way - so to say....

But it was a valid point - to err on the side of caution is never a bad thing :)
 
I do have some awareness of going inside a PC as some of my mates and my current GF have built their own PCs. I was just a a little nervous about giving it a go myself and knew you guys would be able to give me good advice as to dos / don'ts etc.

I am probably gonna get the drive tomorrow and install it so if I do have any problems I am sure I will come running back here for help :)

Thanks again for the help everyone, its nice to know there are people out there willing to give advice / a helping hand to us newbs.

Cheers.
 
Well I tried it and it failed. I plugged the HDD (WD Caviar 250Gb 16mb cache) into the SATA 1 slot on my MOBO (other HDD was already in two) and connect the power. Turned on the PC and it says no drives are attached?

Any help / ideas as to what i might have done wrong or need to do would be appreciated please.

Thanks.
 
What happens if you unplug the new drive - does windows boot up normally?

Does your motherboard support SATAII or just the slightly older SATA drives?!?

If it only supports SATA, then you may have to use a "jumper" on the back of the drive to tell it to run in SATA mode rather than SATAII.

Also,

Out of interest, why did you end up going with the WD Caviar 250Gb? Its not a bad drive, so I'm not saying you shouldn't have, but I just wondered....
 
Bios seems to show all sata ports are enabled.

@div0 I went for the drive as a friend bought one and reccommended it to me.

the mobo doesn't support SATA II but the only problem is that drive doesn't seem to have come with any jumpers???
 
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Are you sure there were no jumpers with it?

Does the back of the drive even have a label or anything that has a picture, showing you how to position a jumper to set the drive as SATA?

I'm pretty sure that your problem is just that the drive wants to run as SATA2 and the mobo doesn't like it.

I've never owned an SATA2 drive, but afaik the common fix is to adjust the jumper to make it run in SATA mode. And afaik, if the jumper is removed, that corresponds to SATA2 mode on most drives.....

Have a google for "sata mode jumper" and add the make/model of your drive in as well. You should probably find something to help you.

I'm off to bed, hope you get it sorted!
 
Just to let you know that getting a jumper for the drive worked a treat. As soon as I put the jumper on the drive and booted it up, it worked fine.

Thanks again for your help guys!!!!
 
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