Speed

stokecity_m · 22 May 2009 at 23:25

My son's computer currently only has a crap hard drive.

i was thinking of upgrading it, but roughly how much faster would a new
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-245-WD&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=940 be compared to the drive he has in now?

Blackbadger · 22 May 2009 at 23:30

Firstly the new drive you are looking at will be massively faster.

However the old drive is a IDE drive which means it has different connectors.

Depending on the age of the pc it may or may not have sata connectors on the motherboard. Post the spec's.

stokecity_m · 22 May 2009 at 23:31

yeah even though the pc is fairly old - it's got 5 sata ports on the mother board.

with the new drive being faster, will this greatly reduce windows and games loading time?

Sasahara · 22 May 2009 at 23:39

It should do it considerably faster.

The new drive should get approx (Max)120Mb to 50Mb(min)
Average around 80-90mb/sec Access times 11-14ms. (estimates)

Mobo and cpu can affect this a bit.

stokecity_m · 22 May 2009 at 23:40

cheers.

one thing, do new drives come with sata connectors?

Blackbadger · 22 May 2009 at 23:41

I'd imagine it would have a significant impact, usually the sata controllers are less hungry on cpu usage than IDE too.

If you were to do a fresh windows install at the same time.. which always feals like a upgrade your son will be v happy.

You will need a sata cable, a couple are usually supplied with the motherboard - so check your box if it was self built. otherwise they are approx £4

stokecity_m · 22 May 2009 at 23:43

is there a way to get around doing a fresh install?

i'd like to copy the current info off the old disc to the new one.
As i've just spent 3 days sorting out a new install etc..

Sasahara · 22 May 2009 at 23:45

The drives have sata connections, but the oems sould here won't come with the cables.

So you'll need 1 Sata cable to connect it to the mobo

Check if you psu have a sata power cable, if not you can gat a molex to sata power adaptor.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-052-GE

Blackbadger · 22 May 2009 at 23:46

To clone the drive something like this should be good.

http://www.acronis.co.uk/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

The trial should be fine - lasts 15 days.

stokecity_m · 22 May 2009 at 23:48

Sasahara said:
The drives have sata connections, but the oems sould here won't come with the cables.

So you'll need 1 Sata cable to connect it to the mobo

Check if you psu have a sata power cable, if not you can gat a molex to sata power adaptor.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-052-GE

Cheers

Blackbadger said:
To clone the drive something like this should be good.

http://www.acronis.co.uk/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

The trial should be fine - lasts 15 days.

Will this work even though the current drive has a 5gb partition?

Sasahara · 22 May 2009 at 23:51

stokecity_m said:
is there a way to get around doing a fresh install?

i'd like to copy the current info off the old disc to the new one.
As i've just spent 3 days sorting out a new install etc..

Go to the HDD makers web site, they should have some free software that will let you copy the entire drive to the new one.

Once this is done and you made sure it works, you can wipe the original.

Sasahara · 22 May 2009 at 23:54

stokecity_m said:
Cheers

Will this work even though the current drive has a 5gb partition?

Yes that would work, you may be able to get a free version from Seagate since you have a Seagate drive, download DiscWizard.

Western Digital will also have some software that will copy over the partitions.

stokecity_m · 22 May 2009 at 23:58

Cheers guys

i think once the old drive has been copied successfully, i might as well keep it for back up.