Hard Drives....

MadGinga

MadGinga

In Cryo Sleep
Hi all,

Its been a while since I was here last, but I need some help, I would offer rep but last time I was here the rep situation was getting out of hand! SO I'll offer my humblest thanks instead....

Right, time to get to the point me thinks...
My good old reliable HDD has started failing on me :( Which is a shame. Although I have avoided the pain and anguish of losing all my "data" (read: TV shows, music and movies) by transferring 90% of it to my external drive and my GF's pc.
So the main point (wow, its taken me a while to get to it!) I have a Asus an78x-E deluxe mobo, that supports SATA. Can I just buy any old HDD i.e. SATA-II, or do I have to stick with SATA, or as my old HDD was IDE and i still have one of them left do I have to go with IDE unless I upgrade the last one standing?

SO let the suggestions/solutions/inane comments/insults commence!!!

MadG - The prodigal son has returned!
 
thatbloke

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
Get a SATA drive. Will solve your problems nice and simply. You should find that your mobo came with a load of SATA cables for connecting it to your mobo and if you have a recent-ish PSU you should also have the shiny SATA power connectors on that too.

Also... Not entirely sure on using a SATAII drive on a SATA interface, but then I haven't tried it. I would be surprised if they weren't compatible though!
 
Haven

Haven

Administrator
Staff member
SATA-II benefits over SATA:

http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid5_gci992442,00.html

Make sure you buy a SATA-II compatible drive if you go that route or you'll be wasting your time.

Regarding drives to use:

Western Digital are about the fastest you'll find.
Hitachi are the cheapest you'll find.
Maxtor are pretty much ahead of the curve on disk densities (well they were before seagate caught up).
Seagate are king of perpendicular technology and tend to be the most reliable of the lot (although I've still had bad drives from them).

I personally use Seagate for server and Western Digital for gaming.
 
Ronin Storm

Ronin Storm

Administrator
Staff member
Not wanting to confuse the issue, but I felt that my last WD drive starting failing too quickly for my liking. I've switched to using Seagate across the board after having forgiven them for a 20 hour shift due to one of their failed drives.
 
thatbloke

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
I've had a 40GB Samsung HDD in my home computer for nearly 7 years and not had a single problem with it ever. Just to complicate things more :)
 
MadGinga

MadGinga

In Cryo Sleep
Right, well i think I'm possibly more confused now than I was to start with but hey who cares!
So far I've managed to gather that Western Digital are probably the best to go for, although Maxtor and Seagate are both good options too.
One unanswered question though:
my mobo will support SATA and IDE
Currently, or more to the point, originally I had 2x120Gb Maxtor IDE HDD (one of which has failed).
so do i do the following...
1) replace both drives with two SATA-II HDD (assuming SATA-II drives are compatible with my SATA mobo
2) replace the failed HDD like for like
3) go for a combo of keeping my old still functioning HDD and purchasing a SATA/SATA-II HDD (assuming having both types is possible/good idea..

Opinions/comments/random dirges/diatribes/verbal diarrhoea/etc. welcome...

MadG
 
DeZmond

DeZmond

Junior Administrator
I can testify that moving from IDE to SATA2 was easily the most painless upgrade ever performed, and my PC runs quite nicely as a result. For reference, my new system contains a Seagate Barracuda 5400rpm 250GB drive, which is performing very well to date :)

Not having to worry about setting drive master/slave and being without the bulky cables is definitely a plus. If you have a recent motherboard you won't even have to worry about installing SATA drivers, which is also handy :D.
 
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