Teach me how to buy a new hard disk!

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Followant to my diagnosis of hard-disk-ruin on the "Boring Computer Questions" thread, this is the thread where I ask if there there's anything I should know and/or check before buying a new one. I have my eye on this puppy - is this good value? Reliable? What should I do to check if it will compatible with my motherboard? That sort of thing!

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Saturday, 6 March 2004 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.pricewatch.com/

Well, I'd say that for finding a good deal. No idea on the HD/motherboard issues, though. Probably best to check your computer diagnostics to figure out exactly what brand and model MB you have, then check the specs up on that model online. However, if my old HD buying experience serves me correct, you might just need to buy an accessory card to handle the SATA system. But as I said, it's been a while for me.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Saturday, 6 March 2004 01:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Just ask your doctor if Viagra is right for you!

http://www.onlineathens.com/images/053002/viagraLR.jpg

Oh, you said hard DISK!

― Skottie, Saturday, 6 March 2004 16:30 (twenty-one years ago)

For Wintel PCs: The only piece of hardware your hard disk must be compatible with is the hard disk controller. Your motherboard probably has an EIDE controller built in. Unless you're looking at a SCSI disk, an EIDE controller should do fine.

― Aimless (Aimless), Saturday, 6 March 2004 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

That drive is a serial ATA drive so you have to either purchase a serial ATA controller card or have a very new motherboard with an onboard serial ATA controller to be able to use it. And I'd personally spend the extra few, um, quid and get a bigger drive that an 80 Gb drive but that's just following the bigger is better maxim.

― Kenny Blankenship (Bryan), Saturday, 6 March 2004 17:13 (twenty-one years ago)

If you want better, faster performance, you need the controller card. Ultimately it comes down to what you want and how much you can afford, but if you want to take advantage of the SATA instead of whatever ATA number your motherboard automatically reverts to, you need the controller card. You can shop around for the cards as well - many different people make them.

The thing is that sometimes it can be a little finicky getting the computer to recognize the controller card, in which case it'll bypass it anyway. This happened to me the first few times I was using my (then) new HD - I had it connected to an ATA100 card, but the motherboard was having none of that so it defaulted back to ATA66 until I poked around a little. It's not always the most fun thing to do - but if you want the full power of the hard drive, you'll need the controller card - otherwise, you might as well buy the same capacity in a HD that maxes out at your MB's ATA capacity.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Saturday, 6 March 2004 22:18 (twenty-one years ago)

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