Hard Drive Reco (please)

[bluemando]

I would like some help in deciding what Hard Drive to get for my system. I know little about computers, so let me know if I don't give pertinent information or use incorrect terminology in describing my situation - (I'm anxious to learn)

In September 2001, I upgraded my motherboard/processor. The performance is "okay" but not as good as I had hoped. I'm surprised, for example when (sometimes) my computer "hangs up" even while opening simple text files. In general it does not work as fast as I would like. I'm thinking that if I get a larger HD it may help the overall performance of my system. At present my HD is about 3 GB's.

The motherboard/processor combo that I bought is an ECS K7S5A w/ a Duron 750 processor. This mainboard uses the SiS 735 chipset. The system has 128MB and 500 hz (or is it Mhz?) of power. I use my computer word processing, Internet surfing (lots of downloads) Also, I'm a musician, so I work with wav files, mp3's and a keyboard w/ MIDI. I also intend to do some photograph work.

Another thing I'd like to know is if I can keep my old hard drive and add it to the new one and also how large the new HD should be (i.e. does the specs of my system limit how large of hard drive it can support?)Any comments, and recommendations are appreciated. Thank you.

Glenn

[andyswork@beci.net]

Welcome to the PC Guide. Photos and music take up alot of space. I would think from what you said your hard drive is nearly full. I would go to safe mode and do scan disk and defrag on your present drive, this will help. A new drive 20 to 60 gigs, price differance is not that much so go the 60 gigs 7200 rpms. Yes you can use old drive either make it master or slave. I would go slave, and clean it up of all unused programs. I would do fresh install on new drive of operating system. If you need more help post back.

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One day I will be a pro, Thanks Andy

[pentachris]

wav files are often huge. My old housemate was a musician - he filled up a 20 gig drive in about six months. Yep, time to upgrade!

Something else, though - your system hangs usually because you run out of memory, not hard drive space. If you've been using various applications and opening files, you can tie up enough memory to make opening even a text file take longer than it should. That's when virtual memory kicks in. A file is created on your hard drive that Windows uses like it would use extra RAM. Accessing the hard drive takes considerably longer than accessing RAM, especially if the drive is fragmented. And if your drive is nearly full (I think it starts at 90% full), Windows has to manage the size of that file more carefully resulting in even more slowdown.

Long story short: I'd suggest more RAM as well. Double what you've got to give yourself 256 MB - maybe more. It's pretty cheap these days.

Other than that, I agree with Andy - 20 gig HD or more, 7200 RPM (some older bioses need an upgrade to support drives over 8 gigs, but looking at your system info I strongly doubt that applies to you). I remember reading a Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com) review that gave a big thumbs up to Seagate drives.


let me know if I don't give pertinent information or use incorrect terminology in describing my situation - (I'm anxious to learn)


Well, since you asked for it...

Unless you're troubled, frightened or uneasy, you're eager to learn. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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...
If my computer were the eighth dwarf, it would be Dumpy.
-Chris

[mjc]

yes by all means upgrade to at least 40GB@7200RPM...and yes you can keep the old drive, even leaving it insalled and set as master and use the new just for storing your pics and songs (and transferring them off the old one).

In the mean time a little maintenance and clean up may be in order here...it should help deal with the little hangs when openning files and such.

You probably have an over-full temp directory , so it should be cleared out, dump the browser cache (Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Temp Internt Files -> Delete), go to the start menu -> settings -> Taskbar and Start menu -> Start Menu Programs -> Documents -> Clear, scandisk ( to check for errors) and defrag (to make the most of the new found free space and to organize thing better), and possibly adding this line:ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 to your system.ini file


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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[bluemando]

Thank you Andy Chris and mjc for your help. I've decide to get a 60 GB hard drive and double "my" memory as recommended. Now I'd like some help selecting the Hard Drive. I see words like IDE, ULTRA IDE, EIDE, SCSI. Also, at PriceWatch I see some hard drives adevertised as 1) OEM bare drive 2) 0GB EIDE 5400RPM,9.0ms seek time, 2MB buffer, 3) EIDE Ultra DMA 4) ATA/100(OEM,WHITE). A)How do I know what one works best w/ my system (EIDE, SCUSI, UlTA IDE, ULTRA DMA, AT/110, OEM etc. B) Whether I'm comparing "apples to apples" when considering the price?

Also, I've noticed that the best prices seem to be offered by companies that are rated poorly by consumers at http://www.resellerratings.com/ So, I would appreciate a couple of names of companies that have good reputations. Thanks very much.

Glenn

[Hobit]

Hello bluemando,

A 60GB SCSI drive would be more than $400 and require the instillation of a SCSI controller card as well. That leaves IDE.

Try Z-BUY
Maxtor 60GB (6L060J2) 7200rpm 2MB Buffer ATA-133 OEM (Free Freight 3 Days FedEx) $ 121.00 or if you prefer they have a Western Digital with same specs at $124.

7200 RPM will provide for faster access than 5400 drive.
Your motherboard supports UDMA 33/66/100
ATA -133 exceeds this but it will not effect operation on your system and provides for upgrade path.

Do defrag your HD weekly! An apple a day ke....

Good luck,

Hobit

[Randy_tx]

"Lot's of downloads" caught my eye......You are aware that regardless of what you do to "speed up" this system, you will be going no faster on the internet [for all practical purposes] unless you change from dial up connection to some type of broadband [DSL/Cable/ISDN] connection to the net.

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XP didn't save Me !

[bluemando]

Originally posted by Hobit:
Hello bluemando,

A 60GB SCSI drive would be more than $400 and require the instillation of a SCSI controller card as well. That leaves IDE.

Try Z-BUY
Maxtor 60GB (6L060J2) 7200rpm 2MB Buffer ATA-133 OEM (Free Freight 3 Days FedEx) $ 121.00 or if you prefer they have a Western Digital with same specs at $124.

7200 RPM will provide for faster access than 5400 drive.
Your motherboard supports UDMA 33/66/100
ATA -133 exceeds this but it will not effect operation on your system and provides for upgrade path.

Do defrag your HD weekly! An apple a day ke....

Good luck,

Hobit



Many thanks Hobit. I ordered the Maxtor you recommended. It looked like a good price for the product. Also, I will take your advice to defrag more often... I've only been doing it about once every three months. It takes nearly 2 hours to do defrag my system (and that for only a 3GB HD.) But I guess I could get myself to do it at least once a month http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

In fact, I did a scandisk/defrag just yesterday. For some reason when I scandisk won't completely scan my E drive (it stops at 128,113 of 254,016 (megabytes?) I tried again and it "hung up" at 123,985 of 254,016. The Defrag worked fine however. Anyway, I'm glad I have finally ordered myself a HD and I appreciated your helping me in the matter. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/cool.gif

gcc

[bluemando]

Originally posted by Randy_tx:
"Lot's of downloads" caught my eye......You are aware that regardless of what you do to "speed up" this system, you will be going no faster on the internet [for all practical purposes] unless you change from dial up connection to some type of broadband [DSL/Cable/ISDN] connection to the net.



Point taken Randy. Thanks.