My computer right now has 18 GB of hard drive space with all of that filled except 288 MB. I really need more space. I don’t know very much about computers though. I need a little help. What should be my first step? About how much does hard drive space cost? Is this something that I can order over the internet and install my self or should I bring my computer in to a shop? Thanks in advance.
First ask your sell what is occupying over 17 GB of HD, and do I really need it on the HD. Why not transfer it to CD’s where it is still accessible but not quite as quickly.
The more information you can furnish the better the SDMB’ers can help with usefull suggestions.
I’ve got a lot of songs and pictures. The songs I listen to so they stay. The pictures I could put on CD’s but I like having them on my computer. Looking in the dell manual that came with my computer it says I have “two bays for 1-inch-high EIDE hard drives” I assume one of these is already occupied. Also “ATA-66 or ATA-100 Ultra DMA hard drives.” I don’t know what any of those letters mean, but I’m pretty sure there important. Thanks for any you can give me.
First thing you should do is run disk cleanup. Go to start->accesories->system tools->disk cleanup. (it miht take a few minutes for it to analyze your hard drive.) Check everything. It should include recycle bin, temporary internet files, other temp files, etc…This might make some space (my dad’s computer actually had GIGS of temp. internet files! It too several hours to delete them all.)
If you find you still need more space (and honestly with only 18 GB, I would say you do…but then, I like space.) then decide how much you want to pay. If your limit is $100, then you can get probably up to 160 GB. Odds are, online wil be much cheaper than a store lke Best Buy or Circuit City, but if there is a CompUSA near you, then they might be cheaper than the other two. As for online sotres, use newegg.com. They have some of the best prices, are reliable, and ship very fast.
If you decide you do in fact need more storage, you’ll be needing a new hard drive. You can go out to a store and buy a new one, and try to install it yourself. I’m not sure how comfortable you are opening up computers and putting things inside them. If you decide to do it yourself, you’ll need to slave the new hard drive to the old one by setting the jumper to “cable select” and putting the hard drive on the second (middle) connecter on the ribbon. Unless your computer has SATA, in which case I’m not exactly sure how to do that. If what I’ve just said is going completely over your head, you’d probably be best calling a computer shop and seeing if they can install a new hard drive for you.
And any drive you will buy (as long as you do not buy any drive labeled as SCSI, SATA, or serial-ATA…or a laptop drive) will be compatable with these standards.
Oh, if you decide that installing yourself is too hard (it looks more intimidating than it actually is) then you can buy it as a store, like BB or CommpUSA, and have them install it, most of those stores do free installation of parts you buy there. They can put in a hard drive in a few minutes, I would imagine. The hardest part is lugging your computer over there.
Any brand names out there that are better then others? Or are hard drives the same no matter who they come from.
I’m a hands on kind of guy. I did install more ram a month or two ago and that was really easy (just plugging in a circuit board). Is installing another hard drive just as easy? Will I have to move all my files off my old hard drive now or can the two hard drives work at the same time?
Western Digital, Maxtor, and Seagate are the major hard-drive manufacturers and the only brands that you are likely to find. I have heard people express minor preferences for one over the other but the opinions are not consistent and I consider them to all be roughly equal. I would base my decision on the best deal available in terms of size. I would buy an IDE drive rather than a SATA because they tend to be cheaper and there are limited benefits to SATA right now. Make sure that the drive you buy is 7200 RPM.
Installing a hard drive is harder than installing RAM but is not that hard if you are fairly competent and willing to teach yourself. It should take 20 minutes of so for a first time install. You can have two hard drives at the same time as long as your case has two hard drive bays (most do). Remember this part. You have to set your new hard drive as the “slave” using the jumpers on the back. After the new hard drive is in, format it to NFTS format and then move your media files to the new one and delete them from your old one. Your old drive can still be the boot drive and you can store your bulky, new system files on the new one. That should work out fine.
I found this on newegg.com
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=22-140-133&DEPA=1
*“Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model 6E040L0, OEM Drive only
Model# 6E040L0
Item # N82E16822140133
Specifications:
Capacity: 40GB
Average Seek Time: 10 ms
Buffer: 2MB
Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM
Interface: IDE ULTRA ATA133
Features: Fluid Dynamic Bearing (FDB) Motors
Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year
Packaging: OEM Drive only”*
In my computer manual it says ATA-66 or ATA-100 Ultra. The drive from newegg is ATA-133. Does this mean it’s not compatible with my computer?
It is compatible with your computer. ATA-133 is backwards compatible with the slower standards. However, 40 GB is pretty small now. You could spend a few dollars more and get an 80 GB model or more.
This doesn’t sound too bad. Any step-by-step online guides out there that I can use for help when I’m ready to install?
- Take the hard drive out of the box.
- Look in the manual to find the jumper settings to change it to slave. Use tweezers, needle-nosed pliers or something similar to pull the tiny little jumper(s) off and move it to the correct pins.
- Open the case (both sides of you can).
- Find the open drive bay that is probably just below your old hard drive.
- Secure it in the bay with four tiny little screws.
- The existing cable that connects to your old hard drive will have another connector (probably blue) below the one plugged into your old hard drive. Plug that one into your new hard drive. Make sure you plug it in the right way. I believe it will fit upside down too. As long as you don’t twist the cable, you should be fine.
- Put the case back together.
- Start the computer.
- Look under My Computer to see that the new drive is there. It will probably be drive D:
- Format the drive to NFTS file format.
- Move your media files and whatever else over to the new drive.
12 Delete the from the old drive.
As Shagnasty suggested, that’s a small drive, and you can get larger drives for a dollar a gigabyte or less. What concerns me is that drive is an OEM drive, which may not provide the screws or cables you might need. If I were you, I’d consider getting a packaged drive that includes the accessories.
In addition to Shagnasty’s instructions, there is an elementary-level step-by-step here:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1444&page=10
It assumes you’re installing a primary drive rather than a secondary, but for the jumper setting and cable installation, they are virtually the same process.