Printable View
My computer is now running out of space and I am thinking about buying and installing a new internal HD. What should I consider and check before buying then installing it ? I don't know anything about this, please show me step by step guidance. Thank you.
First of all you should check what type of drive you need. If your computer is old you might need an IDE drive and there are quite few IDE drives for sale these days.
Is it a desktop or laptop? Do you have a free space for the drive? In the IDE case does that place work with the cables you have (IDE cables have their connectors at a fixed distance)?
Today I think 1-2 Tb disks have the best size/money factor. The disks also have different guarantee. Should you go for a long life server drive? I'd say yes if you have the money (not that more expensive). A disc crash isn't funny at all...
Is it an old PC but new enough to have SATA? Maybe you should consider buying both a SSD and a traditional drive? Having a SSD as system drive in an old machine is like giving it steroids. It's not a comparable situation but I just built myself a new machine with a SSD and power-on to login screen takes about 10 seconds. :)