Choose the Correct Hard Drive for Your Needs

What Hard Drive Should I Buy?

If you are looking to buy a new hard drive for your PC, or wondering if it’s better to have external storage or maybe you need to know exactly what a gigabyte is before even thinking further, then this information may help.
There are loads of hard drives out there and it’s important to do your research before making a decision and a purchase. This article will help you narrow down the choices.

The first thing to determine is if you need an external or internal hard drive. If you are totally tech stupid and are looking for the easiest way to add extra space to your PC then an external drive is the best.
They are small, easy to use and great to travel with. They make sharing information, photos and music with others very easy and are great for backing up your PC.

Internal hard drives are designed for expanding the storage of a single PC and cannot be shared like an external drive. Internal hard drives have the best storage capabilities, the highest performance and the best value for money.
Most PC cases have at least one hard drive bay (a place where you install a new hard drive), but make sure before buying a hard drive. Be sure that the case has enough space for another hard drive.

Now don’t panic but you'll also have to choose between the two interfaces: PATA (Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment, also known as IDE drives) and SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment). Ask your store attendant what will be best for your specific PC.

In most cases, SATA drives are a better choice for a few reasons—they're slightly faster, they're easier to connect, and they don't require you to configure jumpers as PATA drives do. However, the performance tends to be similar.

Next you will need to choose the correct size of hard drive. The size refers to the amount of data that is stored in the hard drive. If you use your PC for simple tasks such as word processing and internet browsing, then a hard drive with 8 to 10 gigabytes will be sufficient.
The smaller capacity hard drives will generally be cheaper and should only be used for basic computing needs.
However, if you plan to store much larger amounts of data like photos or music and movies, then a larger hard drive will be necessary to avoid running out of storage space.

Another important consideration is the speed of the hard drive. Hard drive speed is measured in revolutions per minute (RPM). A hard drive is basically a disk that rotates and a needle that reads the information on the disc or writes information to the disc.
The faster the disc spins the faster the hard drive will read and write information.
For the average user, 5400rpm will be sufficient, but if you do more complex tasks with your PC you may want to look at a hard drive that offers 7200rpm.

Extra Information:
Shop around. Hard drives come in different sizes to suit different storage needs, and they're priced very competitively. Spend a little time searching for a killer deal, and you'll certainly be glad you did.

Look out for warranties. In general, you should get at least a 3-year warranty on your hard drive.

Consider buying a hard-drive kit, which includes mounting hardware, cables, detailed instructions, and software that eases installation. A kit may also include an application for cloning the contents of your old hard drive onto the new one, which then becomes your new main drive.
If you've outgrown your existing storage, it may be easier and cheaper to upgrade a drive instead of buying an entirely new one. And if you're an avid gamer, opt for a drive with approximately 10,000 RPM.

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