Help with replace my Dell 7200 RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive

[levindi]

Hello,

My Dell 7200 RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive is dead.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=eep&cs=6099&sku=341-9868#Overview

I am looking for an hard drive that will be compatible with the current cables and computer. I am really lost with understanding what should I search for.

Size: 3.5 inch
which interface should I look for?
SATA 2 - 3Gb/s
SATA 6 Gb/s
SATA 3

Is there anything else I should check besides the size and interface ?

Thank you!!

 

[RealBeast]

Any 2TB 7200 rpm SATA drive will work fine as a replacement, whether you use SATA II (3Gbps) or SATA III (6Gbps) makes no difference for hard drives as they cannot saturate either connection and they are all compatible forward and backward.

Buy the replacement from Amazon, Newegg, or somewhere else with a good price, not from Dell.

If it was your OS drive, hopefully you have install media since the restore partition is gone with the dead drive if it was the OS drive.

 

[levindi]

Any 2TB 7200 rpm SATA drive will work fine as a replacement, whether you use SATA II (3Gbps) or SATA III (6Gbps) makes no difference for hard drives as they cannot saturate either connection and they are all compatible forward and backward.

Buy the replacement from Amazon, Newegg, or somewhere else with a good price, not from Dell.

If it was your OS drive, hopefully you have install media since the restore partition is gone with the dead drive if it was the OS drive.

Hi RealBeast - thank you for the help.
1. What the difference between SATA II or SATA III ? Both have the same interface but SATA III is faster ?

2. It was my OS drive and was the only drive. Does it make any difference with the decision which Hard drive to choose ?
3. The partition is define when installing the OS. right ?

Thanks again

 

[RealBeast]

SATA II works at 3Gbps limit and SATA III will transfer up to 6Gbps, it only matters with SSDs since HDDs top out well below either. They are physically the same in appearance and are fully compatible.

I would lean towards a Western Digital Black 2TB drive since it is your OS drive if you can find one at a decent price and want a fast drive.

The drive will probably come unallocated and unformatted. When you reinstall Windows from your installation disk(s), Windows will format the drive as a first step automatically when you boot from the installation disk before it starts the installation. Hopefully, you have an installer disk, if not you will need to buy one -- Newegg has Home Premium SP1 64 bit OEM Windows 7 on sale for $69.99 right now if you do need an installer disk.