If I upgrade my HP hard drive from an 80 gig to a hitachi 3tb do I have to upgra

[pbrowning]

If I upgrade my HP hard drive from an 80 gig to a hitachi 3tb do I have to upgrade any thing else in my system?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

depends.

What sort of HP?

 

[pbrowning]

I have this system and I am upgrading the video card also:


HP DC5750 COMPUTER DUAL CORE AMD ATHLON 64 2GB RAM 80GB HD DVD XP

 

[pbrowning]

It also is running windows 7

 

[dish_moose]

3T is a problem for all but the newest motherboard /bios. You'll have better luck with 1.5T or 2T.
quote from Tom's article"
Sure, the 3 TB labels on the hard drives look impressive, but you have to exercise caution on many computers, which are incapable of recognizing and utilizing the drives properly. Making them run as intended often requires particular platform choices and a suitable operating system. And you can forget about using them as boot drives if you're not using a UEFI-equipped motherboard."
-Bruce

 

[photonboy]

I don't know the exact details, however I think there are PROBLEMS when installing a 3TB drive as your main Windows drive as I think it may not be recognized.

It's my understanding that a 2TB drive is the limit for most computers.

You can Google this further, however my advice is to buy a FASTER, SMALLER hard drive for Windows and use a 2TB or 3TB as a SECOND hard drive. It's a good idea anyway to have a second hard drive for:
- Windows Images (I use Acronis True Image and create a DAILY, incremental image of Windows. Western Digital has a free version if you have a WD hard drive which allows manual backups which I STRONLY recommend in case of a failure. Say, once per week and delete all but the LAST four backups.)
- Media files
- Downloads
- Games (only if you have limited space by using a small, but fast SSD such as the 120GB Vertex 3)

Here's what I recommend:
- find a store with great prices, like NCIX online
- buy two drives:
a) Western Digital 500GB BLACK
b) Western Digital 2TB GREEN

Installation:
1) Download and install the Western Digital diagnostics
2) shut down your computer, install the 500GB drive and start your computer
3) run the best diagnostics option to fully test the 500GB drive
4) Install the WD Acronis True Image software (contains CLONING software)
5) CLONE your old drive to the new 500GB drive
6) shut down your computer, REMOVE the 80GB drive and replace with the 2TB drive
7) start, and run full diagnostics for the 2TB drive
8) create a "Windows Backup" folder then run Acronis True Image and create a backup Image of Windows (in case of hard drive physical failure or software corruption you can RESTORE this backup)

I hope this helps!

 

[pbrowning]

Best answer selected by pbrowning.

 

[pbrowning]

Thank you for the information.. I didn't know the exact process and that really helped