New 1 TB Hard Drive

robertito

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Dec 23, 2007
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I've finally filled my Seagate 250gb hard drive so its time for a new one. I need a lot of storage as I've gotten into heavy DAW work and .WAV files like to take up a lot of space. I've also begun putting more movies on my computer, along with a huge record collection.

So, its only logical to get a high capacity drive. 1 Tb seems to be the sweet spot as far as price:space is concerned. Also worth noting is that I'm off to college next year so noise will be a concern. The Samsung F3, Seagate 7200.12, Hitachi Deskstar 31000, and Western Digital AV-GP WD10EVDS all seem to have good rating for ~$80. Any other suggestions.

Also is it worth the hassle to make the new drive my primary one or should I just add it as E\ and use it for extra storage? and finally, anything else I should know? Here's my current setup: E8400, GA P35 DS3L, 2GB A-DATA RAM, HIS 4870, Seagate 250GB HDD, Antec Sonatta III, Vista Home Premium 32bit.
 
Solution
If you have about 50% more dollars available, the 1.5 TB units often are a better price per TB.

There seem to be two views of this sort of thing, each with its merits. One group finds it very handy to have one drive (or Partition) devoted to the OS and its key add-ons, with all the apps and their data files on another HDD or at least another Partition. That way if something bad happens to the OS, you can re-Format and re-install that one "disk" without ever touching the apps and data installed on a different drive. This requires a bit of work to set up where all your default data files go, but it's certainly do-able. If anything, though, 250 GB is too huge for a dedicated OS drive.

The other view is how handy it is if everything is on...

Paperdoc

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If you have about 50% more dollars available, the 1.5 TB units often are a better price per TB.

There seem to be two views of this sort of thing, each with its merits. One group finds it very handy to have one drive (or Partition) devoted to the OS and its key add-ons, with all the apps and their data files on another HDD or at least another Partition. That way if something bad happens to the OS, you can re-Format and re-install that one "disk" without ever touching the apps and data installed on a different drive. This requires a bit of work to set up where all your default data files go, but it's certainly do-able. If anything, though, 250 GB is too huge for a dedicated OS drive.

The other view is how handy it is if everything is on one drive in one huge Partition. So, then what to do with your old unit? You can either re-task it to being a second data-only drive. OR you can mount it in an external enclosure and make it your removable backup device. However, backing up 1 TB when it gets even half full is impossible on a ¼ TB unit.

If you want to make the new 1 TB unit your OS and main drive, the tool to use is cloning. IF you happen to choose a new HDD from Seagate or WD, they each offer you a free downloadable package based on Acronis True Image that is very good. (Seagete's is Disk Wizard, WD's is Acronis True Image WD Edition.) Each of these will help you make the upgrade by making a clone TO their HDD's and nobody else's. Other HDD makers may have their own free utilities, or you can always buy a third party package.
 
Solution

robertito

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Dec 23, 2007
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Alright, thanks for the info. Whether I go 1 or 1.5tb I think its between the WD Caviar Green/Black. Ignoring price difference, is the green that much slower? according to WDs website the green is considerably quieter and runs almost twice as cool. Is the performance hit significant enough?

EDIT: on second thought the green seems considerably slower. Is the black as loud and hot as they say? any other suggestions?
 

robertito

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Ok, maybe the green would be better, cheaper too. As much as it may be slower on heavy read and write, its only a few seconds, and I really don't feel like dealing with extra heat and noise, my damn GPU is loud and hot enough.

Thanks for the help, I'll use the green as my main drive and throw the seagate in a case for portable storage.
 

Paperdoc

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Blacks are faster, and gamers would notice, as would heavy database users. But most home users will find greens quite suitable. They run slower and use less power (less heat generation). Blacks are designed a bit tougher for long life in heavy use. We have a media PC that is our home entertainment system. We don't have cable TV anymore. We use local OTA TV channels plus all the programs we have downloaded from the internet and stored on a pair of 1.5 TB green drives on the media machine. Actually, after a year of this and MANY hundreds of hours of stored programs, we almost have one of those drives filled. Playback is just fine from them. Have not downloaded HD program files yet - only upgraded the old CRT-type TV to a flat screen with 1080p capability last month. But I really do not expect any issues.