Harddrive

**Schwaggy** · 01-29-09, 09:29 PM

So I filled up my harddrive with music... Only 4 Gigs left. Can anyone point me in the direction of a cheap, reliable extra harddrive for a shitty dell?

**Potemkine** · 01-29-09, 09:36 PM

well first off, how much space do you have on your current HD? External HDs are quite good. You can get a TB from Western Digital for about 200 or so.

**Viktor_Olin** · 01-29-09, 09:55 PM

Start your search here: http://www.newegg.com/Store/Category...me=Hard-Drives

Lots of choices and lots of decisions to make. Internal or external; IDE or SATA. How old is the Dell? If it's old, you may be limited to IDE drives or an external USB drive. I've had no issues with Western Digital or Seagate drives (knock on wood). The Seagates (internal, anyway) have a longer warranty, IIRC. I've just built a new PC and used SATA Western Digitals, 640 GB ($75) and 320 GB ($50). Newegg has frequent sales; keep checking back. You could also look here, a Newegg owned site: http://www.chiefvalue.com/

If you decide to purchase from Newegg, be sure to do so via TTP shopping: http://www.texasteamplayers.com/index.php?page=174

Remember that external USB drives have inherently slower data transfer than internal drives, due to USB limitations. Also, I've had occasional issues with an external USB drive. Never with an internal.

**Schwaggy** · 01-30-09, 10:56 AM

I only have like 75G on my hard drive. I think it sounds like internal are more reliable and I don't need a TB

**Schwaggy** · 01-30-09, 11:01 AM

Also do I need to buy cables and how can I tell it'll be compatible with my cpu?

**ALPINESTAR** · 01-30-09, 11:44 AM

your dell might have another spot for a harddrive ... I know mine does. It only has one slot filled

**Viktor_Olin** · 01-30-09, 10:27 PM

Originally Posted by Schwaggy

Also do I need to buy cables and how can I tell it'll be compatible with my cpu?

You should be able to look up your system specs at Dell's website; my 6 year old Dell (just retired) is still listed under my account at Dell's support site ( http://support.dell.com/ ). That should give you an idea of the type of hard drive that's installed in your system. The HD doesn't have to be compatible with your CPU, but it does need to be supported by your motherboard (my 6 year old system only supported IDE drives. The system I just built can support both IDE and SATA). If you're unable to locate the info yourself, post as much information as you can about your system here (model number, especially) and we'll try to help you figure out what to buy. You might also Google some basic info on adding hard drives; here's a video I just found on adding a HD to a Dell Dimension, for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVaBB8X6KhQ