New Hard drive?

[verytalldave]

Advice and opinions please.........

My home PC is more than a few years old, but still serves me well.
No real need to upgrade - other than storage capacity.
My C Drive is only 160G and is nearly full - slowing the lady down.

What should I do?

Buy a new replacement C drive (say 1.5T) - and dump the old 160G disk.......or simply add on an USB powered external drive of a similar capacity?
I would really rather go for the first option - but the 2nd option would be easier and less hassle. Cost doesnt enter the equation. I just want whatever is best.

What would you do?

 

[wemorgan]

I often use PC Pro A-list for part recommendations.

Currently they recommend the Samsung SpinPoint, though this review is 18 months old. Here is their largest 1TB 7200rpm 32MB on dab for £71.

I'd personally go for a new HD with a clean install of Windows etc.

 

[Gareth]

agree, I'd buy a bigger replacement drive and do a clean install of Windows if you know how to do it.

 

[gbjeppm]

Have you thought about NAS (Network Attached Storage), if you have a router, just plug it in. Then others on your network can share it.

You can then also daisy chain USB drives off it.

Like these
Buffalo Technology - Products - LinkStation™

You could then clean up your existing drive, do a reinstall and it will perform like new again.

Having 2 drives gives you back up options of all the stuff you don't want to lose.

 

[BTB 500]

Key question - what are you storing on your hard drive that has caused it to fill up?

Second key question - how is your hard drive currently backed up?

 

[verytalldave]

Key question - what are you storing on your hard drive that has caused it to fill up?

Second key question - how is your hard drive currently backed up?

Mainly music and photos.
My C drive is backed up to an external disk of 260GB capacity.

 

[BTB 500]

Mainly music and photos.
My C drive is backed up to an external disk of 260GB capacity.

I'd probably be inclined to use a pair of external drives then ... one 'live' and the other for backup.

I'm a keen photographer and shoot RAW plus JPEG most of the time. I do cull pictures very aggressively though, only keeping the best. Our total data storage is under 60 Gb, including some video and Mrs BTB's music collection.

 

[HughJarse]

First option... clean install every time

 

[GordonTarling]

I'd be tempted to just go for replacing the existing drive. However, you could run into a problem here, as most new drives are SATA interface, whilst your 'old' one is probably PATA. While you can still get PATA drives, they will be slower and not readily available in the larger sizes. Maybe an external USB drive will give you what you need until it's time to upgrade the whole PC?

 

[Gareth]

^ good point

 

[HughJarse]

No its not, 500gb ide £60

Hard Drives - 3.5" IDE Hard Drives - Ebuyer

750gb here
IDE Hard Drive - Aria Technology


Plenty places sell them, they aint chickens teeth yet.

 

[w124coupe]

If 160GB is nearly full then you must have a lot in "MyDocuments".

I would be tempted to add another disk (see what connectors/types are free on the Motherboard) and relocate MyDocuments away from Windows - very easy to do and preserves your files across a Windows re-install in future. The "D" disk (or whatever) can then be stuck in a new PC complete with your docs when you finally upgrade.

The space freed on the boot disk should then allow a clean defrag to be run and should speed up nicely.

 

[verytalldave]

Perhaps I should explain.
My son is a DJ and downloads countless tunes.
Most tunes are around 20MB each and its not unusual for him to download something like 20 or 30 a week.
So it doesnt take long to fill up several gigs............and more........

BTW...........Thanks to everyone for their kind replies.........

 

[BTB 500]

Most tunes are around 20MB each and its not unusual for him to download something like 20 or 30 a week.

25 tunes a week every week would 'only' be 26 GB a year.

Edit:

PS each picture I take is about 12 MB (raw file + jpeg).

 

[redspecial2000]

If you had more than one PC in the house, even a laptop, Id actually be suggesting one of these:
HP's MediaSmart Server for your home

Best thing Ive ever bought- it even backs up all your PCs without even thinking about it.

 

[nickcc101]

Tried to fit a large drive a few years ago and found the BIOS would not take. Had to fit new motherboard. Would have been cheaper to buy new PC without monitor etc.

 

[verytalldave]

25 tunes a week every week would 'only' be 26 GB a year.

Edit:

PS each picture I take is about 12 MB (raw file + jpeg).

Yes - but I also have 2 daughters which store their many holiday photos and all seperate their iTunes stuff as well.
And of course, I have some stuff as well.............................
160G doesnt go far in my home.................. ! ! ! ! !

 

[TheJoker]

If you have several people in the house then I'd recommend external drives. Keep them "Personal" and keep the computer to churn the "front end", and keep the data on the external disks. Even a common NAS would be good.
Best option is naturally a home server and a personal computer for every individual in the house.
I run a bunch of laptops and a desktop in the house, and we have a Linux server up in the loft that serves us with mirrored storage for our photos, our videos and naturally our music. Even a small web server.
It's perhaps a bit OTT to have a Linux server for most people, but a standard clean Windows machine with two big mirrored disks in and sharing enabled should suffice just fine and should be pretty easy to keep running.

 

[verytalldave]

All now sorted.
2 new external 320G disks. USB powered. One for storage and one for backup.
Should see me through to the next complete new system when XP becomes useless.

Thanks to everyone for their advice and ideas.