Need a new drive with lots of storage!

[KKSlider1337]

Hello everyone,

I've currently got a 250GB drive, but due to my music collection and the amount of games and programs I have, it's a struggle at this size and I would much prefer something more like 500GB+, maybe even 1TB.

I know nothing about hard drives whatsoever. Should I buy SATA or IDE? (What's the difference?) What's RAID exactly? Should I get a second drive and run both at once (my current drive works fine) or should I replace my current with just one big drive and have to start from scratch?

I've never swapped out a drive either - the only thing I've ever upgraded is my graphics card. Is it reasonably easy?

My computer is a gaming PC on Vista, with a HD4850. Is HD speed that important? Anything I should look out for? I saw this one, so I wondered if it was a good deal. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150245

Sorry for the barrage of questions

Will appreciate any advice very much. Thanks.

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[spearman914]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks <-- RAID info
The HD price seems about right for a 1tb drive. Yes HD speed is important, especially if u use a lot of apps and music.
Here are some basic differences between SATA and IDE:

1) Speed (150mbps (SATA) vs 100/133mbps (PATA/IDE))
2) Air flow (large IDE cable vs thin SATA)
3) Hot swappable (SATA)
4) Newer technology with future speed increases promised.

 

[KKSlider1337]

Thanks for that. Doesn't seem like RAID is something I want then, and sounds like I want to be going with SATA. I presume my current drive is probably SATA. Main thing I'd like to know now then really is if I should just add on a drive or replace it. Would it affect speed too harshly if I had two seperate drives, for example if there were programs on the other drive to the OS, would these be considerably slower or have little difference?

 

[spearman914]

Thanks for that. Doesn't seem like RAID is something I want then, and sounds like I want to be going with SATA. I presume my current drive is probably SATA. Main thing I'd like to know now then really is if I should just add on a drive or replace it. Would it affect speed too harshly if I had two seperate drives, for example if there were programs on the other drive to the OS, would these be considerably slower or have little difference?

Add on a drive is probably better. Put OS and apps on one drive. All other data on other so it keeps the os drive running top notch. Speed won't be effected harshly.

 

[KKSlider1337]

Cool, I was hoping you'd say that, should be less of a pain and will probably only have to get a 500GB to make a total of 750GB Now I just hope I have enough room, power, cables etc. whatever, to fit another one in... thanks for your help.

 

[W1zzard]

considering you have a 4850 in your pc, your motherboard should support sata hdds

get a sata drive. my personal best brand experience is with wd, haven't had a failing wd drive in about 10 years. just add the drive to your pc and keep the existing 250 gb disk. it will come up as a new drive letter once initialized, partitioned and formatted (google will tell you about those steps).