1 TB HDD

  • Thread starter Thread starter NewsJunkie
  • Start date Start date
N

NewsJunkie

Is anyone using the new 1TB hard drives yet? Anyone have any reliability
issues with them? Anyone think one brand/model is better than the other?

I would appreciate anyone's comments about these drives as I am seriously
considering getting one to put into my existing system, a Dell Optiplex 210L
with a dual core P4 3.0Ghz CPU and 2GB ram. I'm not intentionally bragging,
just wanting to tell ya what I got in case someone has any advice for or
against upgrading my system with it. I do also have XP Professional 64bit OS
to install if that may help but previous problems with the 64bit OS has me
leery of putting it back on my system...

One question if I may ask...

How is the secondary SATA connected to the system? As I recall, it does not
have a data cable with two connectors, so I assume I have to buy an
additional data and power cable for the additional hard drive, if I choose
to continue using the existing hard drive. Right?

Jim
 
For each SATA drive there HAS to be a SATA connector on the motherboard.
IF there is only ONE SATA connector on the board then you can only have one
SATA drive connected to the board.
IF there are two SATA connectors on the motherboard then you can connect two
SATA drives.
EACH SATA drive has it's own SATA cable and power connector.
Data cable with two connectors?
SATA cables have a plug(connector)at each end.
You cannot have two drives on a single cable.

There is no gain from having a 64 bit OS unless your software was
"written"to run on 64bit OS.
 
Its a bit difficult to discus reliability with hw that has only recently
been available.
If you use a 1tb drive then you need an equivelent size media for backup, or
did you forget that?
 
SATA cables are single: one drive, one cable.

You can get information on your system at support.dell.com.

For example, the mainboard has two SATA connectors on it. That should allow
you to add a second SATA hard drive, unless your optical drive is already
using the port. (You may be able to check that in Device Manager, although I
suggest opening the box to look.) The 210L's power supply already has two
SATA connectors, so you won't need any adapters. If you need an additional
SATA signal cable, they come with retail drive packages. (But not with a
bare drive.) Dell provided a screwless mount for a second HD, but I don't
know if they include a second SATA data cable.

There is no advantage to XP64 with this drive. 32 bit XP will work fine with
a 1TB drive, although you'd need SP1 or later for proper support. (
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303013/en-us ) I ran XP Home SP2 with a
750GB drive, for example. (That drive now lives in an external USB/ESATA
enclosure.)

I was going to recommend against a 1TB drive based on price/capacity, but I
see that it's not ridiculously worse than for more mainstream sizes (e. g.,
500 GB): you can get a WDC 1TB drive for around $250 (www.newegg.com), while
a 500GB drive would be $100.

There's a slight chance that a large drive might strain the power supply or
cooling capacity of the 210L, but I wouldn't expect it. Maybe Dell support
can give you information on that, but in the past I found that they only
have information on configurations that they sell.

As for brands, I prefer Seagate's 5 year warranty. If you want the quietest
drive or the fastest possible drive, Seagate may not be the best choice.
Hitachi uses a 5 platter design for their 1TB drives (vs. 4 for Seagate),
which suggests that the Hitachi drives may use more power. You may find more
information at http://www.storagereview.com/ .

Have fun.

Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
 
Its a bit difficult to discus reliability with hw that has only recently
been available.
If you use a 1tb drive then you need an equivelent size media for backup, or
did you forget that?
Click to expand...

But not everyone backs up 100% of their stuff to their backup drives. I only
backup my documents and stuff i can recover like pictures etc. I can reinstall
any of my apps if need be.
 
I am using 8 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB SATA 7200 RPM 32MB Buffer Hard
Drive
with my mb- asus a8n sli, it has 8 sata ports . I use 4 for working
disks and have the other as mirrors. Running all hd and optical drives on
2nd power supply to keep mb functions supplied with enough power. Have been
using the hd"s only a few weeks but so far no glitches.
 
I am using 8 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB SATA 7200 RPM 32MB Buffer Hard
Drive
with my mb- asus a8n sli, it has 8 sata ports . I use 4 for working
disks and have the other as mirrors. Running all hd and optical drives on
2nd power supply to keep mb functions supplied with enough power. Have been
using the hd"s only a few weeks but so far no glitches.
Click to expand...
I bow to you oh holy one!!!
 
Actually I need all of that space for file and video work. In my employment
I do a lot of projects that concern EPA and Justice Department issues. Since
the nearest EPA District is in San Francisco all projects have to be
documented at every stage of project and copys of documentation, photos,
etc. sent to district office. they also need to be retained for x amount of
years. When things get tight I transfer old data to removable storage.
Other drives are used for video editing, photoshop etc.
 
Just found this newsgroup and apologise for hijacking the thread. I have
just installed a secondary hard drive, 500Gb to my Dell XPS Gen 5 running
Windows XP but once formatted is only showing up as 232Gb making it look as
though it is only a 250Gb drive but all the labels and packaging refer to
500Gb. Does anyone know if there are any limits to what might be
recognised?

Thanks
Ian
 
Hi Andy
Since posting this I installed a drive out an external unit with and IDE
connection and a "Converter board" that would not work in the external case.
Once I switched on the SATA connections in the drive and I restarted the
machine this unit was recognised however also popped up is a "G" drive with
232Gb free space. It looks as though the PC has 2 x 250Gb but only one was
activated in the BIOS. The machine has always had the two original drives
but I thought it was 2 x 125Gb working out at 116Gb once formatted, a weird
size I realise now. I will have another go with the 500Gb soon and post
back.
Thanks for responding.
Ian
 
It really sounds like only part of the drive has been formatted as a
partition and there is free space that needs to be formatted-strange though
is that drive G is assigned a letter-usually cannot apply drive letter until
formatted. Or, the drive is formatted into 2 partitions and you do have a g
drive with the quoted free space. If you use windows explorer access the g
drive if you can and see if any files exist on the drive. Usually should be
system information file in in the root of the drive.
 
Back
Top