Is it possible for me to upgrade my hard drive?

[ff6shadow]

This is the computer I have. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/documentSubCategory?tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3245032 It has a 320 GB hard drive. Is it possible to upgrade it to a bigger one, and what kind should I get if it is? Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[danraies]

Yes, you can upgrade. What do you want from the upgrade? Just more space? If so, how much space? As a starting point I would recommend the Samsung Spinpoint F3.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

 

[inzone]

Of course you can upgrade.

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3R HE103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $74.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152238

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $59.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $79.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152245

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1501FASS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $109.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136592

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1502FAEX 1.5TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $99.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136793

The difference between the Samsung and the Western Digital is that the W.D. has a 64 mb cache and the Samsung a 32 mb cache. It makes the W.D. a little bit faster.

 

[Emerald]

Yes but I am not sure what the max size the BIOS will support. It will definitely not support over 3TB drives but might max out at 2TB.

if you have XP, use a hard drive with no more then 32MB of cache

 

[ff6shadow]

Yes, I'm looking for about 2 TBs or more of space. I would like 3 TBs. I have Windows 7 64 bit. Will 2 TBs be compatible with my computer? Oh, and do I need to buy anything else to go with the HD? I also want a solid state drive to put operating system on, and I want to use another larger HD to store things. Will I be able to install a SSD and HD on this desktop? Thanks everyone for the support and help! I appreciate it so much.

 

[ff6shadow]

Best answer selected by ff6shadow.

 

[danraies]

You won't be able to use more a 3TB drive as a boot drive but you should be able to use it for mass storage. 3TB drives are new and I'm pretty sure that two 2TB drives will be cheaper than one 3TB drive. A consideration, though, is the SATA ports on your motherboard. You've only got four ports and I would guess that one of them is for an optical drive. Various things use SATA connections so open up your computer and check how many available SATA ports you have (your current HDD will be in one of them). Below is a picture of what your motherboard will look like and the four black/yellow/blue/white ports in the bottom right are your SATA ports.

If you have at least two ports open (after removing your current hard drive) then you can use an SSD as your boot drive and an HDD as storage. If you have three open you can use an SSD as your boot drive and two 2TB drives for mass storage.

For either the 2TB or 3TB variety, I recommend the Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 for your application. It's a 7200RPM drive for high performance and they're slightly more energy efficient than the other drives.

As for an SSD, it's hard to recommend until you give us a size. Intel makes quality SSDs and I like my OCZ (although OCZ doesn't have the best reputation I guess). One thing, though, is that all your SATA ports are 3gb/s (SATA II) so don't wast extra money on a SATA III drive because you won't see any extra performance. Also, SSDs are one area where you don't want to get the super bargain basement models. Sometimes manufacturers try to have a fire sale on older drives with buggy controllers or drives that are asynchronous and you want to stay away from those.

 

[ff6shadow]

You won't be able to use more a 3TB drive as a boot drive but you should be able to use it for mass storage. 3TB drives are new and I'm pretty sure that two 2TB drives will be cheaper than one 3TB drive. A consideration, though, is the SATA ports on your motherboard. You've only got four ports and I would guess that one of them is for an optical drive. Various things use SATA connections so open up your computer and check how many available SATA ports you have (your current HDD will be in one of them). Below is a picture of what your motherboard will look like and the four black/yellow/blue/white ports in the bottom right are your SATA ports.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf-JAVA/Doc/images/c00757541.jpg

If you have at least two ports open (after removing your current hard drive) then you can use an SSD as your boot drive and an HDD as storage. If you have three open you can use an SSD as your boot drive and two 2TB drives for mass storage.

For either the 2TB or 3TB variety, I recommend the Hitachi Deskstar 7K3000 for your application. It's a 7200RPM drive for high performance and they're slightly more energy efficient than the other drives.

As for an SSD, it's hard to recommend until you give us a size. Intel makes quality SSDs and I like my OCZ (although OCZ doesn't have the best reputation I guess). One thing, though, is that all your SATA ports are 3gb/s (SATA II) so don't wast extra money on a SATA III drive because you won't see any extra performance. Also, SSDs are one area where you don't want to get the super bargain basement models. Sometimes manufacturers try to have a fire sale on older drives with buggy controllers or drives that are asynchronous and you want to stay away from those.

Thank you so much for the information Danraies. That answered almost all my questions. I found this SSD. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227738&cm_sp=Cat_SSD-_-Spotlight-_-20-227-738 Any good? Oh, and is there any way for me to transfer my files onto a SSD without losing settings. In other words, is there any way for me to make an image of the hard drive I have now and move it onto an SSD? I have my current hard drive partitioned. One partition is 50 GB the other partition is 250 GB. I keep the operating system on the smaller partition. I plan to put everything on the smaller partition onto an SSD and everything on the larger partition on one or two regular hard drives. My computer has all 4 SATA ports usable excluding the main current hard drive. So, I could use two HITACHI Deskstar 7K3000 2TB hard drives and a SSD? Thanks for all the tips once again!

 

[danraies]

Glad to help.

I found this SSD. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227738&cm_sp=Cat_SSD-_-Spotlight-_-20-227-738 Any good?

I gotta say, I don't know enough about the subject to give you a knowledgable answer here. If it were me, I wouldn't buy that particular drive. A drive at that price/gb would make me nervous. I think that I can safely say that Crucial is one of the more reliable names in SSDs and Crucial will give you the best quality drive. As for other brands...maybe start another thread about finding a reliable SATA II drive.

Oh, and is there any way for me to transfer my files onto a SSD without losing settings. In other words, is there any way for me to make an image of the hard drive I have now and move it onto an SSD? I have my current hard drive partitioned. One partition is 50 GB the other partition is 250 GB. I keep the operating system on the smaller partition. I plan to put everything on the smaller partition onto an SSD and everything on the larger partition on one or two regular hard drives.

You can transfer the data from the 250gb partition before or after you install the SSD, that won't make a difference.

In terms of the boot drive, tt is theoretically possible to do what you want to do, but because of fundamental differences in the way that SSDs and magnetic HDDs store data it is not recommended. You should really just start with a fresh install of Windows.

My computer has all 4 SATA ports usable excluding the main current hard drive. So, I could use two HITACHI Deskstar 7K3000 2TB hard drives and a SSD?

Yup!