Looking to add new HDD - Have a few questions

[Stza]

Hi everyone,
I'm looking to add an additional internal HDD to use for storage (just movies, music, etc., not the OS) and have a couple questions.

1) A friend told me that there could potentially be issues with my OS being unable to see more than 2TB of disk space. he didn't know the specifics, so i figured I'd ask here.

Here are some of my computer's specs (let me know if any more info would be useful):
-OS: Vista Home Premium (32 bit)
-Motherboard: four SATA 3Gb/s ports (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130081)
-Current Storage:
-One 500 GB drive (the OS is installed here)
-One 100 GB drive (just for extra space)

Anyway, if i buy a new 2TB drive and put it in, will I have any issues?


2) I'm looking for recommendations for a new 2TB HDD if anyone has some favorites. Obviously I'd like it to be cheap, but I'm not apposed to paying a little more if there is a significant difference in quality/reliability. I'm thinking in the $100 area, but again feedback is welcome. I'm pretty sure my motherboard only supports 3Gb/s.


3) Just out of curiosity, does 6Gb/s make a difference for most HDDs? I'd think that most would have trouble taking full advantage of the 3Gb/s without a RAID setup or something.

EDIT:

4) Could i use a 6Gb/s HDD with a 3Gb/s SATA port? and if so, would it be worth spending a little more on that if I'm looking to transfer it to a new computer when i rebuild in about 6 months?

Thanks so much for any help!

 

[WyomingKnott]

1) No. Just remember that a new drive has to be initialized, partitioned, and formatted, using Disk Manager, before you will see it as a drive letter.

2) Personal opinion: Hard drives are commodities. I'd buy a Hitachi or Western Digital or Seagate indiscriminately. The only difference that I care about is green (read slow) vs. mainstream vs. made-to-be-fast.

3) Quite right; current hard drives will not saturate an SATA II connection. There may be some advantage in having more overhead available for burst transfers, but nothing that will matter in the long run. Even if the HDD has an SATA III controller. Oops, I just addressed question 4. They only put SATA III controllers on HDDs because it's cheaper than stocking SATA II for the hard drives and SATA III for the SSDs.

 

[Stza]

Best answer selected by Stza.

 

[Stza]

Thanks WyomingKnott! that was really helpful