Hard drive question

[Clarkey]

I currently have a 150Gb internal hdd. I fear it is dying as my PC restarts randomly and I get a disk read error that is related to a communication problem. The only sources of this problem are either the SATA cable, the HDD or the motherboard. They are also in the order of the cheapest option to replace one by one to try and identify and resolve the problem.

A few months ago I replaced the SATA cable. Nice and cheap and it seemed to resolve the problem, or at least, I got no random reboots or anything.

A few weeks ago i packed up my PC, moved it out of my room for 3 weeks and have only just put it all back. Since then I have had 3 occurrences of the original problem. This suggests to me that the SATA cable was not the original fault.

So, my next cheapest option is to replace the HDD. I'd rather not have to buy a new PC. Besides the issue I'm having, my 150Gb HDD works fine in my PC, so the question is, will a PC work with any size HDD or not? For example, I could buy a 500Gb HDD and I know it will work fine, but if I went all out and bought say a 3T HDD would my PC cope with it or might the specs of my PC not be compatible?

[Psyko]

Have you tried running a HDD repair? If there are any errors developed on the HDD over time, that can usually resolve a lot, if not all, of the problems.

[Clarkey]

TBH on Windows 7 I wouldn't know where to look for that option.

[HgE]

First of All:
Read the MotherBoard Documentation. There they will tell you how much can handle. If you have SATA 2, then don't worries. if Your New HDD it's SATA 2 doesn't matter how many T's you have.. Windows will handle those Terra.

So You Have an Internal: SATA HDD. Sata is: 1, 2, 3?. Personal Computers can Work with ANY HDD you buy as long as they are compatible with your MotherBoard..

If you have the Money Sir, BUY: SSD - 160 GB in Win 7 will ROCK your dreams 2-5 sec to load ALL IN.
Or, Buy SSD fo 60GB only for Sistem Files and Programs and Buy 1 Terra HDD SATA. This way, you'll always have space for whatever you wanna save.

Anyway this is the best thing to do, since SSD it's too **Filtered** expensive.

[~Dä Vinci~]

yeah for a ssd ( solid state drive ) your going to look at around £120-£160 for a 60/80/120gb drive i looked into it really good but way to expensive for what i need

[Clarkey]

I have a Shuttle PC and therefore only have room for one internal drive. However I do have an external 500Gb HDD.

[HgE]

so buy that SSD if you have $$$$.. And you can say, now you have a MAC PC, not a Shuttle PC.
And you can always stack-able 2 SSD in that HDD room.

Anyway.. I don't know for what are you using your PC.. But, if you don't need to Have Terras on main HDD, then buy SSD..
SSD of 60-80Gb it's enough for Win7 and basic Programs like MS Office or what so ever.

Here one SSD form OCZ.. I think it's more than enough.
http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-Technology-Ve ... B003NE5JCE

and SSD vs HDD:
http://elitepcbuilding.com/ssd-vs-hdd

[Kit-Fox]

Removed

[Jack]

Cheap SSDs are no better than midrange HDDs and are more expensive per GB. The best SSDs might beat the best HDDs, but not by much and again you're sacrificing space for a bit of speed.

If you're going to buy a new storage drive, just go with a good mid range HDD. I have a Western Digital Green HDD and it's awesome. Blacks are better, they're performance drives whereas the Green is an eco drive(meaning that it saves power at the expensive of speed). Don't bother with Blues, they're the low end drives. They sacrifice performance for cost.

But before you buy a new HDD, do as the others have suggested and run tests on yours. Make sure the HDD is the problem. Then again, if it is the problem, you're going to have to buy a new one anyway and if it's not then you might have to buy a new PC. If you have to buy a new PC, you might as well build one as it's the cheapest option and if you build one, might as well get a bigger drive anyway.

[Lithium]

first check better what cause the comp. restart , sometimes even if u ve hdd err bad sector the source can be the power.
also u can do scandisk with fix and repair.

cmd: chkdsk c: /F /R it ll scan i after restart.

gui : go at Properties of yr partition , C or D , then tools and check now , check both opetion and scan.
check web for free softs: HDD regenerator , acronis , etc, backup yr data b4 running softwares that repair yr hdd.

incase suddenly yr pc freeze and u know it might be disk not responding , then , turn off , remove disk, put it in the freezer for 15 min , then try again it works most of the times

[Lithium]

first check better what cause the comp. restart , sometimes even if u ve hdd err bad sector the source can be the power.
also u can do scandisk with fix and repair.

cmd: chkdsk c: /F /R it ll scan i after restart.

gui : go at Properties of yr partition , C or D , then tools and check now , check both opetion and scan.
check web for free softs: HDD regenerator , acronis , etc, backup yr data b4 running softwares that repair yr hdd.

incase suddenly yr pc freeze and u know it might be disk not responding , then , turn off , remove disk, put it in the freezer for 15 min , then try again it works most of the times

[Kit-Fox]

Removed

[Lithium]

Do not, I repeat do not put your hard drive in any freezer, most consumer retail units are not made to withstand colder than -5 celcius at the most. Household freezers are usually much colder than that, you risk damaging your drive & invalidating any remaining warranty that may exist on it.

u dont need to put it to ice box lol , just where u put all the stuff , theres not -0

[Kit-Fox]

Removed

[Jack]

Do not, I repeat do not put your hard drive in any freezer, most consumer retail units are not made to withstand colder than -5 celcius at the most. Household freezers are usually much colder than that, you risk damaging your drive & invalidating any remaining warranty that may exist on it.

That advice is actually legit. EXCEPT that it ONLY pertains to instances where your drive is dead, you know it's dead, and you've done everything in your power to try and fix it. The trick does not restore the drive, rather it only makes it accessible for a very short while so that you may recover your most important information.

Once again, it is a LAST DITCH EFFORT to save valuable information stored on a DEAD drive.