What hard drive should I buy?

So, I'm thinking about getting myself a new hard drive, a 7200RPM or an SSD to replace my old 5400RPM. Now, I was wondering whether I should get a Western Digital or a Hitachi drive, or go all out for an Intel X25-M 80GB.

The drives I would be choosing between would be the following:

320GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue, 2.5", 7200RPM
http://www.instantpcshop.com.au/pcshop/446/index.php?productID=5154

320GB Hitachi Travelstar, 2.5", 7200RPM
http://www.instantpcshop.com.au/pcs...ID=835&categoryID=165&save_voting_results=yes

Or I could go all out for the Intel X25-M:
http://www.mwave.com.au/newAU/mwaveAU/productdetail.asp?SKU=22140171

I also have another dilemma. The drive in my laptop, which is a Hitachi, clearly says on the label that it is a 200GB drive, yet in Windows there are two partitions, and each is 200GB (186 GiB). How is this possible. It sounds like I have two physical drives, but I took the 200GB Hitachi out and tried booting without it in, and it said there was nothing to boot from? It seems that I have twice the amount of space that I am supposed to. Is this a stuff up on the sticker on the drive? Or something else?

 

Personally, it would be between the Intel and the new Hitachi 7K500 for $79.99.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145275&Tpk=hitachi 7200 travelstar

I've actually ordered the Hitachi but will still try the Intel 160GB G2 when they're available here.

You may even want to wait for the 320GB Intel SSD possibly early next year (no solid info, mostly rumor's right now)?

Do you physically have two drives in your computer? Maybe if they're in RAID0 or, if you're taking the boot drive out (instead of the Data drive) this is why it won't boot without it.

Other than that, I would say re-install Windows! Somehow, you've confused it!

BTW, if you're seriously considering the 80GB version, make sure you'll be able to live with about 53GB of O/S + programs + data (70% or less - less is preferable) so that you don't get any unwanted slowdowns on your system.

Hope some of this info helps.

Edit: Go into the BIOS and see if you have two physical drives, or, right click on Computer, click Manage and select Disk Management. This should also tell you if there are two physical drives instead of 1 partitioned one (look for Disk 0, Disk 1 etc., but if your installation is borked, you may not be able to trust what Disk Management tells you so the BIOS should be more reliable, I think).

Good Luck!

 

I don't really have the green to shell out for the 160GB, unless I can find one for under $450 AUD. And since I live in Australia, Newegg is pretty much pointless to me. The 500GB Hitachi 7200RPM isn't available in this side of the planet anyway.

How are OCZ and Corsair when it comes to SSD's? I know they are good brands when it comes to RAM, so I assume it would be the same with SSD's?

 

Depends a lot on the size of the drive you buy and how much you fill it. If you can use less than 50% of its capacity and be happy (you just doubled it's $/GB ratio!) then an Indilinx based drive should be okay.

 

Umm, what? For size to price ratio, OCZ and Corsair are cheaper in Australia.

Also, I had a look in BIOS, and it says I have a 200GB Hitachi, which was the one I took out, but it said I also have a Fujitsu, which I assume is 200GB as well. What I find weird is the fact that I have an OS on each drive, but when I take one out so it boots automatically from the other, it doesn't find any OS at all.

 

Nuegg ships internationally. Did you no?

 

He means that if you can't fill an Indilinx based drive past 50% without suffering a performance hit, your effective capacity is cut in half, and thus you're doubling the $/GB ratio.

 

Thats because when you installed your second O/S, it used the first drive's (the Sata 0 port) first partition to point to your second O/S. When you remove that first drive, the pointer is gone and the second HD is essentially a data, instead of an active, boot drive.

 

http://www.newegg.com/HelpInfo/FAQDetail.aspx?Module=4#xdetail126

I'm sorry sir, but Newegg does not ship anywhere outside the USA or Puerto Rico.

 

Found that out myself yesterday when i was checking out the 7K500 Travelstar on Newmegg... So sad... can't buy that hard drive anywhere in the UK...

 

Hopefully, it will be released worldwide in a month or so.