Selecting an internal hard drive

[Scott Shepherd]

It's been a long time since I messed with internal hard drives, but I'd like to install an additional hard drive in a computer I have, and I also have a family member looking to do the same thing. I'd like to use internal because my online backup doesn't recognize USB devices, so I'd like to use the internal so I can back it up via the service if I want to.

However, I'm really confused by what will work these days. With SATA and RAID and probably some other things, how can I tell which drive I need or will work with each of the 2 systems?

Thanks!
Steve

[David Epperson]

Go to http://www.belarc.com/ and load the Belarc Adviser. This will tell you a lot about your system(s). Then you can go to the motherboard manufacturers website and see what your systems motherboard will support.
Once you have that information it's "just" a question of finding a suitable drive.

[David G Baker]

I second what David E wrote. Belarc Adviser is something that all computer users should have. It has your software keys, more system information than any geek could hope for, it is something I print the read out of and save in a folder covering each of my computers. It helps identify drivers that go with the hardware on your computer. Especially if you have a debranded computer.

[Chuck Wintle]

However, I'm really confused by what will work these days. With SATA and RAID and probably some other things, how can I tell which drive I need or will work with each of the 2 systems?
Thanks!
Steve
Steve,
You need to know what motherboard you have to buy the correct drive. The latest is Sata2 but probably what is needed is an IDE type connection. You can confirm this by checking the cable that connects to the drive, a wide ribbon is IDE while the slender small flat cable is sata. That said I have had really good luck with seagate drives, good warranty, pretty fast and available up to 1 terabyte. let us know what you find for a motherboard.

[Curt Harms]

It's probably mostly SATA connections. I just put a new Gigabyte MB in SO's computer. It has one IDE connector, 6 SATA 2 connectors and a bunch (6+) of USB2 connectors. I've also heard that having an IDE hard drive and IDE optical drive ( CD/DVD) on the same cable will slow the hard drive down, don't know how true that is. You can get HUGE (IMO) hard drives for cheap today.