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smoket22

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Hard Drive Upgrade Advice

HI guys.

Ok, this one should be easy.
I simply would like to know which hard drive I could upgrade
to.  I want to get a new hard drive because I'm not happy with
the speed in which mine accesses / transfers data.
I currently have a Seagate barracuda 7200 (160gb).
Is there anything faster out there that I could grab.
Any advice would be awesome!
Also, how could i litterally transfer everything (including my os) from my
old hard drive to the new so that I don't need to re-install windows or anything?
I remember back in the days I used to use something called norton ghost but Im
guessing there are better things these days, let me know!

Thanks!

Tom
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Wadski
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Hi there smoket22,

The fastest SATA out there is the Western Digital Raptor.  

They are 15,000 rpm and come in 3 sizes: 36, 72 and 150GB.

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=189&Language=en


Don't bother with the RaptorX as you are paying $50 for a clear lid and a massively reduced lifespan.



Wadski
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maduropa

Transferring the system could be done with Ghost, nowadays also known as Symantec Ghost.

XP might whine because you use a new drive, so be carefull.
make sure you clear all event-logs before transferring the stuff. Uswed to be necesery for NT and 2K, so I guess it won't hurt XP to do it also.

Check what version you require for your disk-size, I think 160 GB can be handled ok with the latest versions.
The only issue on the Ghosting is that your old hard drive will be bigger that the largest Raptor so you will have problems Ghosting. To resolve this you will have reduce the size of the existing drive via something like Partition Magic to be smaller than the formatted size of the Raptor.

Since you are adding a new Drive why format the new drive install the OS and programs then connect up your old drive as a SLAVE and copy off the documents you need and then keep it as storage space?
wadski,
this is not needed. With ghost you can easily change the partition-size's for the receiving disk. Ghost will even make a recomendation.
You only need to make sure that the total data-size will fit on the new hard-disk.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Gary Case
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Some random thoughts:

7200 rpm Seagate drives are not slow drives.  Check BIOS and disk properties under Device Manager to ensure DMA mode is being used for access.  Ensure drive is connected with an 80 wire IDE cable (if IDE).

SATA is somewhat faster than IDE and a relatively inexpensive upgrade from IDE (PATA).

Yes, the Raptors are very fast (10K rpm though) and now max out at 150GB.  The lower capacity should not cause any problems imaging drive as long as you have less than 150GB used on current drive.  Ghost will image to a smaller drive if it has sufficient capacity to handle space actually used.

Upgrading the hard drive may not help if you have a bottleneck elsewhere.
if  you are moving to a SATA drive, you may have issues with drivers, as the OS does not include SATA Drivers in its load of drivers.

Willcomp is right, 7200 is not slow. You may be thinking it is the drive when it is something else.

good Luck,

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ASKER

Hi there

Sorry for delay, hadn't realised that I hadn't closed this topic.
My apologies, I have not accepted an answer.

Yours Sincerely

Tommy B
Correction:  I have "NOW" accepted an answer