Recommend me a Hard drive, windows question

Bman123

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2008
3,221
1
81
I am looking to upgrade this dell E520 hard drive as I am sure I can get this system alot faster with a new drive as the current one inside it is pretty old now.
I don't have the cash for a SSD so I would like to get a super fast mechanical drive. My current drive is a 250gb and I wont ever fill that up so no need to suggest a 1tb as I will never use that much storage.

I mainly surf the forums, looking for answers to questions, BS on here with you guys, FB, CL email and movies thru netflix. I know this old drive is slow and newer tech would be alot faster.

I also need a kinda walk thru of how to install the new drive with my current version of windows. It is a store bought pc and I dont want to buy a new version of windows. I have heard of cloning but I am unsure of how to do it.

Cliff notes
1. Need a super fast mechanical hard drive
2. Info on how to put my current version of windows onto the new drive so I can get rid of the old drive
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
Samsung F3 500GB, or Seagate 7200.12 500GB. Any of the 500GB single platter drives is going to be the fastest mechanical drives you can get(unless you go 15k SAS server drives or raptors)

The cloning software from seagate is very easy to use, transferring over the old drive will be easy.
 

FishAk

Senior member
Jun 13, 2010
987
0
0
The Seagate Momentus XT, with it's 4Gb flash cache, may be just what you're looking for. I don't have one myself, but the reviews put it's practical speed right up there with the Velociraptors.

How to clone one drive to another. This is written with an SSD in mind, but will work for any SATA drive.
 

TemjinGold

Diamond Member
Dec 16, 2006
3,050
65
91
Lol, 3 different replies and no consensus!

OP: Honestly, for your usage pattern, just get the cheapest brand name 7200 rpm drive that's at least 500 gig. You won't notice much of a difference anyway.
 

darkewaffle

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2005
8,152
1
81
+1 for F3 500GB, though the 640GB Caviar Black is good too if you find a deal. The only real problem with the Blacks is the price premium.
 

Voo

Golden Member
Feb 27, 2009
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OP: Honestly, for your usage pattern, just get the cheapest brand name 7200 rpm drive that's at least 500 gig. You won't notice much of a difference anyway.
+1 - I highly doubt that anyone can notice the difference between any same-gen, same-rpm drive without benchmarks (well noise could give it away)
 

Bman123

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2008
3,221
1
81
I noticed the difference before when I went from a stock hdd in my old gateway to a wd black drive before. I hate long restate times lol
 

Bman123

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2008
3,221
1
81
I hate the super long boot and restart times my computer has, that's why I want a new fast drive. If I had the cash I would buy a SSD but that isn't a option right now. I am going to be building a new pc eventually and it would be nice just to have a good hard drive ahead of time
 

Voo

Golden Member
Feb 27, 2009
1,684
0
76
I noticed the difference before when I went from a stock hdd in my old gateway to a wd black drive before. I hate long restate times lol
*points to the "same-gen, same-rpm" part*
The difference between the fastest and slowest 1tb 7.2k rpm drive at windows startup amounts to 2.5seconds (49.5 vs. 52s; see here). I very much doubt that you can notice that differene without looking at your watch or counting..