when buying a hard drive...whats the difference?

[heyzeus]

what is better, or suggested?
a uata drive
or a udma drive...
i am just trying to get something cheap that works. my board says it supports hd with pio,bus master, and ultra dme 66/100/133, but i only got about 50$ to spend. my current drive seems to be broken.

 

[EeyoreX]

Those terms don't matter, as all modern IDE hard drives will be UDMA/UATA (they amount to the same thing in the end anyhow). So, whatever you can get for $50 is probably going to be just fine (so long as you don't buy some old, like years old, hard drive).

\Dan

 

[Ionizer86]

For $50 or less you can get a Seagate, Maxtor, or WD 80GB with 8MB cache. Go for whatever's cheapest after rebate/coupon. Otherwise, if quality is the prime concern, go for the Seagate.

 

[modedepe]

Any IDE hard drive should work fine. Which you get just depends on what is your primary concern (i.e. price, nosie, or performance).

 

[sctakeshi]

Originally posted by: Ionizer86
For $50 or less you can get a Seagate, Maxtor, or WD 80GB with 8MB cache. Go for whatever's cheapest after rebate/coupon. Otherwise, if quality is the prime concern, go for the Seagate.

What do you mean by "quality"? Performance or reliability? I've been trying to find out who makes the most reliable, safe HDDs but my findings are very inconclusive.

 

[EeyoreX]

I've been trying to find out who makes the most reliable, safe HDDs but my findings are very inconclusive.

More likely than not, I have the most conclusive answer you are going to find: It depends. At some point or another I have used drives from all major manufacturers. I have never had a significant problem. As I often say in threads like this, it is simply a matter of luck. At least in the IDE drive space. SCSI is a different beast. I have two old 13GB WD drives in my file server computer. They have been running like champs for years. My computers always run 24/7 with exception to long (over two days) time away. Some people say that WD doesn't make reliable hard drives. I point to my two 13 giggers and say "Oh really?" Of course, there are people who had terrible trouble with the same drives at the time. Chalk it up to their bad luck and my good luck. That's the bottom line, IMO (outside entire line issues, like IBM's "Deathstar" drives).

\Dan

 

[heyzeus]

hey!
lotsa response. thanks!
yeah, i think i'll go with seagate, thats what my current one is. its four years old and has taken lots of abuse, and would still be good as new if i hadnt broken a pin off the connector.