Hard drive buying tips

When purchasing a hard disk drive, it is important to understand and verify the hard disk drive is suitable for your uses and has or does not have the options you may or may not need. Unfortunately, with hard disk drive technologies changing every day, it is can be sometimes confusing and frustrating when looking to purchase a hard disk drive.

Interface

When looking to purchase a hard disk drive the first and foremost important consideration is the Interface the hard disk drive uses to communicate with the computer. Below is a listing of each of the available interfaces with information how thy may or may not apply to your computer.

• IDE/ATAPI/ATA One of the more commonly found hard disk drives and used with IBM compatible computers, IDE is generally an easy to install and customize interface. Each IBM computer has the availability for a maximum of four IDE devices, these devices can range from Hard Disk drives to CD-ROM drives. If considering purchasing an IDE/ATAPI/ATA hard disk drive, verify that there are available locations for the drive to be connected to.
• SCSI Another commonly used interface, SCSI devices are found in Apple computers as well as some IBM computers. The SCSI interface is generally a faster solution when compared to IDE/ATAPI; however, in some cases, they can be more difficult to install. To install a SCSI hard disk drive you must have a SCSI card and an available connection on the SCSI cable connecting to the SCSI card. It is important to remember if you have a Proprietary SCSI card, such as a SCSI card included with the Iomega Jaz drive, this SCSI card may not always allow your hard disk drive to work.
• External (USB / Fire wire / Parallel)Several external solutions are also available; these include but are not limited to USB Hard disk drive, Fire wire Hard disk drive and Parallel Hard disk drive. When considering an external hard disk drive, it is important to look at the speed difference for transferring data to and from the hard disk drive. In addition, for these external drives to function properly, you must also have the available connection for the drive to be connected to.

Speed

In addition to the interface, it is also important to look at the transfer rates of the hard disk drive; long transfer rates can considerably slow down your computer when transferring larger files. When looking at the hard disk drive, look for specifications listing the RPM (Rotations Per Minute). An example of this would be a speed of 7,200 RPM. - komputertips4u