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Drives Upgrade Guide:
How to Choose Hard Drive, Optical Drive, and Removable Drive
I will divide computer drives into 3 parts:
Some Advice When Choosing Hard Drive
Hard drive is a storage device that will store your data permanently. It doesn't need a power source to retain your data because it's a non volatile memory. Hard drive also stores your Operating System installation and also other programs. No computer will works without a hard drive. With nowadays technology and rapidly growing file size, you must consider adding a new hard drive. As you can see, one of newest game installation can cost you up to 8 GB of hard drive space. If you are a game freaks, what will you do? Of course, install an additional hard drive. What you must see when choosing a hard drive is:
Hard Drive Type
Choose between ATA or SATA hard drive. SATA is newer than ATA. But nowadays, ATA is still commonly used, and it used by general computer user. SATA is more likely used for a faster data transfer, it usually used by a corporation and enterprises. Besides, SATA is still expensive today. Faster drive than SATA is SCSI drive that have transfer rate very fast compared with SATA. If you choose other than ATA hard drive, your system must have SATA or SCSI controller to connect that drive to your system. So choose the hard drive type wisely.
Hard Drive Capacity
What you should consider when buying a new hard drive is its capacity. Choose the capacity based on your needs, possibly the greater size. Choose as high storage capacity as possible. That's because we have an unlimited needs of data storage. We can say that because in the past time when a hard drive is just 6 GB capacity, it seems so big to store the file. But now even 160 GB hard drive storage is not enough for some people. When we see the old age of computers, we can see that largest hard drive storage is only 10 MB. So choose the capacity as much as your system can handle for future use.
Capacity Limit from BIOS
Your BIOS generally have a limited amount of hard drive capacity you can use. You can not exceed the amount that your BIOS can handle or your hard drives will not recognized by your BIOS. Generally, this issue has been explained in your motherboard documentation. Always check your motherboard documentation before installing or adding new hard drive. But if you want to install a new hard drive, you can check if there is a BIOS upgrade available in your motherboard manufacturer's website. They always update their BIOS to support larger drives.
Capacity Limit from Older OS
You should not have a problem when you add a new hard drive if you have at least a Windows XP OS. But older operating systems have their own limitation. Windows 95 have 32 GB limit while Windows 98 can only recognize 64 GB hard drive capacity. I urge you to make upgrade for your OS, if your OS still an older one. Windows XP is a minimum for today’s use.
Transfer Rate
Choose the highest transfer rate as possible because it is important to ease file transfers in your drive.
Some Advice When Choosing Optical Drive
Optical drive, or often called CD/DVD drive, is a drive that can read or write a CD or DVD. Optical drive becomes very popular and also important. Rapidly growing file size and the need of portability makes optical drive become a must have part of your computer.
Type of Optical Drive
Choose the DVD writer instead of just a CD writer. Consider the advantages you will get. If you only have a CD writer, you will only capable to burn a maximum of 700 MB per CD, while if you have a DVD writer, you are capable to burn a maximum 4.7 GB per DVD. I think a DVD writer is an important part to consider.
Drive Speed and Transfer Rate
Drive speed is the speed that the drive has to spin a CD or DVD. It will affect to the write and read speed. Greater speed means faster spins and it means less time for burning process. Greater speed also affect a faster time for reading a CD/DVD. Reading speed is very important if you play a game that requires a CD/DVD game to be placed on your CD/DVD drive. Transfer rate means its data transfer speed in KBps or MBps. Drive speed represents in "X". For example CD Drive 52X speed has 52 times faster data transfer than its original standard. Choose as fast drive as possible to save time and money.
LightScribe Feature
Now, you can direct labeling your burned CD/DVD by using LightScribe Technology. This feature is only available in the CD/DVD Drive that support LightScribe Technology. Choose this kind of CD/DVD Drive if possible.
I think that's the basic information you need to choose your optical drive. It is recommended that you choose a DVD writer drive with fastest speed available.
Importance of USB Removable Drive
Nowadays, there is much easier than ever when we look at file portability. You can bring your file whenever you go and connect to any PC as you want. USB removable drive will be the best choice for you. Unlike CD/DVD, USB removable drive, or flash disk, is a drive like a mini hard drive. You can store, delete, cut, and copy your file to another media just as you do in hard drive. It has little size, easy to carry with more storage capacity. Nowadays, a flash disk can store 4 GB data or more with a relatively cheap price. You should go buy one.
A lot of flash drive vendors offer a cheap USB flash drive with high capacity, but they have bad performance, such as very low data transfer speed. They are also easily become defective or faulty. To avoid this, choose a flash drive with a high capacity but it also stated that it's a USB 2.0 flash drive or high speed flash drive, such as Kingston. This kind of flash drive will have a great transfer speed and you don't need to wait any longer while transferring your big file to your flash drive. Kingston flash drive usually give 5 year warranty to their flash drive products, which means they guarantee that their products will be durable and long lasting.
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