Hard Drive Dilema

Hi guys,
Im not completely literate with computers so bear with me.
I have a (dont laugh) Dell Dimension 5100 and am now running stupidly low on Hard Drive space. Think i have about 9GB left. Ive also gone through and deleted all the programs and files i dont need.

My question is what are my best options to upgrade? Can I buy say a 1TB SATA HDD to put in and just put all my files onto my Western Digital Ext HDD and then transfer onto the new HDD or will this pose problems? Is my only option to actually just start with a whole new desktop and upgrade it all?

Thanks for any help

 

I would figure out how much space you'll need then get a drive and add it to your existing computer to put your programs and data (pics, movies, music) on. So your existing hard drive (assuming it's just partitioned as 1 drive letter) stays C:, existing CD/DVD stays D:, new drive is E:.

Specs I looked at for the 5100 show you have 2 more free 3.5" drive bays so just pop another hard drive in and you should be all set.

If you want to replace your existing hard drive there are freeware hard drive cloning/copying programs that will let you copy your old to your new drive too.

Sam

 

well i'm thinking bout just buying maybe a 500GB or 1TB just so i have enough for a long time.

So if I bought one that is compatible and slot it in I wouldn't have to do anything to it?
I have itunes which has taken pretty much all my space. Trouble is it is about half of my music collection so i want to be able to put it all on there. If I added a 2nd HDD would I still be able to just go about it as usual or would I have to move itunes to the larger HDD and carry on from there? Someone told me that if I did add a 2nd HDD I would need an o/s on there also and wouldn't be able to just go between them systematically.
Like I said when it comes to things like this i'm a complete noob to it!!

You say if i wanted to replace it I could just use that program to clone everything and it would then automatically just move it all onto the new HDD? Is this something that is relatively straight forward to do?

 

Yes all you'd have to do is hook up the new hard drive in your computer (with the old drive still there), and run the drive cloning software. I use HD Clone. There is a free version though it is slower than the paid versions they offer but it works. It's an ISO file you download and burn to a CD. This is a bootable CD so after you add the new Hard drive in you boot from the CD and select source and target drives, then start the copy process. Depending on the amount of data it can take a few hours. Start it and go watch a movie or 2.

You do NOT need an operating system on a 2nd drive in you system to use it along with another drive. It will need to be formatted for Windows to use it however.

Sam

 

Thanks for your help.
Will any SATA HDD work you think?do i have limitations?

 

Brand and size won't matter. I just put a WD 640Gb SATA in an old system with an nForce 3 chipset-based motherboard (that's about 7+ years old). Works fine.

Sam

 

im thinking bout ordering this
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

its got good reviews and its a huge size so will last me a long time. i just watched a video guide on youtube about installing it so im confident I can put it in. Guess until I give it a go will never know. Was just worried bout screwing it up at the end but imagine it is fairly straight forward.

 

Samsung makes good drives. I have a 5 year old Samsung 140Gb IDE drive as a 2nd drive in my daughter's system.

I just put a Western Digital Caviar Black 1Tb in my setup. Main reason is the 5 year warranty (vrs 3 for the Samsung 1Tb you linked to). Prices (in the US) run about $100 for the WD, $90-$100 for the Samsung. www.newegg.com is a good site to check out user reviews on hardware you're interested in.

Sam

 

thanks for all your help.
Ive ordered the samsung drive cuz its quite cheap.
Now i need to decide if I want to copy everything over. I know i need to put my itunes on this new one so i can actually add more music. Wondering if its about time to move up from windows XP. only heard bad things bout vista and few people said windows 7 is kinda like using a mac and to wait til the bugs are ironed out.

 

I've been running Windows 7 since the Release Candidate version came out and now use the retail version. I have it running on 3 desktops and 1 laptop here at home. It is by far the best Windows I have ever used. Perfect? No. Fast, runs on a lot of older systems fine. There is a lot of older hardware (printers, scanners, etc.) that there are no drivers for. I have an older Epson inkjet and a Canon USB scanner that I had to find workarounds for (use Vista drivers, drivers for similar models, etc.) to get them working in 7.

I had Vista and (after the Service Pack came out) I thought it was fine. 7 is a lot faster loading and not as much of a resource hog as Vista.

I have a dual boot on my system with 7 and XP pro. But I rarely go into XP now, will probably get rid of it soon.

Sam

 

really?its that good compared to xp then?
maybe i should think about invested in it then. Trouble is though if i upgrade to that wont i need to upgrade the rest of my components? This would make installing the new HDD easier too wouldnt it?could replace it and just move over my files?

 

Win 7 should run fine on a Dimension 5100 with at least 1Gb of memory, though 2Gb I think is ideal. What are your system specs- CPU speed, memory, video card? What do you have for printers, scanner, other hardware?

I have it running on a Biostar K8NHA Grand nVidia nForce 3 chipset motherboard, Athlon 64 3400+ 2.4Ghz cpu, 2Gb DDR400 ram, MSI GeForce 7600GT 512mb AGP video. We use this to stream video to our TV in our living room and Win 7 runs great on it. This mobo&CPU are at least 6-7 years old.

My wife has a Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop (P4 mobile 2Ghz, 2gb memory, only a 32mb ATI video, 160Gb HD) and Win 7 runs better than XP does on hers. Granted she can't use all the neat Win 7 Aero desktop effects but she doesn't really want them anyway.

Sam

 

I have an intel pentium 4 CPU 2.80 GHz (2CPUs) the motherboard is just usual Dell basic i think,1GB RAM, GeForce 9500GT Graphics Card. Dont use any printers or scanners as dont really have a need for it as i can use them at work and email files from there.
Now i have ordered the 1TB HDD im tempted to use that along with mygraphis card and Processor and just buy a new motherboard, more RAM and start again with a new chassis. Probably be cheaper that way.

 

Just be sure any motherboard you buy fits in the Dell case. I was working on a friend's Dell E510 a couple weeks ago and noticed the layout of slots and ports on the back was opposite of most standard board layouts so he couldn't update without buying a new case as well.

If you just use your computer for light duty (web surfing, office apps, light gaming, etc.) you could probably just add memory to your system and it would run Win 7 fine.

Sam

 

If you are contemplating a move to Windows 7 I would recommend running the upgrade advisor 1st:


http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1B544E90-7659-4BD9-9E51-2497C146AF15&displaylang=en

If your system is compatible then you may want to use the Windows 7 easy transfer wizard to move your profiles to the new hdd.

 

after sitting and working it out it would only cost me about £230 to actually build a new rig as i can save my processor and HDD and graph card.only need a new chassis, psu motherboard and an extra bit of ram. Think its worth just completely upgrading for that price.

yeah i ran the upgrade advisor.my ram is borderline and after reading about the upgrading from XP to 7 experiences i think its best to just install 7 and bypass the troubles

 

Now HANG ON a minute here.

There is NO NEED for you to upgrade anything unelss you want to. You can just plug the new hard drive in and save all your new stuff to it.

No need for a new system.

No need for a new operating system.

You just need a new hard drive which should cost less than £100/$200 for about 1TB.

 

yeah i hear what your saying. This pc is bout 6 years old now so after thinking bout it maybe its about time to start again anyway. Be nice to have a faster build and im quite liking what ive heard about windows 7. thanks for the advice and nice signature by the way

 

No problem. Just making sure you know all your options.

 

yeah thanks. appreciated. i think ive decided to build a new rig that way I can completely start again.New year New Rig! why not. At least if I build this right it will last me a long time.

Good to know that there are sites which have people help rather than some forums that just have people flaming eachother. Good to see.

Thanks for your help guys.