help with this n00b question

alrighty, me backz again, just started school and stuff... but anyways umm the hard drive... you dont get like cards you put in your comp for memory like you do with RAM, and i was lookin at hard drives and i seen like 3 cd's in it... im like wtf, you store all your stuff on CD's on your comp but you cant take them out or put new ones in?? or is there cards like RAM memory that you just stick it the comp? b/c im like wondering how to put more memory in if there somehow on CD's... b/c i might buy this new hard drive thats like 200GB thats only like $90 on tigerdirect... but i dunno im lost

 

jesus christ you just scrambled my brains! lol
ok I THINK your confusing CDRWs with HDDs with Portable USB data transfer sticks...

cdrw= you burn your information from your harddrive or other CD to another CD.

hdd= you store information and your operating system on

portable usb sticks= you transfer small amounts of info from one comp to the other.

IF your buying a hard drive look for the Seek time ; the lower the better. Also look for the buffer Mega Byte; the larger the better..and look at the RPM; the higher the better..

 

Is this the drive your talking about? http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=423018&Sku=THD-2000JB P

Omegamerc might have answered your question. I he did just ignore me because i only know about 50 or this.

There a these discs inside the HDD. That is what information is saved on. They can not be taken out, or moved. Depending on the size of the HDD determins how many "platters"??? there are.

Some one please expand and correct the above info. I think he might be talking about this.

If a HDD is what your looking for. That drive will do just fine. Keep in mind it is OEM so you dont get the cables, box, manuel, or extended warenty.



cooked

 

He might be talking about platters now that i re re re re re re read it...if you are talking about the platters they are highly stressed parts that spin at whatever speed it is rated for (4200 5400 7200 10,000 15,000 etc...) they are not removable or touchable or anything really...if you can see your platters on your disk thats not a good heh. The platters themselves hold all the information and they serve as the disk space.

 

Ahh, it all makes sense now

Yes, platters look like CDs but they are quite a bit smaller usually. If you hook an amplifier up to them, you can make them vibrate and work as a speaker errr, anyway!

Hard drives are completley sealed units and you cant upgrade them. You can buy another hard drive to get more disk space, but you can't just add a new platter to an existing drive. Once you open the casing, hard drive goes bye bye!


I'd say that $50 drive is a very good deal! thats like ... *calculates* $0.25 per GB! Crazy!

 

yes! thats what im talkin about, so there IS discs in the HDD that you save all your stuff too? and fish your talkin about the HDD case rite? and my friend yesterday (SsF kIlLa) said that he was gettin more memory soon and upgrading to like 80 gigs.... so he has to get another HDD to get more memory or what?

 

There should be a rule: No smoking weed and posting at the same time.

 

Well he would be getting another HDD so he save more data to the disk. More drive space.

Memory is completly different. Memory is the RAM sticks you put in your motherboard. RAM - Random Access Memory. Here is an example:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=20-997-001&DEPA=1

RAM stores temperary informaton about the porgrams you are currently using. This way the computer doesnt have to go search the whole HDD for the iinformation, and it is alot faster this way. Also i should add, every time you turn off the computer everything in your RAM is gone. It is not like HDDs where you save your information. Ram is for the computers use.

So your friend is probly going to buy another HDD so he can have more space to save his data, and maybe another stick of RAM, so the computer can store more temperary data, therefore becoming faster. At least that is what it sounds like in your post



cooked

 

that's not weed bro'. not even a pound of bud could do that

 

oooo thanks overcooked, i get it now, and since hes gettin another HDD should that be called his slave drive since thats his secondary HDD? and all them discs in the HDD are they ALL for storage like C: drive or i dunno

 

Usually he will have it set as the slave for that IDE channel. Or it will be a master on a second IDE Channel. Then any CD or DVD drives would be the slaves. There are many ways you can have it configured.

Yes all the cds or "platters" inside the drive act as one whole drive. When you see "C:" drive that is refearing to the whole hard drive, or every platter together. So the whole 80GB HDD, with however many platters it has, would be considered C:. Then if had a second drive it would be called some thing like E: or G: along those lines.

I have an old computer that i use as a server. It has 3 HDDs. The main one is C: the second one is D: and the third one it E:



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Luke you better get your cs tittle back high scores were reset.

 

i dont get the IDE channel stuff, do you put your HHD in a IDE channel? and it depends how many you have for it to be a slave? so like if he had 2 IDE channels with HHD's in them (if thats what they go into lolol) then gets like .... oo shit forget that... im confusing myself, im losin me mind lol ok now... if my friend gets another HHD if will have another drive name? like his 1st HDD is C: would his second be D: if he doesnt have like a CD-RW drive there? i wanna say more but i forget what i was goin to say b/c im gettin confused at top lol

 

no... what are you talkin about richard?

 

lol I h8 you jk... im gonna go play cs peace...

 

Ok most motherboards have 2 IDE channels. You can have up to 2 devices on each channel. (HDDs, CD Drives, DvD Drives, ect)

A ribbon cable connects the drives to the motherboard. With two drives on the cable and then the third connector is connect to the motherboard.

In my case i have 3 drives total. A DVD Rom, CD-RW, and a 60GB HDD.

On my first or "primary" channel i have my HDD. It is set as master and it is the only thing on the drive.

On my secondary channel i have my CD-RW set as the master, and then my DVD drive is my slave.

If you need more info on that i can pull out some links that i have hidden away somewhere, and please feel free to ask more questions. Im doing my best to explane all this.



cooked

 

Here is one link i had.

http://www.driverzone.com/guides/hd/install/hdinstall_p2.html



cooked

 

oooooo!! damn! now i get it! so for me to have a slave drive, like if a friend gives me a old HHD outa nowhere thats like 10gig i would have to hook it up in the second spot on my IDE channel where the 1st HHD is? and is that the only way you get hook your HHD, CD drives, DVD drives, etc.? just to a IDE channel on your motherboard? and i have a floppy drive, is that hooked to the IDE drive or is that on something esle? ok ok so i have my 40 gig HHD, CD drive, DVD drive, and a floppy drive? so i cant hook anything esle on it? oo and sorry for all the questions, id look on the net about this stuff but i dont kno what there talkin about, they make it all confusing lol

 

Yeah it looks like your getting it now.

The floppy drive is on a Floppy controller. It has its own channel. I believe you can have up to 2 floppys.

Your setup would be like this.

On the primary channel you would have your HDD set as master, and that would be the only thing on that cable.

On the secondary channel you would have your CD Drive, and your DVD Drive. You would probly have your DVD as master and your CD drive as slave.

Is the CD Drive a burner? If not there really is no point in having it. Most dvd drives read cds at 48X or 52X so there would be no use for the CD Drive unless it was a burner.

Since the floppy is on its own channel you have room for one more piece of hardware. i.e. another HDD, CD Burner, DVD Burner.

There are also IDE Cards you can buy. The fit into one of your PCI slots so you can have another channel for devices.

There is another way to connect your HDDs. Some newer HDDs use SATA, or Serial ATA. These have faster data transfer, and can also have RPMs higher then 7200. Only newer boards have this feature.

It looks like i covered everything. NP about the questions, just keep them coming. Im glad to help!



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no my CD drive is not a burner, my dvd drive is a burner... it plays DVD's and burns em, (i think ) and i just use my CD drive just to install games and sometimes use it to load music (usually get music on net lol) and OMG! the PCI slots!!! i had a post a while ago asking people what they were and tons of people told me and i still never knew what they were lol, so you put IDE cards in the PCI slots to have extra IDE channels if you run out?

 

ooooo sorry for the double post stuff but i just seen a post beermonkey posted and it said "can i have 3rd HHD with Win98 on it?".... you have to install a OS on your HHD?? and can you swich back and forth from like windowsXP and 98? (once again i have other questions but i forget or i dont kno how to word em) lol

 

Yes, you can add IDE controlle cards which lets you run more channels. BUT most people don't use IDE because its slow and old, they use SATA/RAID controller cards because they are faster and let you set up arrays which improves performance

And yes, you can install an OS on a HDD if you want to. But if you don't have at least one hard drive with an OS on it it makes your computer kinda hard to use

 

Well the DVD burner can also read cds, maybe even faster then the cd drive, so you really dont even need it.

Yeah basicly it is a PCI card with IDE Channels on them. Like this:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=16-102-027&depa=0




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oooo the PCI slots are things you use add extra HDD's CD drives, etc? and you just buy a SATA/RAID controller or IDE cards and stick in the PCI slots? and hook whatever your hooking up to the card? and BAM you did it? lol and do i need to real big case to have extra stuff? b/c on my comp rite now theres only like 1 more space i think.... ooo grrr... overcooked, like you cant see your HHD on the outside of the case rite? and you can see the CD drive and DVD drive on the outside of the case, so could i get like a RAID card (or whatever since there faster) and stick that in a PCI slot and use my last IDE channel place for a another CD drive so that would be my slave rite? (like i would want that ...) and the new RAID card up hook thingy to a new HDD? and what if i have no more front room for another CD drive (really dont need that hahah), would i need to get a huge case or what?

 

PCI slots can be used for other cards also, such as TV tuners, video capture, extra USB plugs, improved audio cards and more, in addition to IDE or RAID controllers. Just make sure you know exactly what you are buying, what it does, and what you will be doing with it before you spend the money.

 

Well lets see here..Ummmmm

The Hdds are inside the case. Cant be seen at all.

The CD, DVD, ect can be seen in the front.

You could get a RAID card for SATA Drives, but it wont be much faster i believe, because of that fact you are running it on a PCI slot.

Most cases have enought room to hold 4 CD DVD drives, and at least 2 HDDs.

I have seen cases that hold 6CD Drives, but that is usually unnessary.

Do you plan on upgrading anything your self? if you do just tell me what you are looking for, and i could help you put something nice together.



cooked

 

ya well i was goin to try to build a computer myself b/c i dont like sharing my family one lol, and i was saving up for one and i had like $500 saved up but i bought a wireless router and card for my laptop, so now i have like $400 now so thats gay, someone told me to save up like $700 to start to built a complete comp, oo and im on my laptop rite now, its pretty kool

 

Thats pretty cool. When i first build my system i had about $500. I spent months finding the best deals on things. I had to borrow $175 from my dad untill all the mail in rebates came in, but at the end i only spent around 470. Then of coarse i got a monitor, logitech MX Duo, and logitech surround sound speaker system for christmas.

Once you feel you have enough money we can work on a system for you.

Please ask as many questions as you want.



cooked

 

oooo, aight then, so when i get like $500 i should start buying parts for a comp. like you did?

 

Well you could if you wanted to. It all depends on how good of a computer you want to have.

When i first built mine it had 512MB of ram and FX5200 Video card..Not the greatest

Now after allmost a year i have 1GB of Dual channel ram, and a 9800Pro video card. That was about $300 in upgrades.

If i where you i would save up money for a year. or untill you get around $1000. By that time. The 940 Socket AMD 64s should be cheeper, and you can get more bang for the buck. Then after that you can invest in Windows XP 64 edition to utilize the 64bit processor.

I hope i answered everything. Im off to bed. I have school early tomorrow. Gosh high school is nuts. Who wants to get up at 5am and learn.



Cooked

 

aight i guess ill think about it and stuff, nite all!