I have to replace my hard drive. How do I know what to buy?

My computer is giving me the "imminent failure" message and keeps crashing, so I understand it's time to replace the hard drive. I don't know what to buy and would appreciate some tips. The computer is a Compac Presario 6000 with Windows XP if that helps. I want this to be as painless as possible.

 

It's giving you this message because you have S.M.A.R.T enabled in the bios.

This is a self monitoring program for your hard drive, and is supposed to warn you of impending failure so you have enough time to back up your system.

It's not perfect, so I would try a hard disk utility to double check, either from your drives website, or try something like SiSoftWare Sandra and/or Dr. Hardware.

If you find you do need a new drive, basically look for one that is at least ATA100, 7200 rpm, 8 mb cache, and with at least a three year warranty.

Seagate is the only manufacture that I know that offers 5 years on their drives, while others offer usually 3 like Western Digital, Samsung, Maxtor etc, or even only 1 on their cheaper units.

As far as size is concerned, make sure your motherboard supports drives over 137 GB if you are after one that large. Also, Windows XP won't support drives over 137 GB unless you have a CD with SP1 slipstreamed or included.

Installing SP1 after you have installed the operating system doesn't work, it must be part of the installation disc.