Hard drive compatibility question

S

sharrakorsole

n00b
Joined
Apr 24, 2008
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Right now, I have a Maxtor 250gb and a WD 250gb in my computer. I'm not sure how they are set up, but after reading about RAID and SATA I'm pretty sure they are SATA, because they show up as separate drives in my computer. I didn't install them myself, because back then I didn't know how to (physically).

My question is, can I buy a WD/Samsung 500gb and just stick it in there and expect it to work? Will there be some compatibility issue because they are of different sizes? What factors could lead to compatibility issues?

Thanks!
 
if u want to go RAID, i would suggest to u to get 2 drives that are exactly the same.
If u just need more space to store your pr0... errgg... i mean your "data" ;) then there should be no problem, just make sure you have enough SATA connectors available in your mobo
 
The best thing you can do is open your computer and see what type of interface your existing hard drives use.
And do you have any spare conectors that you can plug a new drive into.

Older IDE drives use a 40 pin conector, 2 drives can be connected to each cable.
Newer drives use a SATA conector, only on drive can be attached to each cable.

As long as you have a spare SATA connector on your mobo then the new drive will work once its conected and formated.

Luck .................. :D
 
First a little background, as you seem to have a couple of terms confused.

Sata is a type of interface, as in how the MOBO communicates with the hard drive. It evolved from the IDE interface which uses 2 inch wide 40 or 80 conductor cables. Sata cables are much smaller, more along the size of a heavy lamp cord, and usually red.

The other type of interface you may run into is SCSI. You can do some research on that one if you want, but it is fairly complicated, messy, expensive, and not typical to find SCSI (pronounced SCUZZY) in home systems.

RAID is a way of joining hard disks together to make it easier, safer, or faster to access large amounts of data. You can find some details here if you like. But again, it is not a typical way for most systems to be set up. Somone would have to go out of their way to setup a Raid system on a computer.

It should not be a problem to add another drive to your system. As Tigerbitten wrote while I was typing, you just need to verify if you have an open connector on your motherboard. They don't always put all of the SATA connectors together in one place, so you may need to examine all over the motherboard. If you look at your DVD drive, it will prolly have an IDE cable attached to it so you can see the difference between an IDE cable and a SATA cable on your hard drives.

Also, be careful when working around SATA connectors and they are a little wimpy and can be damaged easily if they get moved too much.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Don
 
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