The laptop has long replaced the personal computer for many of us. This device greatly expands human capabilities. And it is not at all necessary that he will occupy a static position in the apartment. He can become a real companion on the road, or you can take him with you to work and on a business trip. It is a pleasure to work with such a device. Sometimes it becomes necessary to purchase a good laptop hard drive. The modern market offers many varieties of such devices. We will talk about how to choose a good laptop hard drive in our today's article. This technique aims to expand the capabilities of existing equipment. In fact, the selection process itself is not much different from choosing a drive for a personal desktop computer, but there are several nuances here.

A type

There are two types of modern hard drives. Below we will talk about how they differ from each other and what their price depends on. Also, how to choose both correctly.

Internal drive

Internal drive - located directly in the laptop itself. This is convenient, but its size is limited by the size of the drive bay.

External drive

An external drive is connected to a laptop using a cable to one of the external connectors - USB 2.0, USB 3.0, eSATA or FireWire. The memory capacity of external drives can reach large values, but in terms of mobility, this form factor is inferior to the convenience of the built-in one. Better to buy an external hard drive with an increasingly popular USB 3.0 connector.

Form factor

Laptops use only 2.5-inch hard drives. And 3.5 inch drives are used for desktops, servers, media players and other devices. But, almost never for laptops.

Thickness

When choosing a hard drive for a laptop, be sure to pay attention to its thickness. These devices use 2.5-inch hard drives with a thickness of 15, 9.5 and 7 mm. If the disk turns out to be thicker than the memory compartment, you simply cannot insert it there. If it is thinner than intended, it will wobble and eventually fail. Therefore, remember the required thickness before purchasing.

Memory size

Of course, a person who decides to buy a cool laptop hard drive primarily looks at its volume. This parameter is fundamental. If a collection of films will be stored on it, then it is better to buy a larger copy. 1 terabyte will be enough. For those who use a laptop solely to surf the Internet or fill out text documents, this volume will be too much. Overpaying in this case is not worth it. Better to get a budget laptop hard drive. He will do an excellent job of his duties. Photo and video files can also be stored on a separate device connected via USB.

Cache size

Modern disks are available with a cache of 16, 32 and 64 MB. A cache is a temporary data storage used when the hard disk is in operation. The larger the cache, the faster the information will be processed, especially for small files.

Data reading speed

Be sure to look at this parameter. Everything is quite simple here - the higher the reading speed, the faster the operating system and other applications installed on the computer will load. This parameter is especially important today for powerful gaming laptops. If you have a budget version of the computer, then you should not pay close attention to this parameter, since the system will still not work fast enough.

Connection interface

Be sure to pay attention to which connector is needed to connect the drive to the motherboard, SAS or SAS \\ \u200b\u200bSATA. Although there are SAS and SATA hard drives on the market, laptops exclusively use the SATA interface. Well, the SAS interface is used only on servers.

Manufacturer

Currently, the highest quality products are produced by companies - Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital. Unlike others, the products of these companies have established themselves as highly reliable. for SSDs, the best are products from companies - Intel, Samsung, Kingston and OCZ.

Types of laptop hard drives

As for the types of laptop hard drives, there are three of them.

Classical

Magnetic HDDs got their name from the plates on which information is recorded. The classic variants, which are based on HDD technology, have several advantages. Most importantly, it has a low cost. The very large capacity of such devices can also be noted. This device also has its drawbacks. The most noticeable is the low resistance to mechanical stress, noise and overheating. As a result of even the smallest contact, the hard drive can be damaged, and all data stored on it can be lost. A laptop is a compact device. That is why HDD technology has not taken root here.

SSD disk

Today, the more popular model is the SSD drive. This is the best laptop hard drive ever invented. It has become a real full-fledged replacement for a fragile HDD. Such models are solid-state, that is, there is no need to talk about any magnetic carriers. The main storage medium on such hard drives is flash memory. It has a high degree of resistance to mechanical stress. By the way, temperature drops for such hard drives are also not terrible. The structure of flash memory is such that it allows recording much faster than HDD. It is ideal for any mobile device. They do not give out any extraneous noise during operation, moreover, the energy consumption class of these drives is much lower. They will allow you to keep the battery longer, which is important if the laptop is used regularly on the road or at work. This device, of course, has its drawbacks. The most important is the high cost of such memory. Some models can surpass their older counterparts working on HDD recording technology by an order of magnitude. Do not forget about another drawback of such popular hard drives for laptops, which is the ability to record only a limited amount of information. This is due to the structure of the device itself. Flash memory, unfortunately, has not yet achieved the required volume characteristics, but leading engineers are already developing in this direction.

Hybrid

All the advantages of the above two models have been combined in laptop hybrid hard drives. Here it is worth talking about the high speed of reading information, and the relatively low cost. For example, the SSD option will cost a lot more. The principle of operation of such a device is quite simple. First, data is written to the HDD, and the information that is accessed more often is transferred to the SSD media. Here is such an interesting device that intelligently increases the speed of processing any request. Here, flash memory acts as a kind of buffer that serves for temporary storage of information. In this case, the drive itself is at rest, that is, it does not emit any unnecessary sounds and does not consume excess energy. The operating system itself also starts to work much faster. It is loaded exclusively from flash memory. As we noted earlier, it has a higher speed. When it comes to recording large amounts of information, they are recorded on the hard drive itself. A distinctive feature of this model is its intelligent system, which allows it to determine by itself what information should be entered on a magnetic medium, and what is the place on flash memory. This is perhaps the best laptop hard drive available today.

Rating laptop hard drives

So, dear readers, we have figured out how to choose a laptop hard drive. It was told about three main technologies on which modern devices of this type are based. And now we bring to your attention a small rating of the best hard drives for a mid-price laptop, based on the opinions of experts.

Seagate ST500LM021

The hard drive for a laptop - Seagate ST500LM021 from the 3rd generation of the company - Laptop Thin HDD has a thickness of 7 mm and a form factor of 2.5 inches. With a volume of 500 GB, the hard drive has 32 MB of buffer memory, and the rotation speed is 7200 rpm. The disk is connected via a SATA connector with a data transfer rate of 6 Gbit per second. The drive supports technology - Seagate SmartAlign, which allows you to use progressive formatting methods without the use of additional software. The high rotational speed of the disk with a small thickness of the hard drive will interest the owners of thin laptops who want to buy an inexpensive HDD.

Toshiba MQ01ABF050

Hard disk drive for laptop - Toshiba MQ01ABF050 has a form factor - 2.5 inches, thickness - 7 mm and support for sectors, 4 KB in size. With a volume of 500 GB, the hard drive has 8 MB of buffer memory, and the rotation speed is 5400 rpm. It is equipped with 2 heads and one plate. The disk is connected via a SATA connector with a data transfer rate of 6 Gbit per second. The hybrid drive has the high speed of solid state drive and the low price of the magnetic disk.

HGST HTS721010A9E630

Hard disk drive for laptop - HGST HTS721010A9E630 has a form factor - 2.5 inches, thickness - 9.5 mm and support for sectors, 4 KB in size. With a volume of 1000 GB, the hard drive has 32 MB of buffer memory, and the rotation speed is 7200 rpm. The disk is connected via a SATA connector with a data transfer rate of 6 Gbit per second. The hybrid drive has the high speed of solid state drive and the low price of the magnetic disk. Winchester received an internal data transfer rate of 1284 Mbps, and is intended for mobile devices of the most widespread use. The downside of the relatively thick drive is that it cannot be installed in an ultra-thin laptop. And the traditional powerful plus is the affordable price.

Transcend TS1TSJ25M3

Hard external HDD-drive for laptop - Transcend TS1TSJ25M3 has a form factor - 2.5 inches and is powered by 2 USB. With a volume of 1000 GB, the hard drive has 8 MB of buffer memory, and the rotation speed is 5400 rpm. The disk is connected via a USB 3.0 connector with a data transfer rate of 500 Mb / s. Dimensions of the device - 82.4 x 20.4 x 129.5 mm, weight - 216 g. On the front side there is a button for starting automatic data archiving using proprietary software - Transcend Elite. With this software, you can encrypt the stored information with the AES algorithm. The drive is equipped with three levels of vibration and shock protection that meets the US Department of Defense standard. The device has an automatic power saving mode that turns on after more than 10 minutes of inactivity.

The hard drive is one of the key components of every computer. It is used to store information. An operating system is installed on it, user data is recorded - photos, music, videos, programs are installed, and so on. The hard drive must be reliable, otherwise the user may lose their data. Within the framework of this article, we will consider how to choose a hard drive, what parameters to pay attention to, when it is better to give preference to SSD drives and other issues.

Table of contents:

What are the disks

In the minds of users there is a well-formed familiar concept of "hard drive". But if earlier it meant one device made on magnetic platters (HDD), now it also includes hybrid disks (SSHD) and solid-state drives (SSD). Let's take a closer look at each of the disk types:

• HDD disk.The cheapest of the three options listed, based on cost per free space. Modern HDD disks range in size from several hundred to several thousand gigabytes. Such disks have a speed of about 120-150 Mb / s. They can be used to store any information;
• SSD disk.It is not entirely correct to call an SSD drive a disk, since there are no disk elements as such. This is a solid-state device, something like a flash drive, with a high operating speed (from 500 Mb / s). The cost of such drives in terms of volume is much higher than the price of HDD drives. On sale you can find SSD drives of various sizes, from tens to hundreds of gigabytes. There are also terabyte options, but their price is extremely high. Usually, SSD drives are used to install an operating system on them.

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Please note: SSD drives are different, depending on the type of memory on which they are built:, V-NAND, 3D NAND.

• SSHD disk.This is a hybrid drive that includes elements of SSD and HDD drives. That is, the bulk of such a drive is performed on magnetic platters (HDD), and a small amount of solid-state (SSD). Usually, the solid-state part of SSHD disks is used to install the operating system, and the main information is stored on the HDD part.

Physical dimensions of hard drives

At the moment, hard drives on sale can be divided into two groups according to their physical dimensions (that is: width, length, height):

• 3.5 inches are standard HDD drives for computers (stationary system units);
• 2.5 inches are SSD drives, as well as HDD drives for laptops.

Please note: If you are installing a 2.5-inch hard drive in the computer system unit, you will most likely need to purchase a special additional mount that allows it to be securely fixed in the case. With some models of SSD drives, such a mount is included.

HDD connectors

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Each hard drive has 2 main connectors:

Hard disk space

The main parameter that you should pay attention to when choosing a drive for your computer is its volume. Depending on what tasks a particular drive and computer will face, some algorithms for selecting the optimal volume can be distinguished.

Hard disk space (HDD) for a computer or laptop

The Windows operating system currently occupies about 10-20 GB on the drive, depending on the version and edition. Accordingly, the entire remaining volume of the drive will be allocated for storing other information - programs, multimedia, documents and others. We recommend using the following methods for selecting an optimal hard drive size:

• Choosing a hard drive for an office computer, on which you work with documents and interact with the Internet, you can choose a drive from 320 to 500 gigabytes;
• For a home computer that will store movies, various programs, etc., it is better to choose a drive with a volume of at least 1 terabyte. Considering that nowadays photos and films are weighing more and more due to high resolution, a drive up to 1 terabyte will be extremely quickly filled with information;
• For a home computer that will be used as a data storage, and games, heavy applications (for example, for editing or creating 3D graphics) will be installed on it, it is better to choose a hard drive with a volume of 2 terabytes or more.

Please note: If you have a 4K monitor connected to your computer, it makes sense to choose a larger hard drive, since a single 4K movie can weigh about 100 gigabytes.

The amount of SSD drive for a computer or laptop

The choice of SSD storage volume depends entirely on the buyer's finances. SSD drives are significantly faster than HDDs, but they also cost a lot more.

If you need an SSD drive to install only an operating system on it, then you can choose options with a volume of 32 gigabytes or more. But it should be noted that in some situations it is more profitable to purchase an SSHD drive, that is, a hybrid drive with a small amount of solid-state memory for installing an operating system.

If an SSD drive is purchased for a computer on which the user is actively working with "heavy" applications, for example, Adobe Photoshop, After Effect, Sony Vegas and others, it makes sense to install such applications on the solid-state drive so that they work faster. Accordingly, you need to choose the size of the disk based on how much space such applications will take on it. A 128-256 gigabyte SSD will be sufficient for most users.

Please note: Several terabytes of SSD can be found on sale now. Their price is ten times different from the cost of HDD drives of similar volumes.

Which is better: one large disk or several small ones

When choosing a hard drive for a computer, the user may have a question whether it is most optimal to purchase one drive or several.

If you are purchasing a drive for a laptop, you have to proceed from the free space in the laptop case. More often than not, it has room for one or two discs.

If you are purchasing a hard drive for a desktop computer, which has enough space to install drives, it is better to buy several drives than one large one. It is optimal when the operating system is on a separate disk (better than an SSD), so that in case of a problem with the drive, other files are not damaged. It is also better to store working programs and files on a separate disk, while making a backup of the essentials to another large hard disk.

It is convenient to buy a hard drive for several terabytes (you may not be the fastest in terms of speed) in order to store various information on it - backups, photos, films, and so on. A separate hard disk (SSD) is assigned for the system, and another one for working programs.

Please note: When purchasing a hard drive for a desktop computer, do not choose the SSHD option. Such solutions are focused primarily on laptops.

How to choose a hard drive: specifications

Hard disk space is an important parameter, but the speed and durability of the device does not depend on it. There are a number of parameters of HDD and SSD drives that directly affect their operation. We recommend that you pay attention to them when choosing a drive.

Rotational speed

The primary parameter for each hard disk made using magnetic plastic, that is, for HDD and SSHD versions. SSD disks do not have rotating elements, so this parameter cannot be specified for them.

The speed of the disk spindle depends on its speed. The rotation speed parameter is limiting, and it cannot be increased indefinitely, otherwise it will lead to a greater chance of failure of the device. At the moment, most of the discs on the market have a rotation speed of 5400 to 7200 rpm.

The higher the rotational speed, the faster the data is read from the disk. But at the same time, the device works more, heats up more, consumes more energy.

Memory buffer size

The hard disk buffer size refers to the size of the cache memory. That is, it is memory that allows you to quickly perform minor operations. In modern hard drives, the size of the memory buffer does not exceed 128 MB. Wherein for normal operation of the hard disk, a 32 MB buffer is enoughbecause the information sent to the hard disk cache is usually insignificant.

Linear read speed

This parameter refers to the speed of the hard disk. It depends on the components of the device themselves, as well as on the rotation speed, if we are talking about HDD or SSHD drive options.

In modern hard drives (HDD, SSHD), the normal read speed is about 150-200 MB / s. We do not recommend buying slower hard drives that have a linear read speed below 100 MB / s, especially if an operating system is installed on such a drive.

Please Note: Slow, large hard drives can be considered as information storage, such as storing photographs.

SSD drives are significantly faster. On average, the speed of consumer SSDs is in the range of 450-500 MB / s. There are also slower (and cheaper) options, but it is impractical to choose them in terms of cost and characteristics, it is better to give preference to a high-speed HDD.

Important: The linear read speed is usually not indicated in the characteristics of the hard disk - HDD or SSHD. You can check it using applications. For SSD drives, the read speed is indicated.

Linear recording speed

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As the name suggests, this is the rate at which information is written to the hard drive. Typically, drives have lower linear write speeds than linear reads. This is due to the fact that this parameter practically does not affect the speed of the disk - the time of loading the operating system, the response of programs, and so on.

Important: For high-quality SSD drives, the linear read speed is equal to the linear write speed.

Access time

Another important parameter to pay attention to is access time. The speed of reading and writing information to the hard disk directly depends on it. The shorter the access time, the better. This time indicates at what time, when accessing the hard disk from the system, the drive gives an answer, that is, provides the necessary data.

For HDDs, the access time usually varies from 13 to 15 ms when it comes to high-quality drives.It is not recommended to purchase discs with higher indentation times, especially if the drive will contain an operating system. This will seriously slow down your entire computer.

For SSD drives, manufacturers usually do not specify the access time parameter, since it is hundreds of times lower than that of HDD drives.

The best manufacturers of HDD and SSD drives

There are hard drives from dozens of different manufacturers on the market. Depending on who released the drive, the duration of its uninterrupted operation depends. When buying a hard drive, we recommend giving preference to trusted manufacturers, such as:

• Seagate - a company whose main field of activity is the production of SSD and HDD drives. This manufacturer holds patents for many key technologies that enable their hard drives to perform faster than competitors' options;
• Samsung - the largest brand that, among other things, is engaged in the production of hard drives. Often laptops come with Samsung hard drives;

Both IDE drives and SATA drives can be found on sale. Which option should you choose? The IDE is an outdated interface today. In 2003, it was replaced by SATA. The new standard enables higher data transfer rates. An IDE disk should only be purchased if your computer is about ten years old and lacks full SATA support.

Today, discs with updated versions of the SATA interface - revisions 2 and 3 - are on sale. What to choose? In theory, SATA 3 is twice as fast as its predecessor. But in fact, there is no difference in data transfer speed, because a classic hard disk using magnetic plates cannot work at that speed.

Volume selection

Choose a hard drive so that it best suits your needs. The first place when buying a hard drive is often put volume. Usually buyers start with a simple principle - the more, the better.

In many ways, this approach is justified. Modern HD games and movies can quickly fill up even a high-capacity storage device. In addition, the larger the hard drive, the cheaper one gigabyte is. One 2TB drive will cost about 30% less than two 1TB drives.

But if you want to buy a hard drive with a volume of more than 2.2 terabytes, remember that it will not be able to work fully in every computer. First, your motherboard must support working with such drives, both at the software level (BIOS) and at the hardware level (controller). Secondly, not all versions of operating systems support such disks. A 64-bit OS is required for normal operation, starting with Windows Vista.

Operational speed and reliability

The speed of the entire system depends on the speed of your hard disk. It affects the speed of loading the operating system, launching applications, opening large files.

One of the key factors affecting the speed of the hard drive is the spindle speed. It is measured in rpm. For home and office use, there are two types of drives available - operating at 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm.

If you plan to install an operating system and programs on your disk, choose an HDD with a 7200 rpm engine. In the case of using a hard drive for storing files, it is better to choose a slower model. The fact is that such discs are less noisy, almost do not heat up and consume less energy.

If you want to significantly speed up your computer, you can opt not on conventional hard drives that use magnetic plates, but on solid state drives (SSD). They use flash memory, are completely silent and offer high speed. Due to the absence of moving parts, they are not afraid of mechanical stress.

They also have disadvantages. They are much more expensive than classic hard drives. The SSD is limited to a certain number of write cycles, after which the drive becomes unusable. For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that manufacturers are working to eliminate this shortcoming and have achieved some success.

Hybrid hard drives have recently been on the market. These are platter drives that use several gigabytes of flash memory as a buffer in which the most frequently used files are cached. This is a compromise between SSD and HDD. They work faster than conventional hard drives, while being significantly cheaper than solid-state drives.

What are the most reliable drives? Any manufacturer has both good and bad models. It takes some time to identify problems. Therefore, do not rush to purchase a new model at the time of its launch on the market. Better to wait a few months and read the owner's reviews. If you do not have the opportunity to wait so long, it is worth staying on a model that has already managed to establish itself positively.

At least once in his life, every PC user updates the components of his computer - and this update often requires the purchase of a new hard drive, or hard disk - the main storage of all your data and information, without which the computer will not work. In this article we will tell you how to choose the right hard drive.

Instructions

Do not chase after cheapness - two hard drives of the same volume may differ in price not only because of the prestige of the manufacturer, but also because of the quality of the recording density and the number of magnetic coated plates. Choose a hard drive with fewer platters - it has a higher recording density and a higher data transfer rate, but it will work faster, quieter, will not get too hot and will not slow down.

Also, when choosing a hard drive, pay attention to the rotational speed of the drive. The higher the number of revolutions per second, the higher the data transfer rate, the delay time, and the faster your hard drive will work. A hard drive that is too fast has its drawbacks - its service life is much shorter, since it comes earlier. If you are not running applications that require the maximum computer resources, you do not need a hard drive that is too fast. It will be enough to purchase a hard drive with an average speed of disk revolutions per second.

Then you need to choose which interface the hard drive will be built on - SATA or IDE. For new motherboards, it is better to choose a SATA hard drive, for older ones - IDE.

Finally, choose a hard drive manufacturer from those that fit the parameters selected above. There will be no major difference between manufacturers in meeting the technical specifications you need - the main difference is the warranty period, reliability and price. Find out which hard drives are least likely to require warranty repair and how much the prices for drives from different manufacturers differ.

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The problem of choosing a hard drive for a computer today is relevant for many PC users. There are many device models with different characteristics. Against this background, choosing a hard drive for a computer turns into a real test for a beginner.

You will need

• Computer.

Instructions

Disk selection. Not surprisingly, for many PC users, this question is quite relevant. A huge assortment of devices can easily be confusing. Usually, an inexperienced user immediately turns to the seller with a request for help in choosing, but not every seller will advise the buyer a really useful product. Rather, he will sell you the most expensive accessory. So how do you find the right hard drive for your PC?

In turn, pay attention to factors such as data transfer and processing speed. The higher this indicator is, the more your computer will work. It is also advisable to take the hard drive, the spindle speed of which will be the highest. As for the amount of memory on the device, everything here will depend on your goals. If you are more planning to work at a computer, then you should take a closer look at the models, the volume of which will be 128-256 gigabytes.

If you plan to store a large collection of movies, multimedia files and games on your hard drive, then in such a situation you should choose a model with a memory capacity of more than 512 gigabytes. The optimal device will be one or more terabytes.

Buying a hard drive for your computer is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. You need to choose a hard drive that would fit the interface on the computer's motherboard. Otherwise, it cannot be installed there. You should also decide on the type of hard drive that will be purchased. In general, you need to take into account everything so that later there will be no problems with the installation and operation of the newly acquired hard drive.

You will need

• Computer, hard drive

Instructions

Take the technical documentation for your computer and in the "motherboard" section, find which interfaces for connecting a hard drive are present on it. Further - in more detail on the connection interfaces.

If there is an ATA interface on the motherboard, then the hard disk must be selected with the same interface. Today, such motherboards are not often found, and are already considered obsolete. But they are still there. If you have such a motherboard, then when buying a hard drive, tell the seller that you need exactly such an interface. Others will simply not work.

Decide what type of hard drive you will purchase. Today the most common is HDD. Their capacity can reach up to several terabytes of memory (equal to 1000). Such hard drives are very reliable and well protected from mechanical ones. The disadvantages include noise in operation and sometimes strong heating. But if you wish, you can additionally purchase a cooling system for hard drives.

The second type of hard drives that fit the SATA interface is SSD. This is the newest type of hard drive available today. Its operating speed is higher than that of a HDD hard drive. The SSD hard drive is completely silent in operation, as it has no mechanical parts in its design. It heats up much less. In general, in all respects it is better than HDD. Consider the fact that while it is much more expensive. For example, if you buy a 50 gigabyte SSD, you can buy one terabyte HDD for the same amount.

Having learned the connection interface and choosing the type of hard disk, you can go to a computer hardware store and already unmistakably take the type of hard disk that will fit your computer.

The size of the hard drive does not directly affect the power of the computer. But, nevertheless, how much information you can store on your computer depends on its size. After all, even a fairly capacitive hard drive can fill up in just a few months. Finding out the capacity of your hard drive is pretty simple. And if its size seems too small for you, it's okay, because you can always buy another hard drive.

You will need

• - Computer with Windows OS;
• - AIDA64 Extreme Edition program.

Instructions

One of the easiest ways to find out the size of a hard drive is with the system. Open "My Computer". Click on the hard disk partition with the right mouse button. In the context menu that appears after that, select "Properties".

In the window that appears, find the "Capacity" section. Information about its capacity will be available there. After you know the capacity of one partition, do the same with the next one. Thus, the sum of the hard disk partitions will be its total capacity.

Also, such information can be found using numerous diagnostic programs. Download AIDA64 Extreme Edition from the Internet. Install it on your computer hard drive. Run the program.

After scanning your system, you will find yourself in the main menu of AIDA64. In the right window of the program, select "Computer", and then in the next window - "Summary information". After a few seconds, the program window will display information about all computer components.

The information will be available in sections. Find the Data Storage section. Then find the line "Total size". The value of this line is the total size of the hard disk.

Also in this section there will be information about the model name of your hard drive and the manufacturer. By right-clicking on the hard disk model name, you will see the link "Product Information". By selecting it, you will open an Internet page where you can familiarize yourself with the parameters of the hard drive.

Helpful advice

The size of the hard drive is almost always slightly smaller than the declared one. For example, if you purchased a 320 gigabyte hard drive, and after checking it turned out that only 300 gigabytes are available, then this is not a hard drive defect. This is due to some peculiarities of the calculation. Hard drive manufacturers calculate their size in decimal system.

Sources:

• how to check how many hard drives are on your computer

The main storage location for stationary and mobile computers is the hard disk. Choosing the right device can improve the performance of your operating system.

Instructions

Start by choosing a hard drive form factor. For stationary computers, 3.5-inch hard drives with IDE and SATA interfaces are used. Laptops use reduced copies of these drives, with a 2.5-inch form factor.

If you don't want to use your new hard drive as your primary equipment, consider purchasing an external drive. The use of this device allows you to have the necessary information at hand in any situation.

Find out the size of your hard drive. It should be noted right away that this is far from the most important characteristic of the device. Buy a hard drive with more storage if you are confident you will make the most of the available space.

Pay special attention to the speed of the hard drive. This is a very important parameter. Hard drives with slow read and write speeds can degrade computer performance. This characteristic directly depends on the spindle speed.

For an office computer, a hard drive with a spindle speed of 5400-5900 rpm is quite suitable. These devices emit relatively little noise and consume less power. For a powerful gaming PC, choose a 7200 RPM or more hard drive.

Check the interface type of the hard drive. SATA hard drives are divided into several categories. The newer the type of hard drive, the faster the device will transfer data. To work with modern PCs, you must use a disk with a cache of 16-32 MB.

There are special "system" hard drives. They usually have a relatively small amount of memory, but they are endowed with a very high information transfer rate. Purchase this hard drive if you plan to connect it to a powerful computer. This will ensure the quality of the operating system.

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Hard drives are used for long-term storage of information in personal computers. In addition, operating systems are installed on these drives, which are necessary for comfortable work with a PC.

Instructions

First select the type of hard drive. To use your device as your primary storage, purchase an internal hard drive. If you do not plan to install an operating system on the disk, consider purchasing an external HDD.

When choosing an internal hard drive, pay attention to its form factor. To install the device into a mobile computer, use a 2.5-inch hard drive. You can connect 3.5-inch drives to stationary PCs.

Find out the speed of the hard drive. This parameter is especially relevant when using a hard disk as the main drive. There are HDDs with very high data transfer rates. They usually have a relatively small amount of memory.

Review the specifications for your computer's motherboard. Check which ports are available for connecting drives. These can be SATA and IDE interfaces. Based on the information received, select the desired hard disk format.

Think about how much memory a new hard drive should have. Now it is easy to find drives with a volume of 1-2 TB. Do not purchase such an HDD if you will not fully exploit its potential.

The next important characteristic is the spindle speed. When working with office applications, a 5400 rpm hard drive will be more than enough. These discs have two main advantages: low cost and relatively low noise level.

In a gaming computer, use an HDD with a spindle speed of 7200 rpm. Otherwise, certain applications and games may become unstable.

If you opted for an external hard drive, find out the types of ports through which you connect to your computer. To transfer information at high speed, purchase a hard drive with a USB 3.0 or eSATA interface.

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Related article

How to choose a hard drive for your computer? The answer is simple - you need to understand the main characteristics of the HDD, after which you can easily make the right choice.

Instructions

Hard drives (like other technical devices) are selected according to their characteristics. For convenience, it is better to choose HDD on Yandex.Market or in a computer online store, where there is filtering by parameters.

Choosing a manufacturer. The top hard drive manufacturers today are Seagate, Kingston and SanDisk. Hard drives from other companies, including Western Digital, cannot yet boast of the same high quality.

Choosing a type. There are only 2 of them: standard and external. The standard disk is designed for installation in a computer or laptop. The external drive is located outside the computer and is connected to it via a USB port.

Choosing the volume. The standard disc size is 320 GB (about 70 DVD movies), which is enough for most users. If you need a larger disc, keep in mind that professionals never buy the largest discs on the market - new items are always of mediocre quality.

Choosing an interface. The hard drive is connected to the computer (or adapter, if) using a special interface. It can be one of three types: IDE, SATA-II and SATA-III.

The latter two are backward compatible (a SATA-II drive can be plugged into a SATA-III connector and vice versa). If you do not have a problem to buy a drive for an old computer that supports only IDE, we recommend choosing a drive with SATA-III.

We choose the rotation speed. There are usually 3 options to choose from: 5400, 7200 and IntelliPower. Between the first two, the operating speed is hardly noticeable, but we do not recommend choosing IntelliPower - this technology has not yet been brought to perfection, so there is no point in using it.

Form factor is the size of the disk. 3.5 "is the size of standard disks for system units. 2.5 ”is the size of the smaller drives used in laptops and external HDDs.

That's all. Now choosing a hard drive is easy for you. Enjoy the shopping!

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Helpful advice

You can buy two hard drives - regular and SSD (high-speed, but expensive kind of drives). The usual one will store personal data, and the SSD will only store the operating system. This step will speed up your computer significantly.

Humanity has come up with many different ways to store information. One of them is a device - an HDD or "hard disk". Many knowledge of mankind can fit on its plates. However, this was not always the case.

In the distant fifties of the last century, or rather in 1956, IBM created the great-great-great-grandfather of modern information storage. This miracle weighed a little more than a ton (!) And contained only 5 megabytes of data. Such a "box" could only be lifted with a loader.

As time went on, miniaturization replaced gigantomania. And now small "boxes" weighing a couple of hundred grams and even less are quietly placed in your system units, laptops, tablets and even phones, and more recently in watches. It is believed that if aviation developed as rapidly as computers, today everyone could have a private jet for the price of a car. But back to the hardware.

When size matters

Miniaturization has made it possible to create devices that fit in a matchbox and at the same time have a fantastic capacity.

Among all sizes of hard drives, three groups can be conditionally distinguished

3.5 inches is the most common option, a resident of almost every desktop PC;
- 2.5 inches - a fellow in the information part, but for laptops;
- 1-1.5 inches - usually installed on smartphones, mp3 players and similar devices.

But even in spite of the size, today a 1-inch "baby" is able to store hundreds of tracks of your favorite music and dozens of films.

His majesty is the controller

If, opening the system unit, you find not at all those connectors that you expected, there is a reason. Each controller has its own characteristics.

The hard drives differ in the way of connection, as well as the principle of operation for:

IDE was the most widespread disk controller once. Now it is not so often used. It allowed the disk rotation speed to reach 7.5 thousand revolutions per minute, which provided good performance.
- SATA (I, II, III) - the next generation after IDE. With the best rotation speed, up to 10 thousand rpm.
- SCSI - has always stood somewhat apart, since it was not available to ordinary mortals. It differed in read speed (up to 15 thousand revolutions), therefore it was used and is still used where special performance is needed.
- SDD is a hard disk controller designed on the principle of flash memory. Contains no moving parts, everything inside is replaced with electronic components. Thanks to this, it offers high MTBF (up to 1 million hours) and reading. However, they are still expensive today. Alternatively, a hybrid version with flash memory and mechanical part.

Outside or inside?

You can point to one more feature of the hard drive - the way it is placed. There are internal and external models.

The internal ones are quietly placed in the system unit, smartphone, and their work is visible only by the blinking of lights outside.

External hard drives are small boxes with cords. Plugs into a USB port and works great. If you take such a box and disassemble it, then the same usual 2-5 or 3-5 inch HDD or SDD will appear.

And then what?

Progress has one very useful property. He does not stand still. Methods for storing information using lasers, crystals, holographic images are already being developed. Various materials are tried, innovative devices are created. Perhaps, soon the hard drives we are used to will give way to a miracle that has descended to us from the pages of Sci-Fi books.

Sources:

Tip 10: How to choose the right hard drive for your computer

From time to time, computer owners think about choosing a hard drive. The choice of a new drive depends on several parameters.

Users often think about choosing a new hard disk for two reasons - firstly, the old hard drive may break, and secondly, there may be a problem of lack of space for storing user data. In the first case, the hard drive needs to be changed and it is not worth discussing other outputs, but in the second case, you can get by not by changing the HDD and reinstalling the operating system, but by purchasing an external hard drive or a large flash drive, depending on the specific needs of the computer owner.

What parameters should be considered in order to select the correct hard drive to replace it on a computer?

Volume Of course, the more space on the hard disk, the more data can be stored on it, the more programs to install on the computer. But we must remember that there are still motherboards that do not support work with large hard drives.

Interface. The main interfaces of hard drives are IDE and SATA. It is believed that the second is faster, but, again, you should not immediately purchase a SATA hard drive, since not all motherboards can find a connector for connecting such a hard drive. IDE is a long connector with a large number of pins (on a hard disk); it uses a flat cable similar to a wide ribbon for connection. SATA resembles a USB connector to most observers, probably in size. Before buying a hard drive, it is worth checking in the documentation for the computer whether it is possible to connect the selected hard drive, or just look for the required connector on the motherboard.

Speed \u200b\u200band form factor. Most often on sale you can find discs at 5400 and 7200 rpm. Of course, the higher the rotation speed, the faster the data is read and written to the hard drive. I must say that most often there are drives with a speed of 5400 for laptops, and 7200 for stationary computers. For a stationary computer, you can use including those designed for laptops.

SSD hard drives have appeared relatively recently. The speed of their work is noticeably higher than that of the others, but the price for them is still high.

Price and brand. You shouldn't pay extra for a hard drive to have a well-known brand mark on it. Practice has shown that this is not a guarantee of a long-term hard drive.

Despite the fact that users more and more often choose ssd drives as the main storage media for the operating system, hard drives do not give up their leading positions. Their relatively low cost, compared to the same SSDs, a large amount of disk space and a wide range of models in digital stores, makes HDD affordable for purchase.

The hard drive is an essential component of your computer. Often the performance of the entire operating system depends on its stable operation. The HDD uses the operating system as the main storage for program files and personal data of the user, therefore, the choice of a hard disk must be approached responsibly.

There are a minimum of characteristics to look out for when choosing and buying a hard drive.

Brand name

In fact, you should not pay attention to the manufacturer's brand, since each company has its own dead. It will be much more effective to base the choice, starting only from the technical characteristics.

Form factor

Depending on whether you need a hard drive for a computer or laptop, its designation will depend. Despite the fact that after talking with you, the consultant will understand what kind of hard drive you need, only numbers are indicated on the price tags: 2.5 is the form factor of a hard drive for a laptop, while 3.5 is a form factor of a hard drive for a computer ... At the beginning, incomprehensible numbers, there is nothing more than the thickness of the HDD, indicated in centimeters.

Drive volume

Depending on the volume, the price difference. You need to understand your needs in advance and roughly calculate how much space will be needed for personal files, as well as for a system with applications and installed games. The most popular hard drives are 500 GB and 1 Tb. It is not difficult to imagine how much it is. It is enough to know that all the Windows operating system and the most necessary set of programs take up about 20 GB of disk space. Gamers should buy hard drives that are 2Tb or larger.

Don't be discouraged if, in practice, the amount of disk space is lower than stated. For example, out of 500 GB, about 465 is available to the user. According to the manufacturers themselves, the missing volume is used by the firmware, it is necessary for the correct operation of the HDD itself.

Rotational speed

One of the most important characteristics that determine how fast information will be read and written. For the user, this means how quickly the system will run. In no case should you save on this, it is not only your money, but also nerves in the future. On the shelves, hard drives with spindle speeds of 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm are more common. The significant difference in price is more than offset by the performance you get by paying a little more.

Buffer memory

The bigger, the better. The clipboard is nothing more than the space on your hard drive where all the copied information is stored. It's not worth chasing the maximum cache size, its impact on performance is not so great and average values \u200b\u200bare enough for most tasks. The cache size, equal to 64 MB, will be quite enough and enough for solving everyday tasks, even with the rest.

Hard disk drive (HDD) - is one of the most important components of a computer! And it is the hard drive that most often fails. As a result, sometimes the most important information is lost. Therefore, to the choice HDD need to be treated with maximum seriousness! In this article, we will analyze which there are hard drives,as select hard disk (HDD)for your computer like avoid problems with information lossand with the help what programs can be restored.

Hard disk size.

Hard disk size (its width, suitable for standard mounts in stationary computers and laptops) calculated in inches.

Usually for pets (stationary) system blocks use hard drives 3.5 inch (3,5" ).

For laptops - 2.5 inch, respectively - 2,5" .

Connector Type.

HDD connector interface there are two types - IDE and SATA.

IDE - still comes across in older computers and differs in the number of veins on the train ( 40 and 80 lived, they are interchangeable, differ in bandwidth speed ).

IDE - plug

SATA - newer, modern interface. Of course higher throughput versus IDE.

SATA there are three types. SATA (up to 1.5 Gbps), SATA 2 (before 3 Gbps) and SATA 3 (before 6 Gbps) ... Differ in data transmission speed.

SATA, SATA2 , SATA3 - are interchangeable. But before you buy a more expensive hard drive with SATA3 , make sure your motherboard is supported SATA3, otherwise, you will receive an unreasonable expenditure of funds, because. SATA3 HDD connected to interface SATA on an old motherboard, will run at a limited speed of up to 1,5 Gbps, not using all their capabilities.

SATA - connector

The volume of the Hard disk.

Quite often, computer users confuse the concepts - memory and volume. :) Please remember, the hard disk only has cache memory (we'll talk about it below ...).

Volume, it is - capacity! Namely - amount of digital information, which is able to accommodate this or that HDD. Now the volume of the hard disk is calculated in Gigabytes (GB) and Terabytes (TB).

For reference: 1 TB \u003d 1024 GB

1 GB \u003d 1024 MB

Rotation speed of disks.

A fairly common indicator of HDD speed is disc rotation speed (rpm). Of course, the higher the rotational speed, the louder the hard drive will make noise and the higher its power consumption (this affects the service life). If you are going to buy an HDD just for storing information (additional disk), in this case, you should not chase the speed. I advise you to choose a faster hard disk - if the Operating System is installed on it. At the moment, 7200 rpm is the most the best option.

The size of the cache memory.

Cache memory (buffered) is intermediate memory. It is designed to increase the speed of the hard disk while accessing its data. IN "cache" are keptresponses to the most frequent system and application requests. And of course, there is no need to constantly read information from the disk itself. this increases the efficiency of the HDD and the system as a whole. The size of the "cache" in modern hard drives usually ranges from 8 before 64 MB.

Company manufacturer.

At the moment, the main manufacturers of hard drives are - Western digital, Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate Technology, Toshiba. You can argue until the mustache :) argue which company is better ... But let's turn to the facts... Let's type in an intelligent search engine Nigma.ru "hard drive problem ....." (instead of dots - we write a company):

hard drive problemHitachi -requests 5 400 000.

hard drive problem Seagate - requests 5 500 000.

hard drive problemWestern Digital -requests 7,400,000 .

hard drive problemSamsung -requests 17 000 000.

As you can see, the first place in reliability belongs to Hitachi, second at Seagate. Although, based on my own experience, I would put in second placeWestern Digital (WD).

WDcome with stickers of different colors - Black (the black), Blue (blue), Green (green). The most reliable is considered Black, In second place Blue and at the last Green.

So, when choosing a hard drive:

1. Important! You need to find out - what plug from your old hard drive. If IDE, then I advise you to look at the connectors on the motherboard. In the presence of SATA-connectionsbetter buy SATA hard drive. Without SATA, buy IDE.

2. Important! Find out if your old PSU can handle a new one (possibly more voluminous and faster) hDD.

You can find out how to do this by watching the video tutorialHow to choose the right Power Supply!

3. Decide on Volume(number of GB), Speed(rpm) and "Cash" (8-64MB) hard drive.

4. Choose manufacturer.

How to avoid problems with information loss.

1. Keep backup copy of data on removable media.

For a long time, the term "hard drive" in the computer world remained unambiguous and denoted drives such as HDD, but now it refers to both HDD and SSD media. Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call SSD-drives "hard disks", but in Russian it is a practice to understand both types of drives by this name. How to choose a hard drive, which option is preferable for a home computer, what is the difference between SSD and HDD, and which type is best suited for games - the following material answers these questions.

HDD disk for computer

The abbreviation HDD stands for hard (magnetic) disk drive, that is, "hard drive (magnetic) drive". The adjective "hard" itself appeared in the name to contrast these devices with floppy disks, which were often called "floppy", that is, floppy disks. The HDD is an electromechanical device: the structure includes continuously rotating metal disks with a magnetic layer, a moving read head and an electronic controller. This is one of the oldest types of storage media - this fact allows manufacturers to reduce the cost of HDD production as much as possible without losing product quality.

However, "classic" hard drives have a number of disadvantages:

1. The speed of work has limitations due to objective physical properties.
2. Hard drives, due to their design, are extremely vulnerable to physical influences: shock, shock, vibration. Even the wrong orientation of the drive in the computer system unit can significantly reduce the life of the media. According to statistics, it is the hard drive that is the most frequently failed component in modern PCs;
3. The materials used in the HDD design do not allow to reduce the size of the device without significant deterioration in other characteristics (access speed, volume). Therefore, the most common form-factor of hard drives based on magnetic effect remains 3.5 ”;
4. HDD design and operating principle generate several negative factors at once: energy inefficiency, noise, heating.

Why, despite these numerous disadvantages, HDDs are still the most common type of storage media in stationary computers?

The popularity is due to the economic component: thanks to the vast experience accumulated by manufacturers in the field of HDD production, the price of "classic" hard drives per gigabyte of information remains one of the cheapest on the market: for example, the cost of a 3000 GB HDD is on average equal to the cost of a 500 GB SSD.

The modern scope of HDD is budget laptops, classic stationary computers and servers that require storing large amounts of data.

Council. You should buy an HDD if your priority is storage capacity, not performance. HDDs are well suited for creating a media library: storage of films, digitized music, high-resolution photos. They can also be used to back up large amounts of information.

SSD drive for computer

Solid-state drive or solid-state drive (SSD) is a relatively new type of stationary storage. They are based on a completely different principle of operation - they have no moving parts, and data storage is ensured through the use of memory chips. Thanks to this approach, SSDs solve a number of problems inherent in "classic" hard drives:

1. They do not make noise during operation and do not heat up.
2. Less prone to damage due to mechanical stress.
3. Low power consumption.
4. They have increased productivity.

It is the high read / write speed that HDDs cannot achieve that played a key role in the proliferation of solid state drives. The increased performance of such media significantly speeds up the operating system, which is most critical in resource-intensive applications such as video, audio and 3D editors or computer games.

Council. You should buy an SSD drive if: You are looking to maximize the performance of your system, and your goal is to reduce noise and heat.

Hybrid drives

Hybrid drives (SSHD), as the name suggests, combine elements of both classic drives and SSDs in their design. The principle of operation of such devices is that the bulk of information is stored on a magnetic disk, while frequently used (operating system, resource-intensive applications) is stored in flash memory.

What type of media should I install on my computer?

We can say that there is no universal answer to the question of what type of media to install in a computer. However, a number of typical options can be compiled, each of which is most optimal for a given type of application.

Install one HDD if:

• you need to store a large amount of information;
• you want to save money;
• you are not critical of system performance and noise.

It is worth noting that installing a slow HDD in a configuration in which all other elements are high-performance can slow down the system and reduce its potential.

Applications: Office PC, Home PC for the Internet and Media Library.

You should install two media: SSD and HDD, if:

• you need to store a large amount of information at the same time, but without losing performance, while you are ready to spend additional funds to buy two devices at the same time.

Install a hybrid drive if:

• you need to simultaneously store a large amount of information, but without losing performance;
• your computer has only one drive bay (laptop or all-in-one), which makes it impossible to install SSD and HDD at the same time.

The use of a hybrid drive is a cheaper (but, as a result, limited) option of the previous configuration.

Scopes of application: powerful productive multifunctional systems, gaming PCs.

Install one SSD drive if:

• you need to reduce noise and heat;
• you need a high speed of the system, which provides a quick response of resource-intensive applications (games, various editors);
• you are willing to spend additional funds to achieve maximum performance.

Fields of application: powerful productive multifunctional systems that do not require storing large amounts of information; gaming PCs.

HDD or SSD, what to choose - video