What will I need to add a 1TB internal hard drive to my PC?

[Captain Satellite]

Hello,
I am running Windows XP and have already upgraded to a 250GB drive some time ago in addition to two external hard drives. I added the ATA card when I added the 250GB drive. Will the 1TB be a straight swap or do I need to upgrade anything else? Thanks!

[aedipuss]

if your comp can address the the full 250 it will also be able to use the 1tb. it just requires xp with >sp1.

you may be able to use both if the ata card came with a 2 drive cable. make one master and one slave.

[redwudz]

Assuming a SATA drive and spare SATA socket, just plug it in, partition and format.

[aedipuss]

one would hope the drive is ata since he mentions adding the "ata" card.

[redwudz]

I don't know of any PATA(IDE) 1000GB(1TB) HDDs, so I assumed SATA. Both are 'ATA'.

[Captain Satellite]

Thanks as always, gentlemen. I know I needed to add the card when I added the 250GB and 'upgrade' to SP1. So I'm good to go?

[Captain Satellite]

I usually go with Seagate. What do you guys think about this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148274

[zoobie]

There are bound to be better specials but it looks good...good 5 year warranty...good dealer...good price...good shipping...good performance with the jumper removed...if seagate's your thing, go for it

Be the first on your block with a Terabyte drive

It's this mentality that manipulates the masses.
If someone had said gamers would spend hundreds if not thousands of $ playing games 20 years ago, they'd have been locked up

[ron spencer]

problem with terabyte is that when your wife looks at the stuff on it and throws it out the window you are SOL....

I use two 500 GB

[Captain Satellite]

Thanks, zoobie.

Ron, I keep that stuff on my site where she can't get to it.

[Captain Satellite]

If somebody would like to chime in I have another question.

Do I need to upgrade the card for the new hard drive or am I OK with the one I currently have? I'm not sure of the specs but I got it a few years back to add the 250GB.

Thanks!

[redwudz]

Probably not. The older adapter card may be a SATA 150 card, but it would still be compatible with a SATA 300 drive. I doubt you would notice any obvious speed increase with a SATA 300 adapter.

Other than that, plug it in and see what happens. You will need to format and partition it, but the OS can do that.

[Captain Satellite]

Thank you for taking the time out to answer my questions, I appreciate it.