# Seagate Hard Drives



## PatHaave (May 30, 2003)

Hi,
I would like to build my own computer and I was wondering which hard drives are the best. I was looking at a Seagate 80 gb, but some of the reviews I saw said it ran really hot. Any help on which is the best hard drive to buy would be appreciated.
Thanks
Pat


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## It Wasn't me (Nov 11, 2003)

The computer I am using now I built and put a Maxtor 40gb 7200 rpm HD in and it has never had a problem in two years.


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## PatHaave (May 30, 2003)

Thanks It wasn't me...I have read alot of good things about Maxtor, also.. I think I have made up my mind. 
I used to live in Wi. north of Green Bay, now I am in Arkansas. 
Have a great Holiday Season, and thanks again.
Pat


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## wedor (Nov 7, 1999)

A two year old drive is no indication of the current state of things. Read drive reviews and pickone that suits your needs.


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## Lurker1 (Jan 30, 2001)

On Maxtor hard drives the new 20 gig ones that were in Dell cases were failing so badly the Dell sued Maxtor resulting in the planned replacement of several thousand hard drives in the units that were sold to Ford Motor Company. (Personally I think that the drives just can't take the heat thats generated in the Dell mini towers that only have two small fans in them.) Make sure that your case has good cooling no mater which hard drive you buy and it will run better.


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## PatHaave (May 30, 2003)

What is the difference between ide and sata hard drives and which is the best...


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## RSM123 (Aug 1, 2002)

PatHaave,

In addition to other replies read these brief explanations :

IDE 
Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) refers to any drive with the controller built-in. The interface most of us use, that we call IDE, is actually called ATA, or AT Attachment. Most drives today are IDE. Because the controller is on the drive itself less parts are needed and the signal pathways can be much shorter resulting in improved reliability of the drive. Integrating the controller is easier for the manufacturer because they do not have to worry about complying with another manufacturer's controller. Each drive is an independent entity. 
ATA IDE 
This is the most popular IDE form. CDC, Compaq, and Western Digital were the first to create the interface. They also decided to use the 40-pin connector. They were large drives of the 5.25" form, but were only 40MB. They were used in the early Compaq 386 systems, using WD controllers. Later, Compaq founded Conner. Conner produced drives for Compaq, but was later sold. 
In the late 1980's, the ATA IDE was set as ANSI standard. This caused all manufacturer's to agree with a common design for the interface. Before this was done, many companies had produced their own variations. This sometimes makes it hard for us to make these older drives work with newer ones in the same system. Some areas of the ATA standard were left open to manufacturer's for their own commands so the standard is quite loosely set.

Dual Drives 
One of the nice features introduced with ATA was the ability to operate two drives together in a chain. The primary drive is the master, and the second drive is the slave. On most drives, you tell it to be a master or a slave with a jumper on the drive. When two drives are on the same ribbon cable, all commands are received by both controllers. Each drive must respond only to commands meant for it. Setting the drive as either master or slave tells it to ignore the commands for the other drive. 
If a CD-ROM drive is present it should be on a separate IDE channel from the hard drives. It can be placed on the same channel but it will slow down both devices. The standard configuration is to place the hard drive(s) on the primary channel and the CD-ROM on the secondary IDE channel.

ATA I/O 
The ATA interface uses a 40-pin connector. In theory, plugging it in backwards can damage the drive and related circuitry, although I have done it (inadvertently) many times and the drive was never damaged . The ribbon cable carries signals to and from the controller, and should be no longer than 18 inches. The red stripe goes to the side closest to the power connector on most drives.

ATA Types 
ATA-2 = EIDE (Enhanced IDE). This is an extension off the original ATA that includes features such as PIO and DMA modes. These are basically performance enhancing features and are discussed below. The main benefits of ATA-2 are increased capacity and faster data transfer. 
Increased capacity is basically due to an advance in BIOS to work with drives larger than 504 MB. This limit was there basically because of the geometry in the drive. Newer enhanced BIOS are capable of using translation modes, thereby using different geometry when talking with the drive than when talking with the software. If your BIOS is dated around 1994 or later, it is probably enhanced. You can tell if it offers settings called LBA, ECHS, or Large, which are just three different methods of translation.

Faster data transfer is what everyone is after these days. ATA-2 offers several different modes for higher performance. Most drives today are capable of PIO Modes 3 and 4, which are very fast. PIO (Programmed I/O) modes determine the speed at which data is transferred to and from the drive.

Often abbreviated SATA or S-ATA, an evolution of the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. Serial ATA is a serial link -- a single cable with a minimum of four wires creates a point-to-point connection between devices. Transfer rates for Serial ATA begin at 150MBps. One of the main design advantages of Serial ATA is that the thinner serial cables facilitate more efficient airflow inside a form factor and also allow for smaller chassis designs. In contrast, IDE cables used in parallel ATA systems are bulkier than Serial ATA cables and can only extend to 40cm long, while Serial ATA cables can extend up to one meter. 
Serial ATA supports all ATA and ATAPI devices.

You should get other answers to resolve your query but this is a good site if you encounter new terminology :

http://www.webopedia.com

Happy New Year To You.

Richard.


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## milomorai (Oct 23, 2001)

western digital special edition with the 8mb cache-come w/three yaer warranty and are always among the top rated drives. for serial ata, the western digital raptor-36 gb hdd running 10,000 rpm - extremely sweeeeeet


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## PatHaave (May 30, 2003)

Thank you for the info... I bought the western digital with 8mb cache, I got it at best buy christmas eve day for 50 bucks with rebates.. pretty good deal!

Happy New year!


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