Hi all,

The 320gb internal HDD in my Dell Vostro 3350 is almost full (as is my 650gb external HDD).

So I’d like to upgrade my internal HDD, and put the current one in a case and use as an external.

Just for referance, this is the upgrade Dell has, spec wise doesn’t seem away from the norm.
http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=bsd&cs=ukbsdt1&sku=400-20667&mfgpid=3272023&~ck=baynoteSearch&baynote_bnrank=0&baynote_irrank=0

Size wise, ideally I’d like 1tb, but cost is a pretty big factor here, so we’ll see.

Speed, again of course faster is better, but 5400rpm may be OK?

Laptop is used for storing and editing photos and videos, bit of CAD work, storing music, watching movies etc.

Anyone seen any good deals around for HDDs? Price around £80 would be ideal, what kinda spec should I be looking at for that?

Also, any recommendations for software to copy everything from my current HDD onto the new one (I’ll put it in a casing for that of course)?

This site seems to be quite keen on Macrium Reflect?
http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2008/09/05/5-free-apps-to-clone-your-hard-drive/

Ta, Duane.

Knoppix – linux

Scan normally good value – they have a 750GB WD 7200 16mb cache for £75 which is pretty good.

You might struggle to get anything good in 1TB below £80. Also check Dell haven’t got a proprietary connector on your laptop.

Mike, had a quick search, ‘fraid it didn’t make much sense to me!

Nick, thanks, just having a look on thier site now.

How important is cache size? 8MB vs 16MB?

Seen they have this;
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-samsung-hn-m101mbb-spinpoint-m8-25-95-mm-sata-ii-3gb-s-5400rpm-8mb-cache-12ms-with-ecoseek-ps-3-

But only a 8MB cache, and only 5400rpm.

In that case stay clear!! It’s an OS you can run from a mem stick to do these handy things.

Are you on Win7? If so I think you can do a backup/restore from windows if you have a big enough usb drive

Yeah Windows 7. USB drive = external HDD right? If so, no, I don’t. Which is why I would like to put my new HDD (whatever I get) in a casing, plug it into USB, clone the contents of the current HDD onto it, then swap them over.

Not read all of the stuff but “Clone” will normally make a 320gb copy of your disk so you will either need to partition to use the rest or resize after.

I think W7 got arsey about using network drives for backup too.

Would be easier to try and borrow an external drive from someone.

Depends what you want – the 750gb drive will perform faster but has a chunk less space, almost as much less as your current drive has in total. Performance differences won’t be hugely noticeable between the two, depending on your usage and how much you work with large amounts of data. Given the choice between the 2 i’d go for the smaller faster drive, as it’s still big and it’s a laptop, but if you think the larger size will be more useful to you then go bigger.

Although my personal opinion now is smaller and faster, i’ve got a 128gb SSD inside mine, a couple of external HDD’s for use out an about when I need more space and a 2TB raid fileserver at home for main storage and less risk to data.

Mike, thanks, will do a bit more looking into it. Need to understand partitions etc first!

Nick, ta. You said;
” Performance differences won’t be hugely noticeable between the two, depending on your usage and how much you work with large amounts of data”

What kind of usage would you want the faster one for? Editing movies (just GoPro footage at the moment, but with Premier Pro or similar soon)/images? And what would you define as large amounts of data?

I do plan to have a backup of most files at home, but I also like to have most of my stuff (apart from movies) on my laptop as it gets taken around a fair bit and it’s just useful having everything whenever I want it.

Does the laptop have an e-SATA plug on it?

Some of the lattitudes do. Should (if what I read is right) give you a fast second drive connection. Perfect for what you say above.

As for video editing etc what you need is a Desktop with decent monitor!!

Also at this point I would suggest 1 of 2 options

1) Consult your local PC shop and see what they can do for you. May work out easier in the long run.

2) If you made the backup windows media when you got the laptop (like it suggests) and have installations and keys for your software start from scratch on the new disc, copy what you want back over and format disc 1 for new use (once everything is off it)

As with most things if you know what you are doing and have a few spare usb drives etc lying round it can be very straight forward or you can end up with 2 blank disks

I’m not sure, I’ll open it up in the morning and have a look.

A laptop makes much more sense for uni unfortunately. I do have a slightly larger (19″) monitor hooked up to the laptop too.

Depends on quite a few things, but yes, for video editing then the benefits become more apparent especially when working with gopro HD stuff and other large files. Just speeds up the data coming through/being written. It’s not a massive leap though, compared to jumping up to some of the SATA III 10k/64mb stuff or SSD. Like I say, it’s kinda one for you – if you think you’ll need the extra space then go that way, if you can afford to live without the space then get a better drive for the same money.

http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/vostro-3350/pd#TechSpec

This would suggest it does have eSATA (scroll down a little)..