What's the diff between these 2 hard drives???

[Garfield]

I was just at newegg.com looking for a hard drive to buy and there are these two WD hard drives. One is 7200RPM and so is the other. Except one is 30gig and the other is 40gig. The weird thing is, the 30gig is $83 and the 40gig is $84.

Does that strike you odd!!!??? Here is the link to the page and if anyone can tell me a difference (besides 10gigs), then please share...

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=14&manufactory=1306&DEPA=1

--Garfield

[rivercom9]

Very odd indeed. I cant discern any differences between the two. Knowing whats on the screen, I'd go with the 40 GB just cause they both look so similar and no major differences between the two. Besides, 10 GB for an extra dollar is a great bargain if you ask me.

[Garfield]

Originally posted by rivercom9
Very odd indeed. I cant discern any differences between the two. Knowing whats on the screen, I'd go with the 40 GB just cause they both look so similar and no major differences between the two. Besides, 10 GB for an extra dollar is a great bargain if you ask me.

Definitely!!! I will go with the 40gig. Is it a good drive, though?

[rivercom9]

I dont prefer WD HD though. That is a good deal for some HDs but my past experiences with WD as well as others I know havent been very good experiences. First off, WD HDs need their own software in order to convert their drives to a FAT32. Ive been having probs with my WD HD after doing so in that it is not detected some times. Its a pain. Id rather go with IBM GXP HDs next time I build my system.

[PDL]

True enough rivercom9, they do have a few drawbacks. But I have learned to live with them. I have a 10 gig ata100 and a 20.5 ata66 and both have served well.
The only difference I could see from the WD website was as shown below. The 30 is a wee bit noisier, but who could detect a 1 dBA difference.
I just hope they have these things for such a good price AFTER I get my credit cards paid up.:)

[Shadow ÒÓ]

The 30 gig is ATA 100

[Billvill]

Originally posted by rivercom9
I dont prefer WD HD though. That is a good deal for some HDs but my past experiences with WD as well as others I know havent been very good experiences. First off, WD HDs need their own software in order to convert their drives to a FAT32. Ive been having probs with my WD HD after doing so in that it is not detected some times. Its a pain. Id rather go with IBM GXP HDs next time I build my system.

Hello ,

Can you elaborate about the software needed for a WD drive to use fat 32 ? Does it slow the drive down ? I just purchased one today not knowing that. I m an IBM fan but have had 2 of the GXP 60's fail this year. I checked the Wd web site and didn't see any mention of the fat 32 software.

Thanks Billy

[Garfield]

So the 40gig WD is good to go with?

[Shadow ÒÓ]

the 30 gig has higher transfer rates. But if your mobo (or the optional IDE card you may have) doesn't support ATA 100, then it would make no difference to you. ATA 66 transfers data at 66mb per second...ATA 100 is 100mb per second. If your IDE contolller only supports 66, then plugging an ATA 100 in to it would only mean the drive would only run at 66.

FAT 32 is the format of Windows 9x. Other than Windows9x, there's no additional software needed. If you are running NT, 2000 or XP, you have the option of formatting the drive with NTFS, which is more secure and more efficient, but a little bit more technical to work with generally.

[rivercom9]

Using my WD hard drive, I was unable to properly format the drive into a FAT 32 partition in windows 98. Before I could do that, I had to use the disk that was packaged along with my HD in order to be able to convert the dirve into FAT 32 on windows 98. This has always been my experience with my WD HD on win98. If anyone has ever done anything differently on win 98 (Such as not having to install the WD HD software onto the HD prior to installing windows) in order to get it to a FAT32 partition, please tell me about it, cause this is what I have always gone through.

[Shadow ÒÓ]

use a boot disk that has fdisk on it. Fdisk the drive so it has a primary dos partition.

Once you're done, boot from the win9x cd, and it'll format the drive for you.

The only real use for the WD (or any other brand for that matter) software is if your bios doesn't accept large drives....it "tricks" the system in to believing the drive is an acceptable size.

[PDL]

Originally posted by Shadow ÒÓ
the 30 gig has higher transfer rates. But if your mobo (or the optional IDE card you may have) doesn't support ATA 100, then it would make no difference to you. ATA 66 transfers data at 66mb per second...ATA 100 is 100mb per second. If your IDE contolller only supports 66, then plugging an ATA 100 in to it would only mean the drive would only run at 66.

FAT 32 is the format of Windows 9x. Other than Windows9x, there's no additional software needed. If you are running NT, 2000 or XP, you have the option of formatting the drive with NTFS, which is more secure and more efficient, but a little bit more technical to work with generally.

From what I see they are both ATA100 mode 5 capable.
The only difference is the capacity and the 30 gig uses 1 platter while the 40 gig uses 2.
The cost of manufacturing them is probably about $1 apart as well!

[Shadow ÒÓ]

indeed! they just failed to list that part on the ad.

[Garfield]

How do I know if my mobo supports ATA100?

[Shadow ÒÓ]

what brand/model is it?

even if it didn't, you can buy an IDE controller card that would for about $30. Those are VERY handy to have as it gives you the ability to plug in 4 more IDE devices.

[Wa11y]

Originally posted by Shadow ÒÓ
what brand/model is it?

even if it didn't, you can buy an IDE controller card that would for about $30. Those are VERY handy to have as it gives you the ability to plug in 4 more IDE devices.

I can vouch for that. I have a Maxtor ATA/100 card in there, because I ran out of IDE channels with a Superdisk drive, hard drive, CD-ROM, and CD-RW. Now I have two more hard drives. I just need to get some longer IDE cables (Damn this 24" tall case!).

[Garfield]

Where would I plug in the IDE card for me IDE devices if I don't have any more slots for IDE's (I don't know yet, I still have to check)? Thanks.

[Wa11y]

Originally posted by Garfield
Where would I plug in the IDE card for me IDE devices if I don't have any more slots for IDE's (I don't know yet, I still have to check)? Thanks.

The IDE controller card in question is a PCI card that had two dual-channel IDE controllers on it, just like your mobo has. Just plug the PCI card into an open PCI slot (supposing you have one) just like a modem or sound card. Install the drivers (unless your OS has them resident), and start plugging in IDE devices (when the power is off, naturally). It'll work with any IDE devices. I have my CD-ROMs on the controller card, and a hard drive, and they all work just fine.

[Garfield]

So, lemme get this straight. I would plug this IDE extension (for more IDE devices) into a PCI slot? And then what do you mean:

Install the drivers (unless your OS has them resident

Install what drivers? The new hard drive? I don't understand that. Thanks...

--Garfield

[Wa11y]

Originally posted by Garfield
So, lemme get this straight. I would plug this IDE extension (for more IDE devices) into a PCI slot? And then what do you mean:

Install the drivers (unless your OS has them resident

Install what drivers? The new hard drive? I don't understand that. Thanks...

--Garfield

Drivers for the PCI IDE controller card. It'll show up as a SCSI controller under Windows Device Manager.

Here (http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=277884) is the particular controller card I own. It comes with a floppy disk that has the drivers on them. Windows XP already has the drivers bundled with the OS, so once you boot up in XP, it loads them for you.

If, however, your OS doesn't support the controller card, once you boot up after installing the PCI card into an open expansion slot, the "New Hardware" wizard should pop up, telling you some new hardware was found. Insert the floppy disk, and tell it to search the floppy drive for the drivers. After it installs the drivers, it should reboot your system again, and it should be all good.

One other thing: after installing this card, it'll add another setup to the bootup of your system. The card has it's own BIOS to identify the drives attached to this. Just something you can ignore as it runs through startup.

[Garfield]

So, it's the PCI device that might have to be manual installation? In this case, it would be the IDE expansion you hook up to the PCI port, right? Thanks..

[Wa11y]

Originally posted by Garfield
So, it's the PCI device that might have to be manual installation? In this case, it would be the IDE expansion you hook up to the PCI port, right? Thanks..

Right. Once you install the drivers for the PCI card, you can hook up hard drives just like to your motherboard.

[Garfield]

I think I might have a slight problem. I only have 3 IDE "pluggins". They, of course, are all being taken by my current hard drive, cd-rom, and floppy drive. I'm pretty sure there are only 3. I'm in my comp (not the one I'm writing this reply with) and all I see are the three.

--Garfield

[Wa11y]

Three plugins where? On the mobo? There should be two on the mobo, typically. Some have more. But they're usually paired. So there should be two IDE connectors on the mobo, IDE1 or 0 and IDE 2 or 1, respectivly. Each of those should be dual IDE channels. Two connectors capable of supporting two devices each for a total of four IDE devices. It's possible one of your IDE cables only has one connector, but I'm betting you're confusing your floppy connector with an IDE connector. The floppy connector is simiar to the IDE controllers, but shorter. Just so long as you use IDE cables that have three connectors total (one for mobo, one for IDE master, one for IDE slave), you can connect four devices without an add-on card.

[Garfield]

>> It's possible one of your IDE cables only has one connector, <<

Yup! I just found it. Right on the cable. So, I would hook up my hard drive to that? And, I'm still confused. (One more time) How many paritions and with what are going to be needed for my situation? Thanks, I really appreciate this!!!

--Garfield

[Garfield]

I think this is the hard drive that I'm going to go with...

WESTERN DIGITAL EIDE HARD DRIVE 60GB 7200RPM MODEL # WD600BB - OEM, DRIVE ONLY Caviar 3.5 inch Form Ultra ATA 100 8.9ms Seek Time 2mb Cache Buffer - 3 Year Manufacturer Warranty - 60.0 gb 7200 rpm (Click Here for IDE cable) 60.0 gb 7200 rpm Fedex Saver Shipping $7.00
- Product Link (limit 5 per customer)

What do you think? $121 + $7 = $128

[repo man11]

It sounds like a good deal to me! I paid allmost $100.00 for a 30 gig ATA 66 Maxtor drive in April of what's allmost last year. Prices coming down all of the time.