As practice shows, no matter what the initial volume of the drive is, it will sooner or later be missed. And when the memory becomes small, the decision comes to add or replace the hard drive. In computer stores such devices are plenty. But which hard drive is better to buy and how to approach the choice of this element?
Form factor
Speaking in Russian, phrases form factor indicates the size of the device and, as you might guess, its shape. However, do not worry, the shape and dimensions of the device always fit any standard.
3.5 ''
This size is considered the most common for hard drives that are installed inside the system unit. There are similar devices that use an external USB connection, but they are not so common. The weight of such a hard disk is large, and therefore a HDD with such a form factor is not very suitable for portable stations. 3.5 '' - devices have several undeniable advantages - large volume (several terabytes), low price. Choosing this size will be justified if you decide which hard drive to buy for your computer.
2.5 ''
This form factor is mainly used in the production of external HDDs. To understand the approximate size of such a device, imagine a floppy drive. The price for one megabyte of such a hard drive will be slightly higher, but the maximum volume is less than that of devices of the past type.
1.8 ''
Such "babies" are very rare, one might say exotic. Find similar on sale is almost impossible. The main advantage is the small size and weight, however, there can be no large volume on such hard drives.
Interface
The way that a device connects to information processing equipment is called an interface. In simple terms, this parameter can be called a connector. There are several of their popular types.
USB
A similar interface is available in almost any computer, even in a laptop, even in a laptop. The speed with which data can be read and written through this bus is 480 Mb / s (or 5 GB / s if the USB 3.0 bus is used). In addition, such "hard drives" can easily be connected to DVD players, televisions, tablets. When choosing which hard drive to buy for a laptop, be aware that devices with this interface will work best.
SATA
SATA is a relatively new interface; it has replaced the parallel IDE bus. Most often, with its help, hard drives are installed inside the system unit. The read and write speed is limited by a bar of 3 Gb / s for the second version of the interface and 6 Gb / s for the third. On the external panels of the laptop, such a connector is almost impossible to find. Be careful if you choose an external storage, but if you are thinking about which hard drive is best to buy for a gaming computer, a drive with such a connector will work best.
Firewire
A very rare type of connector. If your device has a similar input, you can connect the HDD to your computer, but it is unlikely that you can use such a device on another PC. It is not recommended to purchase a hard drive with this interface if you plan to transfer information between devices on it, or if you intend to use the drive as an external one.
Thunderbolt
The rarity of this tire is comparable to FireWire, however, unlike it, Thuderbolt is the latest rather than archaic development. The interface was created by Intel engineers, but so far you can only find it on Apple products. The main advantage of this solution is a high data transfer rate (about 10 Gb / s). If you cannot decide which hard drive to buy for the MAC system, devices with this interface will be the best choice. The only thing that can push the buyer away is the high price.
Before choosing a hard drive, clearly decide on which device it will work most often, because the "hard drive" can be connected not only to a computer, but also to a laptop, TV, game console.
Which hard drive is best to buy for a TV
Many people are used to storing films and various videos on CDs. However, an external drive is considered a more convenient device in this regard. Disks cannot be exposed to sunlight, their surface becomes scratched after a few years, and over time, chemical reactions occur in the layer where the information is stored that degrade performance.
HDD disks are placed in a sealed enclosure where neither dust nor light can penetrate. During installation, fingers do not have to touch the work surface. This state of things has a positive effect on the durability of the device. And the latest indisputable advantage of an external HDD for a TV is its small size. Multiple DVD shelves can fit on a single magnetic drive.
If you are going to purchase an external “hard drive” for the TV, find out before purchase what current is needed for its normal operation. Then find out how much power the TV supplies to the USB bus. In this case, the rule applies - the TV should give out a third more than the HDD consumes. Do not forget to look in the manual which hard drive maximum capacity can be connected.
Remember that not all TVs and media players can work with the NTFS file system (so popular among Windows users), sometimes you may need to reformat the HDD to FAT32, and you can’t do without a computer. If you don’t have a PC or laptop, you can contact the service center of the store where the device is purchased in advance. Typically, there is no extra charge for a formatting operation.
SSD
Conventional hard drives work thanks to the presence of magnetic disks inside the case. By magnetizing and demagnetizing the plane, the device writes data to the HDD. There is another class of device - SDD. Such drives can not be called hard, or rather - solid state drives. The principle of their work is based on the same technical developments that are used in a conventional flash drive. If you have the ability to connect a "solid state" via a SATA-3 cable, you will be very pleased with the speed of reading and writing. Even the most gluttonous programs and games will start from such a drive in literally seconds (or maybe even less). However, if you are going to purchase such a drive, the price will upset you very much. They are considered, though the fastest, but also the most expensive. Such a device is best suited if you decide which hard drive is best to buy for games.
File system
Any storage medium has a special section on it, it stores all the data on the location of the files. The organization options for this section are called file systems. Previously, the FAT32 system was used on hard drives, today the latest format is often used - NTFS. The latter shows itself at work at slightly lower speeds, but it supports content encryption, and most importantly, files with a size exceeding four gigabytes can be written to the disk with its help. Remember that NTFS is not supported by every operating system, and especially not by every device, but FAT32 support is almost everywhere.
Software
If you choose a hard drive for a laptop or computer, find out if it comes with additional software. Often, pre-installed software tools are comprehensive products for backing up data, optimizing file distribution and power consumption, as well as protecting against malware. The first two products are very useful, since often their functions can be performed only by “native” programs for the HDD. Of course, no one cancels the Internet, but if the hard drive is used in a computer that has limited access to the World Wide Web, the option will be useful.
Which hard drive is best to buy for PS3
An increasing number of users are abandoning computers in favor of the latest generation of game consoles. Such devices have long been able to not only run games from CDs. With their help, you can also “surf” on the Internet, watch your favorite videos, listen to music, chat with friends. But there are drawbacks in the PS3, the most significant is the amount of memory.
This problem has become most acute with the release of modern and fairly voluminous blockbusters. For example, such a popular game as GTA V cannot be launched at all in the first releases of the console. This is due to system requirements - the hard drive in the console is much smaller than the game requires. The only way out of the situation is to increase memory by installing a new drive.
Few people know whether it is possible to connect the HDD to the PS3 at all, whether it supports such devices, and if they do, they don’t understand which hard drive is better to buy. There is nothing complicated in choosing a drive for the console; you can rely on the same characteristics that are important when choosing a hard drive for playing on a PC. The PS3 will automatically recognize almost any HDD that will be connected to it. The main parameters that you need to focus on when buying an external HDD for a game console are the volume and speed of the spindle.
The consoles support any drives with a usable capacity of not more than one terabyte. This space is enough for installing a lot of video games, and for a collection of video and audio materials. When deciding which hard drive to buy, do not forget about such an important parameter as the spindle speed. It must be 7200 rpm or more. On such a device, downloading games will not take much time, and during the game process the picture will not “slow down”. When using slower HDDs, this cannot be guaranteed.
By the way, it should be noted that consoles work not only with classic drives, but also with solid state drives. When choosing an SSD, everything is much simpler - except for the volume, you don’t have to study any special parameters.
Conclusion
Finally, it must be said that, choosing an external or internal hard drive, you need to decide on what equipment it will work in the first place, as well as what tasks will be assigned to it. Learn in advance about the power consumption of the drive, its capacity, connection method, and form factor. After such a study, choosing a hard drive will be very easy.
And yet - the most important advice. Never save when deciding which hard drive to buy. It is often more profitable to overpay for a device manufactured under a well-known brand, even if it costs an order of magnitude higher. The failure of a hard drive is not only a loss of money, but also a loss of data that is often impossible to recover.