hard drive replacement...any or specific 3

[rainwwater]

i have a AMD K6 2 400. i think the hard drive is shot. it,sometimes, almost boots up into windows, but doesn't make it all the way and freezes. other times, it boots up but just shows a 1/4 white line across the whole top of the monitor. the hard drive has been making a whining sound for a couple years. the computer is about 6 years old. when it started acting up, i saved everything, so that is not a prob. i have had to reformat it twice, the last time in jan of this year, and at that point, i could not get the sound to work again. does it sound like the hard drive to you?
if so, what do i look for to buy a new one? does it need to say AMD, or is that only the processor?
thank you for any help you can give me.

 

[Sleepsalot]

You can use any brand HD you want. There a lot of sites that offer good priceing on replacement drives It all depends where you are located and how much you want to spend on this six year old computer. most of the sites have good deals on complete machines.

http://www.tigerdirect.com

http://www.computergeeks.com

http://www.compusa.com

http://www.bestbuy.com

These are just a few sites.

Wayne

Life is a big Roleplaying adventure.

Wayne

 

[rainwwater]

thank you sleepsalot. one more question...when selecting a hard drive for this old computer, what size should i be looking for, or is there a size i should not get because it wouldn't run on this old thing? do you think there are more problems in putting a new hard drive into an old machine than it is worth?
i would like to get a new machine, but just do not have the cash. i will keep the links in my fav's though.

 

[garebo]

Well, first off, and no offense toward sleesalot, but i would not reccommend tigerdirect. Their prices are usually higher and they often dont know the difference between new and used, and their shipping charges are way out of line as well. Newegg.com and frys.com would be better in my opinion.
Fry's had a great deal on but i dont know if they still do.
Another prob you will have is that we should be given info on what mobo you have as you likely will have some sort of limitation as far as the size of drive you can use. Personally, on an older unit like that, i wouldnt get a new large h drive. I would join a forum such as techimo.com or anandtech, they have places where you can get a great deal on a used,older hard drive. That would be the way i would go.
If you do want a newer, large h drive then you can also buy a pci card controller card that would connect to a larger hard drive and work fine. Actually, i believe i even have a few of them around my shop.
You see, right now your bios controls what h drive you can use, but with a controller card, your pci controller card decides, and you can go with a larger drive. I dont know the limitations of your bios til i find out what made and model mobo you have, but there will be a limit as its an older mobo. So you can give us the info and we can further refine the help you are given.
But you do have a lot of choices. The cheapest would be to update the bios for your existing mobo and then buy a used hard drive or even 2. Its also the best way as you are dealing with older mobo and all that goes with it, not worth spending too much on, plus a larger h drive wont work anyway, it will work but the bios wont show the full amount, either way its a waste. But my way isnt.



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[garebo]

As for brand, you can go with maxtor, western digital, seagate, IBM, any major brand. If buying a used one, since you dont know your drives that much i would suggest you avoid IBM deckstars as some of them are known as deathstars in some circles! I believe Fujitsu also had some probs with some of their older drives as well.
If you go used i would suggest you work with 20 to 40 gig drives, even buy two, they are cheap and your bios will accept them. You can also buy them online stores but i suggest you use the forums, a lot cheaper and forum people have credit reports on them!



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[Sleepsalot]

I have never had any problem with Tiger Direct but I also have a Retail Store about 20 miles from my house The only reason I listed the ones I did is because I have made purchase from them. New Egg may be fine but I can't tell about any place I have not done business with.

garebo, No problem you have every right to make recomendtions.
Wayne



Life is a big Roleplaying adventure.

Wayne

 

[garebo]

Sleepsalot. thanks, i feel disagreeing is fine if done with a bit of class and i can see that you took it that way.
I dont have much good to say about tigerdirect but then a lot of others would agree with me as well.
They would also agree with me that newegg is one of the very best in terms of total price including shipping, return policy, quality of product, etc.
Another good place is directron.
If buying online you can use help by such places as pricewatch. Just be careful, dont always go by the lowest price. Personally i look for that combination of low price and good report. You can get a report on how good an online company is by going to reselleratings.com.
Another few good names are computergeeks.com, axiontech.com.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[rainwwater]

Thank you garebo and Sleepsalot.
garebo, I do not know what you mean by a mobo. What is that?
A small, old hard drive is ok with me as long as it works. My old puter had a 10 gig, and it was enough for me. I put a lot onto backups and don't need to have it all on the machine. I use my machine to work on, not play on. I have a laptop to use, but do not like it at all. It is s l o w e r than my old puter.

 

[garebo]

puter is computer, mobo is motherboard, lol.
thats why i was pointing all this stuff out, if you can liver with a smaller hard drive, then just go sign up free at tech imo or anandtech, i can go on there, or just ask someone, they will help you get a real good deal on a used hard drive or 2 that you can get real cheap and install with no problems on your existing. You will find these 2 places as a very good resource for you in the future, save you from having to pay full retail and keep your costs of computing way way down!! Ive been on these forums for many years. If you want, you can email me at kron123 (at) cogeco (dot) ca and i can fill you in with more details.
I would sell you a few of mine but i always need more used parts as i do charity work, i build computers from donations and they then go to schoolkids who dont ahve a computer at home. These days a kid needs a puter to try and compete!! So i dont see it as a luxury and these kids cry when they see me coming in with their very own computer!!
As much as i get a lot of donations i am never caught up either so i have to keep the parts i have as sooner or later they all fit together and form another of what they call a frankenstein computer, lol. But they work, they have freeoffice, a free AV prog, a few malware progs, a few other progs, and a modem! Sometimes even a printer, depends on the donations i get!


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[mainegeek]

rainwwater,
Try replacing the battery located on the motherboard.
Small flat silver coin size battery.
You can find a replacement at a hardware store for about $3 US dollars.

I am recommending replacing it because of the age of your PC. A low battery can raise havoc with your cmos settings and can give indications of a failing hard drive when it is not.

You may also have a failing power supply.

Maybe see if a friend has an old working hard drive that they no longer use that they will give you. Format it, install your operating system and give it a go for a while as a test before you spend any money.

 

[Sleepsalot]

Hey rainwwater,

I have quite a few extra hard drives if you want. I have several 10gb and also some 20gb let me know if you want to get one.

Life is a big Roleplaying adventure.

Wayne

 

[garebo]

Sleepsalot
I may also take you up on that. Would you email me at
kron123 (at) cogeco (dot) ca

thanks


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

As for the battery, all you have to do is test it, its a 3 volt battery and should have at least 2.8 or more volts showing on a battery tester for it to be good.
also, you can check your manual and do a bios re-set as well.


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[garebo]

Also, some of us havent mentioned things like the battery and power supply mainly because you have pointed out that your hard drive is whiny or noisy. However, it IS possible that your hard drive is ok and perhaps you need to check out your power supply. YOu can either borrow one from a friend or get a digital multimeter and then go to techrepublic and see their good tutorial on how to test your power supply. Its a good point as a system that old the power supply could be failing. They often start failing but dont stop working and that is just as bad or worse.
One question for you, does your hard drive have any bad sectors?
One more question, how loud is the noise, and is it a whine or loud clicking?


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[rainwwater]

oh goodness...well...this seems to be getting even more complicated than i first thought. as my computer world of friends go, i am the geek of the outfit and you can see how much i don't know. they do not have any parts laying around, but i do have a couple things here i took out of an even older puter than i have. i am not sure if it is a hard drive or a power source. lol see how much i don't know. i will look at it in detail tomorrow. i do appreciate everyone's advice.
the noise. it is a whining sound loud enough to have to turn the tv up when it is running. no clicking sounds. it has been making that noise for a couple or even maybe three years.
i am beginning to think it is not worth the trouble to even try to fix it. i don't want to spend money on a hard drive and then have it be the power supply. i now those are even more expensive and i wouldn't buy one for that old thing.
i have no idea how to test the battery and don't know anyone with a battery tester.
a manual didn't come with the computer, so don't know how to do a bios re-set.
where do i look for the battery on the mother board, and what does it look like. i can go to the hardware store and get one of those like you suggested. i can do that!

thanks again for all the advice

 

[rainwwater]

sleepsalot, yeah, about your 10 gig hard drive....how can i get in touch with you about it?

 

[Sleepsalot]

sleepsalot (at)gmail (.) com

Life is a big Roleplaying adventure.

Wayne

 

[rainwwater]

garebo and sleepsalot,

well, i have had a good experience in this forum with both of you giving me lots of good advice.
i am going to try the hard drive replacement when i can find a cheep old one. in the meantime, i did go to best buy; of course, they did not have any hard drives under 80gig's, so i was going to buy a small $300 puter to use. well i couldn't do that!!!!! i ended up getting an Athelon 64 and for $50 more got a package deal with a printer/copier/scanner/fax, flat screen monitor, speakers, keyboard, and mouse. i spent more money that i wanted to, but now have something that works. my husband is very happy as he can now scan his ball cards to put them into eBay.
now, i have to spend the next couple days getting this puter set up with all the business stuff, programs, web stuff, and files....oh my goodness, how i am not looking forward to that.
i debated whether to keep xp home edition on it, or putting xp pro on it. what do you think?

 

[garebo]

I forget offhand the actual differences, but they arent major, that i can tell you. Doesnt really matter, but if you have xp pro, you might as well install that. Of course the licensing thing is something that you have to determine. If for some reason one wont work then try the other.



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