On 6/8/2011 2:17 PM, Jim Nichols wrote:
> My C drive is the original 80GB drive, and is 6 yrs old. If I replace it,
> what is the currently preferred manufacturer,
It doesn't matter. I went through this a couple of years ago and concluded
it's a mugg's game and not worth it. Not
that there aren't differences between different batches from various
manufacturers. It's that it's impossible for an
individual buyer to know enough to make a meaningful distinction between
brands. I went through this a couple of years
ago and concluded that.
For example, at that time, there was a lot of noise on forums about one brand
of a particular size drive. However, it
was already old news. The old ones that ran afoul of some quirk in some
operating system or other had all been fixed or
replaced and a slightly different numbered drive was current. The replacement
model didn't have that particular problem.
Whether it, or any other model/brand, would have a problem in the future,
nobody knew, including the makers. I bought
another drive of another size at the same time, smallish, not bleeding edge. It
failed while being initialized. That
happens, but the incidence is so low that it's jut a crap shoot.
> and what software would you use to clone the drive?
If the existing drive is WD, I'd get a WD to replace it. They have a free
version of Acronis which only works WD to WD,
so you can save a couple of bucks. I've been using it to clone my C: Drive
fairly regularly for insurance.
> Do you open up the case and connect the new drive to a cable and clone it
> that way, or do it over a USB connection?
I would either install the new one in the case next to the old one or in an
eSATA external case. Either way works fine.
If the first, you can then remove the old one, if you want, or just unplug the
connectors. USB is WAY slower than
SATA/eSATA.
> The last HD I bought was WD, and it seems to be fine. It is my external eSATA
> photo drive. WD and Seagate are the big dawgs. One of them absorbed Maxstor a
> while ago and one is buying Hitachi's drive operations (or is it Toshiba's?).
I have mostly WDs lately, partly as chance that brought a couple with my last
computer partly based on pricing when I
was buying and partly because of the Acronis drive clone/backup software. But
I'd have no hesitation at all in getting a
pair of Seagates, Hitchais, etc. in my next image data upgrade.
The only drive I've ever had fail, above, was a WD, but I think it's just the
luck of the draw.
Moose
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