JohnI said:
The hard drive on my Gateway PC has packed up. It`s a
Quantum Fireball
IDE 13.6Gb CX 13.6AT. I don`t want anything particularly
exotic so is
it possible to replace it with any make of drive of
similar spec.?
Hi John, relative newbie here posting my newbie experience.
I replaced a hard drive for the first time a few months ago
(also on an old Gateway--at least, from the size of the
drive above, I'm betting yours is old). The main spec here
is "IDE." Otherwise, from my reading, the priority should be
to buy from a reputable hard drive manufacturer. Western
Digital and Seagate are two names that come up often and
have for years. They don't generally cost more than other
brands.
Rebates abound! Circuit City often has some great deals.
It's worth checking its site and especially Sunday ads. I
paid a net of $40 for a 100 Gigabyte Seagate hard drive
that otherwise retailed $90. (Had to wait six weeks for the
$50 of rebates, but they came through on time and are easy
to track.) You can also buy online, but so far for computer
parts, I have never been wild about the inconvenience of
shipping, especially when returns are sometimes possible.
Software installation is generally straightforward. A CD
will usually come with the drive to assist.
My Gateway's original hard drive was also a Seagate.
Some of the drives I`ve seen advertised show pictures of
the actual
drive mechanism whereas this one is totally enclosed -
does it need to
be dismantled further?
No, those shots are cutaway shots used for advertising.
They're totally enclosed.
Ideally I`d like to be able to just re-connect
the two leads.......
Yes, that's the major step: Two leads.
The hard drive is ordinarily, structurally fixed in place by
a few ordinary screws. My old Gateway case is the smallest
made ("MicroATX" is its designator), so it was just a little
tricky figuring out how to get into the case and get at the
hard drive. That is probably what will take the most time,
though it sounds like you've already found your way into the
case.
as you may have guessed I haven`t changed a hard
drive before!
Little aside that might be helpful: I thought some problems
I was having with my old Gateway were due to the old hard
drive. Now I think it was the power supply, mobo
connections, and Win ME instabilities. I recently asssembled
a new computer myself (with mega-help from this newsgroup's
patient regulars) While getting it up and running, I called
on my old computer a lot. I was juggling hard drives
right-and-left to troubleshoot various minor problems. Now I
use the old hard drive to backup files from the new one. Not
sure what you use, but this method of backing up is super
fast. (The pros are no doubt saying, "Doh.")
