Cheap Hard Drives

[trickster]

Best Buy is selling Western Digital's 80gb 7200rpm drives for $59. Officemax is doing so too, but with rebates. This might be a good chance to grab some extra space.

The guy from Officemax said that the model is being discontinued, but that shouldn't stop it from working.

[gorn]

[quote author=trickster link=board=3;threadid=6968;start=0#64765 date=1052269077]Western Digital[/quote]

but that shouldn't stop it from working.

think again... :P

[trickster]

[quote author=gorn link=board=3;threadid=6968;start=0#65771 date=1053963005]
[quote author=trickster link=board=3;threadid=6968;start=0#64765 date=1052269077]Western Digital[/quote]

but that shouldn't stop it from working.

think again... :P
[/quote]

Well, I've used a bunch of those Caviar series, and they have worked good. I've had about 5-6 of them go bad at work, but out of 700, that is not bad.

I bought one of the 80's and is working pretty good.

[gorn]

[quote author=trickster link=board=3;threadid=6968;start=0#65773 date=1053964635]
Well, I've used a bunch of those Caviar series, and they have worked good. I've had about 5-6 of them go bad at work, but out of 700, that is not bad.
[/quote]

that's not bad at all, my luck with western digital hasn't been too good. lost a 2GB drive but it was still under warranty, then lost another 2GB drive but this was after the warranty, lost 2 ~200MB drives but they were rather old. friend got a WD that was DOA and another friend's drive started making scratching noises, sure enough it was WD

but hopefully they've gotten better, good luck with your 80, and yeah that price is definately good

[Schotty]

Thanks for the tip!

I am a WD fan, and only had one die, and that was my fault. Car accident with the drive (in static bag) sitting on my passenger seat. It collided with Mr DashBoard at a very nice velocity.

[korn]

I am using a WD 80 GB 7200rpm and it is working great. Picked it up at Compusa for $70. Put it in an older box and the BIOS only sees it as 14 GB. But Linux can see 73 GB. I figure I can spare 7 GB because I can't afford a new machine.

[rick420]

[quote author=gorn link=board=3;threadid=6968;start=0#65781 date=1053973412]
[quote author=trickster link=board=3;threadid=6968;start=0#65773 date=1053964635]
Well, I've used a bunch of those Caviar series, and they have worked good. I've had about 5-6 of them go bad at work, but out of 700, that is not bad.
[/quote]

that's not bad at all, my luck with western digital hasn't been too good. lost a 2GB drive but it was still under warranty, then lost another 2GB drive but this was after the warranty, lost 2 ~200MB drives but they were rather old. friend got a WD that was DOA and another friend's drive started making scratching noises, sure enough it was WD

but hopefully they've gotten better, good luck with your 80, and yeah that price is definately good
[/quote]

LOL, yea 1980 just called and wants its 2gigs back. LMAO. How can you even think a 2gig drive is revelant to today is beyond me

[stryder144]

[quote author=Rex link=board=3;threadid=6968;start=0#66177 date=1054607466]
I am using a WD 80 GB 7200rpm and it is working great. Picked it up at Compusa for $70. Put it in an older box and the BIOS only sees it as 14 GB. But Linux can see 73 GB. I figure I can spare 7 GB because I can't afford a new machine.
[/quote]

If I'm not mistaken, those 7 lost GB are due to formatting the drive. Of course, I could be wrong. If so, please correct me as I am curious about such things.

Speaking of which, does anyone know which file system is the best when it comes to losing the least amount of space when formatting the hdd? Is ext2/3 better than reiserfs, xfs, fat32, ntfs, etc or is there no real difference? I remember one of the "selling points" of win98 was the more efficient use of space when formatting with fat32 over fat16.

Cheers

[trickster]

I have 1 ext3, 1 ntfs, 1 vfat and one swap partition on this 80gb drive, and I can see +- 78 gigs of it.

[korn]

[quote author=stryder144 link=board=3;threadid=6968;start=0#66189 date=1054653550]
[quote author=Rex link=board=3;threadid=6968;start=0#66177 date=1054607466]
I am using a WD 80 GB 7200rpm and it is working great. Picked it up at Compusa for $70. Put it in an older box and the BIOS only sees it as 14 GB. But Linux can see 73 GB. I figure I can spare 7 GB because I can't afford a new machine.
[/quote]

If I'm not mistaken, those 7 lost GB are due to formatting the drive. Of course, I could be wrong. If so, please correct me as I am curious about such things.

Speaking of which, does anyone know which file system is the best when it comes to losing the least amount of space when formatting the hdd? Is ext2/3 better than reiserfs, xfs, fat32, ntfs, etc or is there no real difference? I remember one of the "selling points" of win98 was the more efficient use of space when formatting with fat32 over fat16.

Cheers
[/quote]

That may be true, however I am not sure. I thought the benefit of fat32 over 16 was it could address larger drives.