Tips for Buying a Hard Drive for Your Mac
If you need mac replacement parts, you can get them from dealers such as DV Warehouse. And when you decide to buy a hard drive for your computer, it is vital to verify and understand if the hard drive is suitable for your needs and if it has or lacks the features you may or may not need. Unfortunately, with the frequent changes in hard drive technologies, sometimes it can be confusing and frustrating when you are considering to purchase a hard drive. The following tips will help you in choosing the right hard drive to suit your needs.
1. Adding a new hard drive
If you are buying a new drive because you need more storage space, you can add a new hard drive without removing the current one. The benefits of adding a new drive are that you can gain extra storage space without having to delete any of your existing files or without reinstalling any programs.
2. Replacing an existing hard drive
If you have any desktop or laptop computer and want to replace an old hard disk drive with a new one, especially a solid state drive (SSD), remember that you may lose some data on the drive. You can transfer all your data from one hard disk to another, but specialists recommend that you do a fresh install to prevent future problems and to remove all junk software and files that you don’t need. Thus, before replacing your hard drive:
• Back up all your vital data to prevent data loss
• Make sure to have your operating system installation disk or system recovery disk
• Ensure you have all the necessary disks to reinstall your software
Before replacing hard disks make sure that they are compatible with your mac and its internals such as video card no. 661-4664.
3. Disk interface
When you want to purchase a hard drive, the most important consideration is the interface that the drive uses to communicate with and connect to the computer. The following are the interfaces available for different hard drives:
• SATA— this is the most common and is used with all new computers. Most current computers can accommodate at least two SATA hard disks. Hard drives and many other components can use an SATA connection. Thus, make sure your computer has an SATA connection before you purchase this type of drive.
• IDE/ATA/ATAPI— these are standard hard disk interfaces used with older computers. IDE can accommodate a maximum of four devices. Make sure your computer has an IDE connection before you purchase an IDE hard disk.
• SCSI— this kind is less common. It is mostly found in older Apple computers, IBM, and some computer servers. SCSI is faster than IDE and can support up to eight devices.
• External (USB, Parallel, or FireWire)—Several external hard disk solutions are available for your computer. They include USB, eSATA, Parallel, and FireWire. When you are considering you buy an external hard drive, look at its speed for transferring data to and from the hard disk.
A hard drive is a vital component for data storage in your computer. You may decide to install a new disk or replace an existing one. When you do so, remember the above tips to avoid buying the wrong type of disk and lose money.
