Advantages: Fast and silent
Disadvantages: None

...7 weeks ago i had an IBM hard drive die on me whilst my PC was booting up, it made lots of clicking sounds and failed to load into windows, trying to keep my temper i rushed down to my local PC world to see what i could pick up as i didnt want to be without my PC for more than a few hours. I decided upon buying the Samsung 40gb as it matched the spec of my previous IBM perfectly and my old hard drive was fine for what i needed it for until it packed up somewhat prematurely. The main spec of the Samsung is as follows... 40 gig storage space 7200 RPM 8.9 ms seek time UDMA/ATA 100 2mb buffer It also came with 2 features that my old IBM didnt... Noiseguard Impacguard The noise guard reduces noise output from the drive (makes it quieter) and impac guard means the hard drive is less susceptable to being damaged... Read review

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Advantages: Fast read/write, 7200rpm spindle speed
Disadvantages: Only 2mb data buffer, Only supports upto ATA100

...Having already owned several western digital hard drives before, i knew these would be pretty reliable. Installation was fairly easy - four screws, one data cable, and one power cable connection. The bios on the motherboard recognised the drive perfectly. Once installed and setup, i noticed the difference over my old hard drive straight away. The boot up speed was a lot quicker and i once again had space for all my bits and pieces(after i had sorted windows out). (just for reference my old drive was a 20gb 2mb Cache 5400rpm). For any one not into the techie side of things, the faster the spindle speed and the bigger the cache size, the Faster the drive. Although 40gb doesnt sound very big compared to the other sizes available, you can still hold a lot of information on a drive of this size.... Read review

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Advantages: Fast, high capacity storage. Well built, looks good. 2 year warranty, No fan.
Disadvantages: No fan.

...Freecom before as they've always looked a bit cheap and nasty so this would be an interesting experience. The box did feel reassuringly heavy though, a good start. ############### # What's in the Box? ############### Apart from the drive, the box contained a small light external PSU, a USB lead and a CD with some backup software. The case is made of extremly solid and heavy aluminium with a silver plastic front piece with a sexy blue '400GB' light (yes, you can have sexy lights. Really.) at the front just to prove how big it was. The finish is excellent and I have to say, if this is anything to go by, I'm converted to Freecom. Unlike the picture here, my unit has the aluminium finished in matt black which looks really nice on top of my black PC. It's also surprisingly compact - not that much bigger than a hard drive at 20x11.5x4 cms... Read review

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Advantages: Lots of space for all your gaming needs.
Disadvantages: Price, Dust, Missing GB

...My personal experience with the Xbox 360 hard drive has been fairly positive. The ability to store music, films, videos and of course games saves is one that no Xbox gamer should be without. 120 GB of memory is more than enough for the average gamer. The hard drive is well designed to blend with the console perfectly. It is small and easy to store. However the price is pretty heavy compared to the cheaper 20GB versions. A problem with the memory is the fact that the hard drive does not actually have 120GB, obviously it wouldn't be exactly due to the need for the running files but several GB are actually missing. Regular cleaning is advised as dust tends to collect on the hard drive but a sharp blow into the docking port is sufficient to clear this. All in all this product is an incredibly useful addition to any Xbox 360 gamers... Read review

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Advantages: Quick transfer speed,
Disadvantages: Fairly Bulky

...What can i say this is an internal had-drive which obviously integrates within a computer system. Nowadays 80GB is not enough for anyone as programs are now increasing in size due to their complexity and what they have to offer. A hard drive is a non-volatile storage device which stores digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating platters with magnetic surfaces. Non-volatile storage is simply the name given to a storage device which can retain stored data even when not powered. With a volatile storage device being one that can not retain saved data e.g. RAM (Random Access Memory). I used to have an 80 GB hard drive in the past on my "OLD" PC, which was about 5 years ago. Now i have a 300 GB hard drive which i have to admit is filling up really quickly. Due to the number of files stored e.g music, photo, video etc. This particular... Read review

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Advantages: Great invention, reasonable price, large capacity
Disadvantages: Bulky, noisy

...is approx. 3.5 inches in height, 10 inches across and 3.5 inches deep. When it is running it is also has quite a loud buzzing noise, which can be quite tedious. The hard drive has 120GB and can store approx. 2,000 hours of digital music, 38,400 digital photos, 120 hours of digital video or 60 PC games. You are able to store digtal photos, videos, music, DVD's, Business Documents and Emails on the hard drive. The hard drive has a 7200-RPM spin speed and a 2-MB cache buffer, BounceBack Express software for fast and easy back up, built-in self-monitoring technology and is also compatible with Windows and Macintosh platforms. I have found this hard drive really useful, no longer does my laptop get filled up, it also runs faster. I am able to store all large documents/music/games on the external hard drive which prevents the slow... Read review

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Advantages: Fast and Silent, Easy SATA installation, Two flavours to choose from
Disadvantages: Dismal performance

...Maxtor are one of the 3 leading hard drive manufacturers in the personal and business computing market at the moment along with Western Digital and Hitachi. They are also the cheapest. Unfortunately, the saying that price doesn't equals quality is true here. Too true. The 160GB version of the DiamondMax Plus9 can be purchased online from around £51.00 onwards. And with the way hard drive prices have fallen recently, that's not bad at all. But as I said, you're getting cheap quality to match the cheap price. The drive itself looks very similar to any other hard drive, and comes in both IDE ATA/133 and SATA 150 flavours, with the SATA ones easier to configure due to their jumperless installations. My personal experience with this drive has been short. I first purchased this drive to use in my first ever custom-built computer... Read review

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Advantages: 250GB capacity, 2 firewire port, 1 usb ports
Disadvantages: alittle bit expensive

...Hello again and welcome to Chan's new toys! Just had a box delieverd to my home 2 weeks ago which i hadn't ordered, someone at work had given me new hardware to help with a task I've got to do. How well people know me, give me new harware to play with and i'll do any work they want! Anyway, opening up my jiffy bag I find a box with Media Centre writen in big black letters. MY first thought is what on earth is a media centre??? The box seemed a bit small for a TV and DVD player, let alone surround sound, so i decided that putting on my glasses so i could focus on the box was probably a good idea. It turns out a media centre is a rather large USB and firewire hard drive, with a few extras thrown in to make it look special. What you get is a 250Gb drive, 2 firewire ports, 1 usb port to go to your machine and 2 usb ports to connect... Read review

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Advantages: Slimline, many different options and room for expansion
Disadvantages: not too many, mainly the price issue

...------------------------------------------------------ I think the software you get with the PC depends on where you purchase it from. I got a trial of Norton which I don't use because I can't stand how it slows up the computer, win DVD creator, Sonic Record Now, a driver disk, and an operating system recovery CD with XP professional on. There is a license on the bottom of the computer for the CD. Storage ------------------------------------------------------ The model I chose has a 60GB hard drive, but I saw other models which had 40GB hard drives and one with an 80GB hard drive. 60GB is plenty enough, and I have partitioned my drives (split them up) into two drives, the C drive is 20GB in size. On the C drive, I installed the Operating System, along with all of the programs specific to the user. The other drive is the D drive, and this is made up of the remaining 40GB. I... Read review

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Advantages: Portable, easy to use, never failed on me yet!
Disadvantages: Perhaps only the disc size, but it has taken me 2 years to fill it!

...Wester Digital, a respected brand name, and i agree! I have owned the unit now for around 2 years, and have 0 problems. My internal hard drive has died on me twice but my external one, never! This 80gb HDD is perfect for storing large files, home movies, photo albums, music etc. It's ideal when transfering data from one place to another, simply unplug it, plug it in elsehwre and hey presto! It supports drag & drop so moving files couldn't be easier. Standard power adpater with 3-pin plug, and USB 2.0 connection to your pc, mac, server etc. It is easily recognised by each operating system and i have yet to find one that doesn't support the unit. Plug it in, wait around 30secs and it's up and running. Can be stored horizontally, and if you have 3 like me, you can stack them perfectly, or store them vertically... Read review

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