Add second Hard Disk Drive, but which to choose

Add second Hard Disk Drive, but which to choose My parents have a Dell Dimension 4300 Desktop with a Maxtor 2B020H1 drive in it. I am pretty ignorant about HDDs and want to ensure that I get the correct one to add as a second drive.
Asked by: Guest \| Views: 338

Total answers/comments: 2

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Guest [Entry]

"According to Dell's information , this machine will hold 2 drives.

two bays for 1-inch–high IDE hard drives
ATA-66 or ATA-100 Ultra DMA hard drive, CD drive, Zip drive, DVD drive, and CD-RW drive

Basically, that means any standard 3.5"" PATA drive should work.

As others have said, a larger drive will be faster, likely less expensive, and you never know when you'll need more space.

Personally, depending on budget and usage patterns, I would consider upgrading the machine to a new $400-500 machine from Dell. Get a new machine with a new hard drive, new monitor etc. This machine must be around 4 years old, so the hard drive is on borrowed time."

Guest [Entry]

"Any IDE drive should fit your PC so long as it is 3.5"" make sure you don't get a 2.5"" drive since these are intended for laptops and would need an adapter to fit. According to the spec on the Dell web site your pc has 2 internal 3.5"" slots available so fitting the drive shouldn't be a problem.

If you are going to connect it to the same cable as the existing drive make sure the jumper is set to slave or cable select."