Hard drive capacity

[Scott K]

So I just loaded my recent updates onto my laptops hard drive, and it pretty much filled it up. I do have an external hard drive as well, and I do use that for most of my data, but for the stuff I use regularly I prefer to keep on the labtops hard drive, because it is faster, and I also then dont need to bring the external with me every where I go.

My question is, is it bad to run it at close to max capacity? Will it cause it to prematurely go bad? I still have a few gigs left on it, so there is room for windows updates and such. Or would it be wise for me to just dump it all onto an external, and be inconvenienced by having to carry that with me all of the time?

[spearchucker]

It hurt your hard drive much, but it can affect Windows performance some.

[upnorth]

As long as windows has enough room for swap space it will run fine. Once you get below a Gig you may seem some performance issues.

I would do a clean up. Try downloading and running CCleaner that will pull known uneeded junk off your PC. There is also some known issues with some Anti Virus software storing too many versions of virus defs and filling hard drives.

[BobT]

I wonder how much unnecessary junk is being stored on your hard drive.

[Scott K]

Well this is my work laptop, no musuc, minimum pictures, I run ccleaner at least 1 time a week, along with a Advanced window care, and I run the free version of AVG. I know where the space is being used, and it isnt being wasted on unnecessary stuff. I have a 1T internal hard drive in my laptop, and a 3T external for the stuff I dont use daily, but when I use it, it take several seconds for the external to find the stuff, and time is priceless when you are on the phone trying to explain something to a customer on how something works, and you have to tell him that the computer is slow. Thats why I prefer to keep the daily used stuff on the main internal hard drive.

As far as I know, a 1T internal drive is as big as I can go in a laptop, or is there a larger drive that wont compromise speed, cause to much heat for the processor, and eat my battery in no time?

I havent noticed my labtop slowing at all from it, but I just dont want the hard drive to burn out faster because it is close to max. I was just wondering if that burns them out quicker? I guess I dont notice any extra noise at all, or extra heat now.

It takes a long time to load all of my info onto a hard drive, so I dont want it to burn out in a short amount of time. I just spent all weekend doing my last update, and that was 620 gig of data. I am in the middle of backing everything up now onto a external hard drive.

[upnorth]

No you won't burn the drive out prematurely by it being full. We have a lot over PC/servers here that are approaching full and have been that way for years.

USB drives will always be slower than local drives.

Windows also stores the windows updates in the windows folder, I have been around for a while and never had to go back and use one. If you want to free up space, you can create a folder on your external drive and an least copy the older ones to that I would leave newer stuff alone as you may need to roll back. Those things take a fair amount of space.

You could also delete all your porn too Hehehehehehe!

[Scott K]

Quote:

You could also delete all your porn too wink Hehehehehehe!

Haha Never! Lol, I figured that would be brought up, since even when I go to buy new drives from a store, and tell them I need the biggest they have, I get the same thing from the assistant at the stores. Even though I try to avoid buying hardware from local stores, sometimes you need to.

I am just waiting for technology to get a 2T SD hard drive. That should take me atleast a couple more years to fill up.

[upnorth]

Dell has a configuration where you can install 2 750 Gig drives for 1.5 T.

Toshiba has a 1.25 T drive for their laptops.

So I am sure someone will be coming out shortly with a 2T disk or combination soon.

[Nick Kuhn]

I'd try clean it up some. CCleaner usually does a good job, if you've never run it before it could easily find a Gig to delete. Otherwise there's a few visual hard drive programs out there (I've used SequoiaView in the past, although I'm sure there is something better now) that can help you locate unnecessary files and free up some space. That will allow for Windows Swap space and a good defrag to help keep things running smooth.

[Elybound]

Another alternative although more expensive would be a new laptop. There are some with the capability of 3 internal 2 1/2 inch drives at 1T apiece and running USB 3.0 for use with a faster external drive.

[Scott K]

Another alternative although more expensive would be a new laptop. There are some with the capability of 3 internal 2 1/2 inch drives at 1T apiece and running USB 3.0 for use with a faster external drive.

This would be a great option for my next laptop. I usually go through one about every 3 years, this will be year 2 on this one. So next year I will be searching. When I bought the one I have now, 750gb was the largest available at the time. Shortly after that 1T came out, and I ended upgrading at about 6 mos old. The problem is when you need the largest available, and it just came out, you pay the premium the first year. I think I paid around $300 for this hard drive. Now they can be had for about $100.

[upnorth]

You could look into whether the Motherboard on that laptop would support a second drive. If you can get a 1T drive for $100 problems solved for a while.

[CAMAN]

Western Digital has up to 3TB Sata III Hard drives for up to $135 on Amazon. Wouldn't those work???

It's in their "Caviar Green" series.

[upnorth]

Not all drives fit in laptops. But it could. I just checked a few major vendors for laptops.

[spearchucker]

I'd try clean it up some. CCleaner usually does a good job, if you've never run it before it could easily find a Gig to delete. Otherwise there's a few visual hard drive programs out there (I've used SequoiaView in the past, although I'm sure there is something better now) that can help you locate unnecessary files and free up some space. That will allow for Windows Swap space and a good defrag to help keep things running smooth.

I think if you read he already said that he has done that. The stuff taking up space is stuff that he really needs.

[CAMAN]

Not all drives fit in laptops. But it could. I just checked a few major vendors for laptops.

Yeah you're right, I guess we'd have to find out what laptop and drive style he has first.

[Scott K]

It is a 2.5" 9.5mm or 12.5, (either fit) Sata hard drive. I believe there is room for a second drive in there, now that I am thinking about it! After a little research, for $150, I can get the cable, case, and 1T hard drive for the second port The second one is now on order! Thanks everyone!

My laptop is a HP DV7-3065 series.

[upnorth]

Sometimes just throwing ideas around solves the problem.

[Shack]

As long as windows has enough room for swap space it will run fine. Once you get below a Gig you may seem some performance issues.

Or it will black or blue screen.

Originally Posted By: upnorth

USB drives will always be slower than local drives.

I assume you mean in the transfer of data to and from a PC but this made me think of USB 3.0. Not part of the topic here, but USB 3.0 IMO does not transfer like it was bragged up to be able to transfer. I have seen 3.0 written up as an option equal to e-sata.

Yep, you can delete start menu usage logs, restore points (minus the latest one), recent document history, start menu run history, find, printers-computers-people find, MS Paint, MS Wordpad, Regedit, common dialog open/save & last saved files history. Also you can empty clipboard logs, old and outdated crash memory dump files and even Chkdsk recovered fragments. It is amazing the space you can free up if you have never looked into freeing up space on a PC before. Not even mentioning compressing files here. From my experiences, on average a 100gb pack to gills drive, that has never seen CCleaner used on it, can be widdled down in some fashion to around 80gb without one needed file being lost.

I like new harddrives, so this is the best option.

[Shack]

Wallmart has a 2tb Seagate enclosed external, with 3.0 USB and adapter to 2.0 ports for $99.00.

[spearchucker]

Wallmart has a 2tb Seagate enclosed external, with 3.0 USB and adapter to 2.0 ports for $99.00.

You will still only get usb 2.0 speed and he already said external is not a good option for him.

[Scott K]

Wallmart has a 2tb Seagate enclosed external, with 3.0 USB and adapter to 2.0 ports for $99.00.

I do use externals for back ups, and that is a crazy cheap price! When 1.5T just came out a few years back, I think I paid $350 for it. Then I bought the 3T external and I think it was over $300. I have been spying the 5T externals now, but the 3T is still good with me for now.

[upnorth]

USB 3 may be getting faster, but still going to lag behind current SATA speeds.

[Scott K]

Ya, any usb hard drive is quite noticeably slower. Although, they do mak externals that you can hook a long Sata cable to, and it is much better. I have a 1.5T with an external Sata cable that I plug into my main work pc, and it does automatic back ups with it, and it is pretty fast. But I just dont want the inconvenience of lugging around an extra drive when I decide to go mobile, and for me to go mobile, I have to use a USB powered hard drive, and that eats my laptops batteries fairly quick.

[spearchucker]

I have been spying the 5T externals now, but the 3T is still good with me for now.

That is a lot of data in one place. Just remember that the external drives can fail as well.