Need help Upgrading Hard Drive

[Ares82]

Hi guys, so I seem to be running out of space on my hard drive (have 500 GB, but I do lots of gaming so it's not enough anymore).

Now I've never upgraded a hard drive, and I'm always scared when I do something I haven't dont before. Though I did do upgrades on other parts of the computer (video card, sound card, memory sticks) so I'm not new to tinkering with it.

But I have lots of questions on hard drives.

1) Can someone suggest a good harddrive. Prefferably in the 1TB or higher range. And price range under $100. If that's possible.
(I was looking at Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive seems to have decent reviews).

2) I was looking on Newegg at some HDDs, but I didn't see much in the way of requirements. Can any HDD fit into my computer? If no, how can I tell if an HDD is ok for my comp.

3) Any pointers you can provide on what to watch out for is great. Also, if you can point me to a good guide (with pictures or video) I'd appreciate it as well.

4) I have about 490 GB of games and programs installed in my current HDD. How hard would it be to transfer my entire hard drive to a new hard drive and keep all the installed programs working. ( a good guide would be helpful).

Anything else you can think of would be appreciated as well.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Get this HDD. Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Do not trust Newegg reviews, get professional reviews.
Western Digital is the highest recommended here.
Any HDD will fit and work in your system. They just have different speeds, capacities, sizes, etc.
You can use a program like Acronis, to clone your drives.

You just basically stick it in, and go.

 

[farinha]

If you're buying a HDD for a Desktop then check the 3.5'' HDDs. The 2.5'' are for laptops.
When you're looking for a HDD you should check the Cache size, higher the better, and the rpm, rotation per minute, being the 10000rpm the fastest ones, like the raptors from Western Digital, and 5400rpm the slowest ones.
For example, considering the Western Digital HDDs, the Green series, with low Cache and 5400rpm, are the slowest ones and are usually used for storing data because they use less power and normally speed isn't very important. The Black series, with higher Cache and 7200rpm, are the fastest ones and are usually used for OS and programs because you don't want to wait much for the programs to load. The Blue series is a midterm between the Green and Black series, 16MB of cache and 7200rpm. You also have the Raptors series, with 10000rpm, but they are expensive and you're better of buying an SSD.

In your case, since you will be using it to install games and applications I would buy a 7200rpm and 64MB of cache HDD like the Black series from Western Digital.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Well 10000rpm wont be within his budget. Yes, the black edition, as posted above.