New
#1
Shopping for a hard drive, have a few questions
So i finally took off the thin cover on my laptop to completely clean out the main fan (and took out a pair of dust bunnies in the process), and decided to take a peek at the HDD0 and HDD1, but noticed all there was in the HDD1 case was a cushion, so I went to Newegg to start shopping for something to fill the spot. Then I realized: I know nothing about hard drives, especially about multiple ones in a single machine. So I came back here to ask a few questions:
- Do both hard drives have to be by the same manufacturer? The one I have is a Western Digital WD3200BEKT, so I was wondering if I could get a different brand or not.
- Would the new hard drive "blend" with the original, adding to my hard drive space, or would it show up as a separate disk in My Computer?
- Again, not knowing anything about hard drives, what would you guys suggest I buy, keeping in mind I do have a bit of a budget.
- (Probably pulling this one out of my butt) Are there any solid state drives that are compatible with my laptop, or are they mostly desktop drives for the moment?
- Would there be an installation process (software-wise) or would it be plug it in and play?
- Would having two hard drives slow down my speed at all, or improve it, or have no effect?
Well that's all the questions I can think of for now. I'm gonna hold off on making a purchase until I know what I'm doing, and until I can afford something worth putting into my laptop.