Solved Seeking new hard drive

[jim davis]

Best of the day to you all.
I have a dell optiplex 745
whose earliest program install date is 2006, so I am assuming this comp is 14 years old

I would like to put a brand new medium speed hard drive in it, in another post i have been kindly

shown how to pull the "image" with a program, that home work behind me, I need to know

can i get a brand new hard drive, and what are the longest lasting.
I have been sold used junk as brand new 3 times, want to ovoid that



PS I do not, (despite their hi speed) want a solid state drive.

 

[flavallee]

The Western Digital Black models are what I recommend.

HERE are 500 GB(465 GB actual capacity) and 1 TB(931 GB actual capacity) models.

 

[samuria]

Before we can tell you we need to know what type of drive you have ide or data?

 

[SIW2]

WD blue 1tb is a good value 1tb disk (WD10EZEX) , quick for a mechanical spinner and in my experience very reliable.

WD Blue 1TB 3.5" SATA Desktop Hard Drive | Ebuyer.com

 

[SIW2]

https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/opti_745techspecs.pdf page 2

 

[flavallee]

If I remember correctly, the Dell OptiPlex 745 models use SATA2 hard disk drives.

 

[strollin]

...

PS I do not, (despite their hi speed) want a solid state drive.

Out of curiosity, why are you dead set against SSD? Their only drawback is that they are costlier but their price has dropped to the point where they are very competitive. A 500GB Samsung 860 SSD can be purchased for less than the 500GB WD Black drives suggested above.

 

[SIW2]

But it is a lot more than the 1tb WD blue ( approx £37) vs Samsung 860 Evo 1TB SSD (£140)

 

[jim davis]

Before we can tell you we need to know what type of drive you have ide or data?

Thank you

for your arrow splitting ZEN archery on this, Sam, I don't know how to find that info
how do i obtain it accurately, as i don't wanna get something in the mail that doesn't fit.
is there a way to find that with out opening up the machine guts.

 

[jim davis]

Out of curiosity, why are you dead set against SSD? Their only drawback is that they are costlier but their price has dropped to the point where they are very competitive. A 500GB Samsung 860 SSD can be purchased for less than the 500GB WD Black drives suggested above.

Thank you for a great avatar "Strollin"

I am part of the greatest generation too.
tho they (solid state) are faster then fat Freddy's cat to the tuna bowl, they have a break down rate that scares me.
But some folks get lucky and never have a problem, but many do.
Tho i don't yet know how to do it, back yours up.

 

[jim davis]

https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/opti_745techspecs.pdf page 2

ThanX SIW2

are these these the specs I am looking for and if yes, what does it say/mean

HARD DRIVE OPTIONS Supported TypesSerial ATA or Serial ATA 3.0 Available Drives7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s: 80GB, 160GB, 250GB4 7200RPM 10K RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s: 80GB SMART Technology SMART III Burst Transfer Rate 300 Mbit/s Partition Support MS Windows XP Professional SP2: Support both FAT16 and FAT32. FAT32 will be the default configuration MS Windows XP Home SP2: Support both FAT16


Also, does this mean i have a old XP up dated to a 7

 

[jim davis]

The Western Digital Black models are what I recommend.

HERE are 500 GB(465 GB actual capacity) and 1 TB(931 GB actual capacity) models.

Thanks Fla-val-le,
your name sounds like music an angel would sing.

OK, providing everybody agrees with you here on type (or maybe does not)
is this a medium speed, and why is one tb and other 500 GB
What I really wanna know which one lasts longer

I gotta remember your name, what is that from ?,

 

[flavallee]

The "Black" series of Western Digital hard disk drives are reliable and long-lasting and run at 7,200 RPM.

I posted the 500 GB and 1 TB capacity models so you have 2 capacities to choose from.

 

[dg1261]

flavallee is correct; the Optiplex 745 series supported SATA-2 bus speeds, not SATA-3. Most hard drives nowadays are at least SATA-3. That means they are capable of faster data transfer speeds, but in a SATA-2 system like the 745, they'll fall back to the slower speed the computer's bus supports. SSDs are faster still, but in a SATA-2 system are a waste of money -- if you can't even get the performance a SATA-3 hard drive is capable of, an SSD isn't going to be any better.

Dell never made Win7 drivers for the 745, so we can be quite certain your computer did not come from the factory with Win7. It most likely came with XP, and was subsequently upgraded by somebody else in the intervening years.

The case should have a Dell Service Tag code on it somewhere -- usually on the back panel, in large black letters on a white sticker, usually about 5-6 alphanumeric characters ending with "1". If you're interested, you can visit support.dell.com and enter that service tag code, and you can find out the original shipping date, configuration, and what OS it shipped with.

 

[flavallee]

Entering the 7-character service tag number at the Dell support site should bring up the support site that's assigned to your Dell OptiPlex 745.
But because it's more than 10 years old, its purchasing date and specifications information may no longer be available.
The best way to find out is to go HERE and enter the service tag number.

The 745 has drivers only for Windows XP and Vista, so it wasn't designed to run Windows 7.
But it runs Windows 7 fine, and drivers for its devices are available at the Dell support site.

 

[strollin]

Thank you for a great avatar "Strollin"

I am part of the greatest generation too.
tho they (solid state) are faster then fat Freddy's cat to the tuna bowl, they have a break down rate that scares me.
But some folks get lucky and never have a problem, but many do.
Tho i don't yet know how to do it, back yours up.

All drives fail eventually so, yes, backup.


I don't believe ssds fail any more often than hdds.

 

[Megahertz07]

Buy a small (120G - US$25) SSD and install Win 7 and the programs on it. Use the current HDD for data only.

Use Kari tutorial to move C:\Users (SSD) to D:\Users (HDD)

It is a way to have the speed of a SSD and the space of a HDD at low cost. It's what I have in my computer.

 

[strollin]

As do most of us.

 

[jim davis]

flavallee is correct; the Optiplex 745 series supported SATA-2 bus speeds, not SATA-3. Most hard drives nowadays are at least SATA-3. That means they are capable of faster data transfer speeds, but in a SATA-2 system like the 745, they'll fall back to the slower speed the computer's bus supports. SSDs are faster still, but in a SATA-2 system are a waste of money -- if you can't even get the performance a SATA-3 hard drive is capable of, an SSD isn't going to be any better.

Dell never made Win7 drivers for the 745, so we can be quite certain your computer did not come from the factory with Win7. It most likely came with XP, and was subsequently upgraded by somebody else in the intervening years.

The case should have a Dell Service Tag code on it somewhere -- usually on the back panel, in large black letters on a white sticker, usually about 5-6 alphanumeric characters ending with "1". If you're interested, you can visit support.dell.com and enter that service tag code, and you can find out the original shipping date, configuration, and what OS it shipped with.

Buy a small (120G - US$25) SSD and install Win 7 and the programs on it. Use the current HDD for data only.

Use Kari tutorial to move C:\Users (SSD) to D:\Users (HDD)

It is a way to have the speed of a SSD and the space of a HDD at low cost. It's what I have in my computer.

MEGA is this the same as a 128 flash drive or is this a mother board drive ? cause as if latter, I would need a ha ha Movie not to blow my self up




Thank you everyone, all these post were very helpful, I really appreciate advice just below the Admin Level but not down to the rap music in the background grunge "digit-Aphilia" you tube level I just looked at. As i wade thru "getting over sick as heck with covid this past month". it/this is not just chatter i am making here, writing a answer here to a question that does not go down a tech hole is a art form, and well painted on this page by everyone. I will be getting a western mechanical hard Drive, and will back up my 7 program somewhere as well, tho no one has said it to me, it appears a working computer stripped of a OS, is like a CD player, turn it on and it asks for something to play, even if only by flash drive (correct me if wrong) . mean while, I am back to bed, after a huge romaine salad and a little lean meat eating for my immune system, as I ponder probably having to replace everything on this xp turned 7, but the outer shell of this computer and will be back here soon with questions.

 

[Megahertz07]

A SSD drive is a 2.5" SATA "disk".
BX500
Is much faster than a HDD, even if your SATA is not the latest standard.