new HD/cd drive, completely pc stupid

[yayaok]

title says it all. my 80gb HD is almost full and i have nothing i want to really delete (40gb music collection damn you), and ive heard from my friends that hard drives are super cheap these days so i thought might as well add another one. do i need to get specific HDs depending on my pc case? like shape/size/etc, compatability or whatever
for specifics my current HD is... a seagate barracuda, thats what it says on the order form. not sure if that'd help though lol

also need a new cd drive, my current one is fubar'd for some reason and won't read anything 90% of the time. i'd like to get one that reads DVD this time, dont need a RW but if the price difference isnt that hugw then should i go ahead and get RW just incase?

also... i have no idea how the hell i'm suppost to add and install these shit once i buy'em, so yeah... help'd be appreciated. if anyone could think up average price tags on the top of their heads it'd be helpful too, prices vary from usa and korea

[liami]

Assuming you're not wanting to put an OS on this other drive and you're not confident installing internal components, you could always buy an external Hard Drive which just plugs into a spare USB socket. They generally run a little bit more expensive than their internal counterparts but work fine.
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...al-Hard-Drives

You can also get a USB DVD/DVDRW drive too
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...-CD-DVD-Drives

Not sure how those work if you want to boot something off the drive, maybe someone with experience of an external DVD drive can help you there.

[Isiolia]

do i need to get specific HDs depending on my pc case? like shape/size/etc, compatability or whatever

There are two main things you need to look at with hard drives.

First is the size. There are 2.5" and 3.5" drives as the standard sizes (there are others as well, but they're not common). Basically, laptop and desktop sizes drives, though other devices do use 2.5" drives (PS3, 360, Mac Mini, etc). Most of the time though, if you have a desktop PC, you're looking at a 3.5" hard drive (which, based on the model name you gave, is what you have).

The second thing to look at is the interface that the drive is hooked up with. The two main ones for most desktop PCs are IDE and SATA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance...ogy_Attachment for IDE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA for SATA

They're very different in appearance, so it should be easy to tell.


Once you know that you should be able to find what you need to purchase. Or, if your friends are knowledgeable, just ask them to help.

When installing, if it's an IDE drive, you will need to have a jumper on the back positioned properly. IDE supports two devices per cable, designated Master and Slave. The jumper allows you to specify which, or there's a third option called Cable Select that's common to see. This simply designates Master/Slave based on which connector on the cable that the device is plugged into.

Past physically installing the drive in your case, it will typically need to get partitioned and formatted before use. In Windows XP, you can use the computer management -> Logical Disk Manager to accomplish this. Again, if you have computer savvy friends, this is trivial stuff, just ask them to show you.


Or, as suggested, just buy an external drive, and move your media collection to that.

Cost varies, depending on drive model, internal/external, etc. Generally though, you should be able to get a 500GB drive for under $100, and a 1 TB drive for $130-150 or so.


CD/DVD drive is simpler, given that yours is failing. Most of them out there, until recently, are IDE. Assuming that it is, buy an IDE drive, put the jumper on the same setting as the one you already have, and do a direct swap. It should work without doing anything special.
IMO, just buy a DVDRW, they're like $25 now, no reason not to. Find one that comes with burning software if you don't have a decent package already.