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Dell Refubished - HD Downgrade

DogdotsDogdots Registered Users Posts: 8,795 Major grins
edited December 14, 2011 in Digital Darkroom
How important is HD space. My computer has a wire malfunctioning so it's being replaced by Dell with a refurbished one. Mine now has 1TB of hard drive space and the one they are offering has 640 GB. What should my concerns be?

They are upping my Memory from 12GB to 16GB, video card, giving me a Blu Ray that writes to along with a sound card???? Have not a clue about the sound card. It will have my usual i7 2nd generation processor along with W7 Professional.

Should I worry about the lack of HD space?
Mary
www.Dogdotsphotography.com

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    RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,937 moderator
    edited December 14, 2011
    Not necessarily. 640 GB is plenty of working space, assuming that you are keeping your archive on external drives and not cluttering your main drive up with other stuff. OTOH, the speed of the hard drive does have a direct impact on performance, so I would protest if they are replacing a 7200 RPM drive with a 5400 one. Hard drives are in short supply lately because of the flooding in Thailand (sure never expected that I would be saying that, 20 years ago mwink.gif) so the prices have gone up, but a year from now you will probably be able to get a good 2TB drive for under $100. The additional memory they are giving you should more than compensate.
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    aj986saj986s Registered Users Posts: 1,100 Major grins
    edited December 14, 2011
    If your PC is a desktop/tower, you should be able to add a 2nd internal HD with very little trouble. In fact, you may be able to add your current HD as the 2nd drive, for access to your old data. Problem with moving to your new PC as the primary HD is that if the computer hardware is different, more often than not, the OS will have a hard time getting it all sorted out. But if the new computer's OS and booting is from the new drive, and your 1TB drive is a secondary drive, you'll be able to access all your old data. Would probably want to delete the OS directories from the 2nd drive to gain some space. I wouldn't be surprised if Dell could set this up for you, though not sure what the cost might be.
    Tony P.
    Canon 50D, 30D and Digital Rebel (plus some old friends - FTB and AE1)
    Long-time amateur.....wishing for more time to play
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    DogdotsDogdots Registered Users Posts: 8,795 Major grins
    edited December 14, 2011
    Richard wrote: »
    Not necessarily. 640 GB is plenty of working space, assuming that you are keeping your archive on external drives and not cluttering your main drive up with other stuff. OTOH, the speed of the hard drive does have a direct impact on performance, so I would protest if they are replacing a 7200 RPM drive with a 5400 one. Hard drives are in short supply lately because of the flooding in Thailand (sure never expected that I would be saying that, 20 years ago mwink.gif) so the prices have gone up, but a year from now you will probably be able to get a good 2TB drive for under $100. The additional memory they are giving you should more than compensate.

    Howdy Richard :D

    I will ask about the RPM. Never knew that and when writing down all the info that wasn't given to me. He's calling in a few minutes.

    Usually don't keep much on my computer, but sometimes I slack in moving things to externals. Think I would of learned my lesson by now too.

    Thanks for the help -- greatly appreciated :D
    Mary
    www.Dogdotsphotography.com
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    DogdotsDogdots Registered Users Posts: 8,795 Major grins
    edited December 14, 2011
    aj986s wrote: »
    If your PC is a desktop/tower, you should be able to add a 2nd internal HD with very little trouble. In fact, you may be able to add your current HD as the 2nd drive, for access to your old data. Problem with moving to your new PC as the primary HD is that if the computer hardware is different, more often than not, the OS will have a hard time getting it all sorted out. But if the new computer's OS and booting is from the new drive, and your 1TB drive is a secondary drive, you'll be able to access all your old data. Would probably want to delete the OS directories from the 2nd drive to gain some space. I wouldn't be surprised if Dell could set this up for you, though not sure what the cost might be.

    PC is a desktop, but I don't get to keep it. When the other comes this one is returned.

    I like the idea of adding more hard drive tho. I'll ask him if it can be done with the computer he wants to send out to me. Must admit the 1TB gave me some comfort knowing I had a whole lot of space.
    Mary
    www.Dogdotsphotography.com
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    DogdotsDogdots Registered Users Posts: 8,795 Major grins
    edited December 14, 2011
    Update ..

    Seems I'm getting a new computer. The one they offered me was either gone or the guy didn't want to resubmit it while I was gathering info on my end about the HD space. Good thing I did it too as he couldn't tell me the the RPM of the 640GB HD. He then proceeded to tell me they looked for a 1TB HD for me, but because of the flooding in Thailand there's a back order on them in the refurbished section.

    Did have him check my RPM on my 1TB and that is 7200 :D Now I wait. Don't know if I did the right thing or not since I was getting more Memory and a better video card with the refurbished one, but what I have now runs really good for what I use it for.

    Thank you both for helping me sort this all out :D:D
    Mary
    www.Dogdotsphotography.com
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    Art ScottArt Scott Registered Users Posts: 8,959 Major grins
    edited December 14, 2011
    When the new one arrives, swap the HD's and see if it boots with your older drive ....you might even ask if it is ok to swap them out so you do not have to re-install all of the software...also if you have other files on it that is good reason to keep it.....I have swapped drives like that and never had a prob...but then I tinker around making some of my own desktops..so hard drives get moved from old machine to new one.
    "Genuine Fractals was, is and will always be the best solution for enlarging digital photos." ....Vincent Versace ... ... COPYRIGHT YOUR WORK ONLINE ... ... My Website

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    DogdotsDogdots Registered Users Posts: 8,795 Major grins
    edited December 14, 2011
    Art Scott wrote: »
    When the new one arrives, swap the HD's and see if it boots with your older drive ....you might even ask if it is ok to swap them out so you do not have to re-install all of the software...also if you have other files on it that is good reason to keep it.....I have swapped drives like that and never had a prob...but then I tinker around making some of my own desktops..so hard drives get moved from old machine to new one.

    I will do that .. thanks for the idea :D
    Mary
    www.Dogdotsphotography.com
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    NeilLNeilL Registered Users Posts: 4,201 Major grins
    edited December 14, 2011
    Mary with any of those specs and either way you would be able to fly to the moon and back!mwink.gifDrolleyes1.gif

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

    Neil
    "Snow. Ice. Slow!" "Half-winter. Half-moon. Half-asleep!"

    http://www.behance.net/brosepix
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    DogdotsDogdots Registered Users Posts: 8,795 Major grins
    edited December 14, 2011
    NeilL wrote: »
    Mary with any of those specs and either way you would be able to fly to the moon and back!mwink.gifDrolleyes1.gif

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

    Neil

    Howdy Neil ....

    A trip to the moon and back is all I ask for :Dthumb.gif

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too :D
    Mary
    www.Dogdotsphotography.com
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