Internal or External Hardrives?

[nanook]

Which is better?
I'm running out of room. I want to buy a bigger hard drive. My computer is full and it is slow. It's just a cheapy Compaq. I've had it for three years.
I'm running XP, with only 128 ram. I know, I need more of that too.

What would you recommend I do? And whose product? Or does it matter?
I know, most would say dump the compaq, but I'm not ready for that yet.

Hey. Thanks!

[Criminal_Sniper]

i got xp running
with a P4 2 G
1 gig ram i think
one 120 G hd and one 80
ive got programs and shit on the bigger one
burning to cd's for bigger things is good
i do not need all my shit at once

removable is good u can hide it from the riaa :p
im getting a real big one one day
or just a dvd burner

[eclectica]

I like internal hard drives better.

You say your computer is slow. That happens when you run out of disc space and the "virtual memory" running on the hard drive that supplements the regular memory has no more room.

You could also back up your personal files on CDs and format and reinstall Windows. That may speed things up and give you more space if you don't need all of those files. With a three year old computer I'm going to guess that your hard drive is 20 GB.

[slx]

internal

seems you've been fortunate useing xp with 128 ram....at a minimum double the ram dude.....it's so cheap these days....

i could never get xp to do more than crawl on 128mb ram

go to pcpitstop.com and have them give you a free checkup

The Microsoft article mentions the minimum RAM as 64MB, but that is the minimum to install. Windows XP will not run well on 64MB of RAM.

So, back to my original question. How much RAM is enough for Windows XP?

64MB? 64MB is the minimum to install it, but you do not want to run XP on 64MB.

128MB? I have run Windows XP on an old portable (400 Celeron) with 128, and it ran okay, as long as I did not do much with it. This is really the minimum RAM for someone who wants to use Word, and the Internet, and occasionally something a little more ambitious.

256MB? This is the right amount for most users, who are not doing multimedia, or playing new games. XP runs quite nicely with 256, and you will only see slow downs when you try to do a lot with your system.

512MB? If you play the most recent games, do video or graphics editing, or like to keep about six applications open at the same time, then this is the minimum that you should really consider.

Unlike 95, 98, and ME, XP can use a lot of RAM. There is no downside to increasing the RAM in XP. You should not expect huge improvements in performance just because you increase your RAM, but if you have less than 512MB and you see slow downs or momentary freezes when you have several applications open, or when doing multimedia, or when playing games, then you may want to consider spending a little money on some more RAM.

RAM does not cost that much these days, and it is one of the better investments you can make in your system performance.

Edit: Some proof.

Check out this PC Magazine Performance Test. There are tests for General-Purpose Upgrades, Photo-Editing Upgrades, and Gaming Upgrades. Be sure to check out the Test Results.

[nanook]

I like internal hard drives better.

You say your computer is slow. That happens when you run out of disc space and the "virtual memory" running on the hard drive that supplements the regular memory has no more room.

You could also back up your personal files on CDs and format and reinstall Windows. That may speed things up and give you more space if you don't need all of those files. With a three year old computer I'm going to guess that your hard drive is 20 GB.

What's the difference? So is it the new harddrive I need or ram? Or both. I figure I should just get the max of both. Cheaper than buying a new computer. lol. I just want the easy way. I'm no computer genius, at all. And yes it is 20gb.

[nanook]

internal

seems you've been fortunate useing xp with 128 ram....at a minimum double the ram dude.....it's so cheap these days....

i could never get xp to do more than crawl on 128mb ram

go to pcpitstop.com and have them give you a free checkup

Yeah, I knew this. lol. And have lived with it as long as I could. Times up me thinks.

[slx]

i'd bet if you keep your eye on the ads you get at home, the local sales and do some online shopping you'd be able to pick up a 40gig HD and another 128mb stick of ram for under 75.00

plug & play all the way...cut all the files you keep like tunes, word doc's pic's etc to the storage drive....format drive C & reinstall


you'll be surprised how much faster a fresh install of xp will be with the sufficient RAM

[nanook]

You say storage file. Where is it? What do you mean exactly. Do you mean as data on disc? Or since you mention only formatting drive C, to put them in drive D? Yeah, I'm a dummy.lol.

[slx]

You say storage file. Where is it? What do you mean exactly. Do you mean as data on disc? Or since you mention only formatting drive C, to put them in drive D? Yeah, I'm a dummy.lol.
use the hard drive you have now to run xp, i'd reformat it then do a fresh install if it's been a while since you had xp installed...and i'd guess it's been since you bought the pc

add a 2nd drive...no operating system...it'll be a blank drive that you can use for storage or whatever you want....like a big folder so to speak

if you want help...i'd be glad to walk you thru it...the hardest part is opening the pc cover, then it's just a matter of changing a jumper and plugging in the exsiting ribbon cables and fastening her down

it ain't hard to do at all & installing ram's just snapping a piece the size of a short comb into a slot

[nanook]

Very cool of you to offer your help, slx. Let me get the hardware & I'll let you know what's going down. Thanks.

[Criminal_Sniper]

HDDs can sometimes be a pain if u do not know what u are doing or have missed something
with the pins to make it slave people never knew existed
with computers people learn to run before they grow their legs let alone walk lol