I guess its was probable inevitable but my 5 yr old 40gb IDE hard disk has finally blown on my pc, seems like there is nothing that will bring it back to life.

My backup didn’t include my 30gb of data such as my film work (hopefully still on cassette), mp3s and divx movies.

I’m going to have to get a new one tomorrow, i need my PC desperately (currently using another to post this message).

I’m looking at a new 200GB 7200RPM IDE hard disk for £160 at www.maplin.co.uk

What do you think, how will it do for my editing? Also if I go for a 200gb hard disk will I be able to just have 1 partition of 200gb or will I have to break it up into smaller sized partitions?

Thanks,

Matthew

Matthew try www.ebuyer.co.uk they seem to be cheapest for gear and have buyers reviews as well, Maplin doesnt.
You will have a large drive unless u partition it yourself.

I would use two drives one for the Operating System and the other a scratch disk.

Matthew, sorry about the disk. I usually have plenty of harddisks spread around in my different PCs and backup vital data between them to avoid loss due to HD failure.

If buying a new HD, I would suggest a 160 GB instead. That is the current "sweet spot" where you get the most storage per pound. A 200 GB will be quite more expensive for just 40 Gigs more.

I just bought 2 disks yesterday:

Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM, 8 MB cache IDE 101 £
Maxtor 7200 RPM, 8 MB cache, SATA 111 £

Those were with danish sales tax of 25% so you can definately do better than 160£/200GB

Like someone else said, get 2 drives instead. If you get prices comparable to mine, get 2 x 160 GB, thats 320 GB for just 40 £ over what you were prepared to spend anyway.

Then you have backup opportunities, scratch disk, more space etc.

Hans Henrik

Remember, don't buy a SATA disk unless your motherboard includes a SATA controller.