A 1.5 tb internal hard drive is no laughing matter. This is serious storage space we’re talking about here: hundreds of hours of films (in good quality – not divx23 one pixel per person garbage) or thousands of hours of music. Or billions of documents and images, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Internal hard drives have got a lot bigger in the last year, and continue to do so. What’s more, they’re a lot cheaper than they were only a few months back. You can pick yourself up a nice 1TB plus internal hard drive for around a hundred and fifty bucks these days. That’s the same as what we spend on gas just getting to the shop and back. Previously, anything more than a couple of hundred gigabytes would have seemed ridiculous, but it’s becoming more and more common to see internal hard drives with multiple terabytes of capacity, and the same in fact for external hard drives. However, the external hard drive equivalent of an internal drive is far more expensive and more prone to breaking. It is also not as fast when you read it from your computer as it usually connects by USB - even firewire is not as quick as the internal hard drive’s connection with your computer’s motherboard.

If you’re going to buy an internal hard drive, it’s really a good idea to make sure you get the fastest one you can, within reason of course. We would recommend an RPM of at least 7,200, as this is no longer particularly expensive either. Just check first that the new hard drive will be compatible with your current computer and its configuration. You will also need to learn how to open up your computer and install the new drive. It’s not as hard as some may think, and is not as delicate a procedure as, say, changing the motherboard. You’ve probably heard it many times, but you should always do a back up of your important data before you start meddling with the inner workings of your computer, however simple the operation. If in doubt, ask the geek next door to help you with installing your new internal hard drive.