Best hdd

What's the best 7200 (not 10k!!!) hdd for programs right now? I've heard of the seagate 320gb single platter ones, and also the wd ones, but seagate has like 3 different models, and i haven't even checked the wd ones. Also, samsung 1tb hdd's are also supposed to be good because of the 3 333gb platters, but that's overkill, so I'm not considering those for programs. Could anybody tell me what the best one is, out there? And is there a way that I could switch hdd's without having to reinstall everything?

The new 640GB western digital is turning heads. It has a dual platter design so read and write speeds are high with low noise compared to single platters.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136218

There are various programs that can duplicate your hard drive...
Here is a list of free programs but I never tried them... http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilit...andimage.shtml

Ive just bought a second 500 Gb samsung spinpoint T166 as they have just dropped in price. Mine was only £42.29, and they are very good drives for that price.

Completely silent too.

Samsungs are complete crap.

Best Western Digital that is 7200 RPM, 16MB cache, 320GB and silent.

I have the 320gb 7,200.10 Seagate Barracuda's, I love them and they work great.

Are those mentioned the new-fangled perpendicular recording jobbies? I've heard good things of them.

The Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 series is one of them. You can get those in sizes up to 720GB. The only downside is that is a wee bit LOUD compared to my western digital.

The Western Digital Caviar SE16 series is similar but much quieter and a bit slower from what i've seen... the 640GB size is an exception as it had 2 platters instead. you can read about it here http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2282238,00.asp

First of all, what do you mean by "best"? Fastest throughput? Fastest access? Most reliable? Cheapest? Looks cools? What?

Secondly, it almost sounds as though you think there's something special about "programs" as opposed to any other file. It's all the same to the hard drive.

Thirdly, in the long run, you'll never notice any difference between new hard drives. Yes, you can run tests which will show that one is some small percent faster, or uses a bit more or less power, etc., but really, the differences aren't worth worrying about considering that in a few years, you'll be wanting to get an even newer, bigger one.

Fourthly, go with an established brand such as Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, etc. (I'm not sure there are any non-established brands anyway.) People will tell you to stay away from this or that, but it's usually a result of them having had a "bad" drive, or one from a bad batch. Any manufacturer can have manufacturing hiccups, but you won't know which one until you get a bad one. (Fujitsu had so many problems with a batch of drives, they completely left the consumer market as a result).

I'd say try out the WD 640GB as well.

It was a bold move for WD to go try 640GB (normally it's just 500GB or 750GB), but the double platter 320GB per platter allows for better thermal and acoustics.

You really can't go wrong with any of WD or Seagate drives.

If money isn't an issue for you, try out a SSD.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820609245

thanks for the replies. By best I mean good allround: silent and fast, and also cool, but that's not as important. Not going for an SSD. I dont care how fast my normal files are loaded, but I want programs (read games) to load as fast as possible, without getting a 10k drive. I realize the difference is very small, but I want to get the best I can, anyway. I dont need anything bigger than 320gb, because it's for programs only. So what some people are saying is that the WD one is a little slower, but also quieter? I might go with that one then.