Recommend a hard drive

[clocker]

Be sure to check the jumper on the drive...I believe they are jumpered from the factory to run SATA I (to accommodate older boards) and your PC certainly supports the faster SATA II.

[grimms]

Go with a Western Digital Raptor Sata 1TB or 750GB for around $249 i think. Just as long as it's a Western Digital.

[clocker]

There aren't any Raptors of 1TB/750GB size.

Just out of curiosity, what do you base your love of WD drives on?

[GhostRetired19]

Western Digital My Book

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw...Book&x=21&y=13

[Skiz]

I thought it worth mentioning that I did find a great standalone utility called SIV, which appears spot on in terms of accuracy.

It has quite a bit to offer in terms of information as well and gives "live" reading on info such as temp, memory usage, etc.

[clocker]

Wow, Skiz, that's an amazing little app.
Thanks.

[Skiz]

Be sure to check the jumper on the drive...I believe they are jumpered from the factory to run SATA I (to accommodate older boards) and your PC certainly supports the faster SATA II.

From reading other forums around the web, it seems that I don't need a jumper at all. Is that correct?

[Broken]

With SATA drives there is no master or slave designation.
If there is a jumper, it should only be to limit data transfer to 1.5Gb\s on a drive capable of 3Gb\s (SATA vs. SATA2).

Depending on the age (and capabilities) of your Mobo, you probably will not need any jumper on the HD.

[mrbombastic]

Western Digital makes good hard drives.

[Skiz]

Well, I removed the jumper entirely and all seems well.

I let it run for a day or two prior to moving my music over.

Still fearful of deleting the music from the original drive tho'. I just feel safer with a backup.