Question 1

Can this be added as additional memory, or will this replace the existing hard drive I have now?

Accepted Answer

You did not include your computer specifications so I will try to answer. The instructions that come with the drive indicate it can be used as a main drive…make sure that change the settings (very simple) from slave drive to main drive. If you use it as an additional drive, you need to buy a housing/case for it. Or if you are tech savvy and you have the slot available in your computer, you can use it as a slave (additional storage drive). If not, you can search for a SATA case, 3.5 in, USB. This is how I used it. It will cost you an additional $40 for the case but it will be worth it to avoid the hassle of installing windows OS on the new drive and all of your other programs, If you buy the case, make sure it is a USB case so you can plug it into your USB port on your computer. In addition, I have a smart TV that reads pictures, jogs, and shows them on the screen. I use it for this also. Hope this helps.

Question 2

My hard drive went out in my computer can you tell me does one type hard drive go in all computers I have no idea 
My redemptionist took a picture of the writing on computer do I need to know the brand of computer when buying a replacement hard drive ?

Accepted Answer

Short answer first: If your system was purchased within the last 5 years, chances are it uses a SATA type II connector.

Long answer: Depending on how new (or old) you computer is will be a good indication of which type of hard drive would need to go into it.  There are 2 basic types of hard drives for consumers, SATA, and IDE.  IDE are for older systems and have what look like plugs that go into them, and have a wide connector in them with two rows of pin connectors for data, and a wide  connector thick (about a half a thumbs thickness) with four pins in it for power.  SATA (newer systems) is again, two separate connectors, but these do not have any pins that you can see. These connectors for SATA drives are two flat cables, neither thick, and not very wide.  From there, the SATA will have different generations (types).  SATA (type I, usually just referred to as SATA) was the first conversion from IDE, and offered almost double the transfer speed of IDE.  SATA II was released... I believe 6-10 years ago, and became very wide spread shortly after, offering double the transfer speeds of standard SATA.  SATA III became popular just about 2 years ago, and is now the "darling", offering transfer speeds of up to double SATA II.  Time table may be off a small amount as everything seems more recent the older you get.

Question 3

I have put the drive in coolmax 3.5 case. I plug the drive into a USB port on Win 8 operating system, Gateway computer, and the OS does not recognize the drive. Am I a novice here...help?

Accepted Answer

Right click on my computer.  Go to manage on bottom.  On the left it will show "Disk Management".  This will show all the hard drives connected to the computer.  The top one with a partition is your hard drive that runs the computer.  Scroll down to the one you are talking about (make sure it is the right one, should have no partitions on it)  Right click on it and format it in NTFS.  This should fix it.  If you have anything on it, which I assume you don't, you will lose it.  Then when that is done (it will take awhile) it should be recognized by the computer.

Question 4

will this work and fit in a dell Inspiron lap top with a intel core 13?

Accepted Answer

No. This drive is for a desktop. a drive for a laptop is 2.5" and I have always found it best to spend a little extra and by parts direct from Dell. Just my experience. HTH

Question 5

Why is this certified by Dell and not by Western Digital???

Accepted Answer

One can only assume that these drives were bought in bulk by Dell for there server products. These drives were either still on the shelf at Dell or possibly taken out of computers that were off lease. If Dell went through WD for the certification I would say the price would not be so good.

That said mine is in a security system DVR that writes constantly 24 hours a day and it is doing fine so far.

Question 6

I make youtube videos, and I haven't had the chance to run higher end games because I record on my mac book. I am building my own gaming rig, and do my gaming videos on that. I was wondering if I recorded and played the game on the same hard drive, would it slow the game down and make it lag?

Accepted Answer

well. it should not slow down the Hard drive itself. since once you load a game it is in your ram buffer, it runs mostly off the ram and not the HDD. depending on what program you are using. it can slow down the cpu or gpu.

to that affect. the Video card you buy can play a significant role. Nividia, has a build in feature added to cards 650 and up, called ShadowPlay. which comes with the Drivers. with the push of a button ( which you can change to what you want) you can start and stop recording. this does all your encoding on the fly so you don't have to worry about it later, saving HDD space. and it does it at the resolution and aspect ratio of what you have the game set at.

as far as i know ATI does not have a program built into its design. yet. somewhere down the road we may see it

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