I'm an idiot...

[melayneseahawk]

The new hard drive arrived: 500 GB...and it's just a drive. No case, no cables.

What the hell do I do with it now?

*cries*

ETA: What I bought was a refurbished this (thank god for the internet, I was able to track it to the manufacture's website). If I'm reading it right, it can be used for external storage, which is what I want it for. But Seagate doesn't seem to sell casings, that I can find. *headdesk*

Comments

[triannamaxwell.livejournal.com]

I got my case from Dynex, it is great and sold at Best Buy on sale at about $20 (cords included, case, etc). My previous one was a Maxtor, DO NOT get one from them. Their units are loud and clunky, and also have a high malfunction rate. I fear that the case my mom still uses on her with have a small nuclear explosion soon.

[allandaros.livejournal.com]

http://www.addonics.com/products/hd.asp looks like a good bet. But yeah, this is an internal puppy. If you've got a desktop, that would be the best place to install it.

[jaiwithani.livejournal.com]

you want a SATA (or "Serial ATA") external case, which turns your block into a USB drive. There are many copies: http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1222815286/ref=sr_nr_i_0?ie=UTF8&rs=&keywords=SATA%20case&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ASATA%20case%2Ci%3Aelectronics

Yours is a 3.5", do not get one of the 2.5" ones as they will fail and you will cry for days.

Manufacturer does not matter, so no worries about that.

Refurbished = higher failure rate. Beware of a "clicky" noise within the next two years. It will mean that your hard drive is dead. Probably you should try to avoid relying too much on it.

[contrasedative.livejournal.com]

I thought refurbished = repaired and tested more thoroughly than regular products. That's what people try to convince me about Apple's used laptops, at least.

[jaiwithani.livejournal.com]

I have had bad "refurbished" experiences. I suppose that the label is only as legitimate as the people who put it there?

Also, hard drives just fail after so many years. It cannot be avoided. So, this one has a few fewer years than a new one. This is my magical reasoning? I will cling to it stubbornly.

[muck-a-luck.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about this specifically, but I saw someone who knows say that this should be an internal drive and that it would be best to install it. My two cents worth, in case you have never done computer surgery, is that it is pretty easy. I've installed a read-write CD drive back when they did not come standard (and later ported it to a new computer, to avoid buying an expensive pre-installed one), and I have upgraded memory. Both things were very easy to do.