HARD DRIVES HDD
Welcome to our HDD section of our online store where you will find a wide range of hard drives. Including top hard drive brands such as Seagate, Samsung and HP. With a huge variety of drives in stock for laptops, desktops and servers you are sure to find the hard drives best suited for your machine.
At Tekeurope we have over 15 years experience supplying hard drives to a range of customers, from FTSE 250 companies to home users so if aren’t sure what you are looking for or can’t see it in store please feel free to contact us and let us help you to identify or source the HDD you need.
Our selection of hard drives comprises drives from all the leading manufacturers including Western Digital, Maxtor, Seagate and Hitachi in a range of capacities and form factors.
Whilst we offer a number of brand new drives sometimes the most economical solution can be a refurb hard drive. Each refurb HDD in our inventory has been tested and wiped and ships with its own test report specific to that drive’s serial number so when you buy refurbished hard drives from us you can be assured of quality.
Our range of laptop hard drives largely comprises of 2.5” SATA drives in 9.5mm and the increasingly common 7mm form factors, however we also stock 2.5” IDE, 2.5” SFF-8784 and 1.8” ZIF if you are looking for an often hard to find legacy HDD.
For desktop machines we offer both 3.5” IDE and SATA hard drives. When selecting the hard drives best for you and your budget it is important to consider the speed (measured in RPM), transfer rate (measured in Gb/s) and capacity of the HDD, choosing a refurb hard drive can often offer higher spec for your money.
Finally you will find enterprise hard drives suitable for servers. These drives tend to offer high reliability and come in caddies specific to the servers they run in often to allow an HDD to be hot swapped, you will find drives suitable for all major server brands including Dell, HP and IBM in store along with a selection of caddies if that is all that needs replacing.
FAQs
What is the difference between hard drives and solid state drives?
Hard drives use magnetic storage. Data is stored on metal platters and accessed by read/write heads. In contrast solid state drives use flash memory to store data. Whilst hard drives are generally more affordable especially when a large capacity is needed solid state drives are usually significantly faster.
Do I need a new or refurbished HDD?
There are a number of factors to consider. Newer drives are likely to have a longer lifespan than refurb HDDs however will be more expensive to buy.
If the drives are being using for critical data storage purposes or similar it may be worth spending the extra to buy new if your budget allows, otherwise a refurbished drive may suffice. All of our refurbished hard drives in our store have been tested and ship with a test report.
How can I protect hard drives from damage?
Try to avoid moving the drive or machine whilst it is operating, keeping the PC or laptop on a stable surface can help with this. Avoid exposing the hard drive to high temperatures and handle drives with care during their installation or removal.
Is it possible to upgrade my laptop’s hard drive?
As long as your laptop has a physical hard drive rather than onboard storage it should be possible to upgrade the drive. The difficulty involved in removing the old drive and installing the new one will vary depending on the make and model of the machine.
It is important to check the compatibility of the replacement hard drive. In order to do so it is best to consult the maintenance manual of your machine or contact the manufacturer.
What is a drive’s interface?
A hard drive’s interface is the method by which the hard drive connects to a computer. There are common standards each with their own connectors so it is important to know which you need before purchase.
SATA- SATA HDDs are common in desktops, laptops and servers. There are 3 different versions, – SATA I (1.5Gb/s transfer rate), SATA 2 (3Gb/s) and SATA 3 (6Gb/s).
Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) – Often found in servers SAS hard drives offer higher performance and reliability than their SATA equivalents.
IDE – Almost entirely now replaced by SATA, IDE hard drives are found in older PCs and laptops.
What is a drive’s RPM and how does this effect drive speed?
RPM stands for “Revolutions per minute” and refers to the speed the hard drive’s platters spin at. In practical terms a higher RPM will allow data to be accessed and written faster.
Consumer hard drives tend to have RPM speeds of either 5400 or 7200 with the difference in speed reflected in the cost. Enterprise drives often have speeds reaching 10,000 or 15,000 RPM.
What are hot swap hard drives?
Hot swap (sometimes called hot plug) hard drives are drives that can be added or removed from a system without shutting it down. They are commonly found in server environments.
What are some signs of hard drive failure?
Signs of HDD failure can include overheating and strange noises coming from the drive. Modern hard drives have a built in monitoring system called SMART. Your system may display SMART warnings during the startup process that indicate an issue with drive. When using the machine frequent file corruption and disk error warnings will often also point to hard drive problems.