When purchasing a hard drive a savvy consumer needs to look at a number of factors.  Mot people don’t know about any of these factors I am about to explain and will buy whatever is cheapest.  That is always a mistake.

    If you have an older computer with an older drive; it is probably running at 5400 RPM (Revolutions Per Minute).  The RPM speed is usually on the label of the drive.  You would have to open the case to find out.  I have never recommended a 5400 RPM drive to anyone.  Other speeds are 7,200, 10,000(SCSI) and even 15,000(SCSI) RPM.   Faster RPM’s means as the disk spins; it will be in position sooner for the next read or write operation.

    Transfer rate is the second factor.  This is the speed at which data can be sent from the drive to/from the computer.   This can be ATA 33/66/100/133 or SATA 150. There is also a new PATA 250.   My PC has a SATA 150.  I would make a guess that your Gateway is either 100 or 133.  Each of these is backwards compatible.  Example: you attach an ATA133 drive to an older motherboard that runs at ATA66.  The drive would run at 66 vs. the 133.    Also, External USB-1 drives are quite slow because they are limited to the speed of the USB connection.  USB-2 drives will run much faster than USB-1 but the computer has to support USB-2.  USB-1 is too slow for video.

    MS (milliseconds) is the third factor.  This is how fast the data is located.  Lower is better.  Stay under 10.

    Lastly, each drive has a data cache.  Again, larger is better.  The data transfer cache is RAM that is part of the hard drive.  If either the computer or the drive gets behind, data is stored in this cache.  It’s a holding area for the slower device.  A cache of up to 10 meg is typical.

    Today, the cheaper computers (under $600) will typically use slow drives.  This allows the manufacturer to cut $20 off the price.  It’s always better to get the better PC in the first place because it’s cheaper than upgrading later.

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