New 500GB hard drive - 2.5" or 3.5"

[#1]

The computer belonging to SWMBO played up a bit this morning - clicking from the hard drive and computer locked up
I have partially (temporarily) fixed it running Chkdsk and defragging the drive but it looking at the drive capacity it is nearly full so a new drive is needed
It is a long time since I bought a new hard drive but I was surprised to find that 2.5" plus adapter is about the same price as 3.5" for a 500GB drive (the existing one is 200GB)
Given that the main requirement, other than reliability, is quietness is there any advantage either way

[#2]

Are you talking internal or external hard drive, and if internal is the computer a laptop or desktop?

[#3]

internal, computer

[#4]

Well, laptop drives will be quieter than 3.5" (though an SSD would be your quieter option if you're replacing the OS drive rather than adding storage - up to 256GB are getting more affordable though above that you're paying a lot).
You may get a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter with it, if not they're pretty cheap - not needed though if the case has somewhere you can mount it or you're happy to just blu-tack it to the case somewhere
Oh, bear in mind if they're PATA rather than SATA it's a different ribbon cable to fit it (though I'd be surprised these days if it was PATA).

[#5]

SSD isn't an option - the motherboard doesn't support it - and it also only supports Sata2 so Sata3 would have no advantages
I will have a look at is the space in the case as I may have to install the new drive in a 5.25" slot which will be messy
One thing I may well be doing is fitting the new drive, partition it to 50GB/450GB then mirror the existing XP partition to the 50GB partition in the new new drive and the existing programs and data to the 450GB partition then change the boot order to use the new drive as a primary with the old drive as a backup store only

[#6]

Laptop drives are usually 5400rpm, desktop drives usually 7200rpm. Spinning around quicker makes the average seek time shorter.

[#7]

I had a drive which ran for years.
"Fitting" was by two pieces of self-adhesive velcro tape.

[#8]

5 gypsies fixed my drive...... used some black stuff called "tarmac".... or was that whay he said when I paid him 

[#9]

Quote from: Oldjim

SSD isn't an option - the motherboard doesn't support it

Why would your motherboard not support it?  If it can handle sata2 then there are some very reasonably priced sata2 ssd drives around.  Move the OS, Programs and page file to the SSD and away you go.
If not then why go for a 500GB disk? They are nearly as expensive as 1TB ones?  You can never have too much storage.  Storage is a bit like space... detritus expands to fill it  

[#10]

I had been thinking about PCIe SATA- you are correct that the motherboard will support the SATA2 versions.
However there are two problems
First - it looks like the drive may be having problems so replacing the whole thing would be advisable
The present OS partition is only 20GB which is now struggling
The other 180GB partition for programmes and data is also struggling with less than 10% spare capacity
Using an SSD for the operating system would still require an new hard drive for the extra capacity and the security
Why don't I look at a 1TB drive - first the extra capacity would be wasted and second it would increase the cost by about 50% (I am a mean person  :-X)

[#11]

Once you have both drives connected you could ghost the partittions from one to the other, with using norton ghost you can manually type in the partition size you want for each one, the other thing to watch for would be in options, since there is a good chance of the original drive being damaged, turn on forced cloning to force it through.

[#12]

I would use Acronis - using the Acronis boot CD

[#13]

I assume that will also let you chose your partition size just as well, not something i use, maybe next time i need to clone a drive i will give it a trial.

[#14]

It isn't free but I have two versions available both of which will do what I want
EDIT - I see that Western Digital have a free Acronis version which does all that

[#15]

I'd go for the 3.5" drive out of the two and see if I could get a 7200 rpm drive.
Current trends in the IT rumourmill are to avoid Seagate at all costs. Also avoid Samsung as they are actually Seagate drives now .......
A lot of people don't realise that 2.5" SATA drives will happily plug into the same cables as a 3.5" SATA hard drive - the connectors are identical, it's just the mounting that is different.
I've always found 3.5" hard drives to have faster data transfer rates than the 2.5" drive although the 2.5" drives are more resistant to shock.