It looks, or should I say sounds like my HD is about to go out. It makes a clicking noise sometimes. And I have been getting the blue screen of death saying something about not being able to write to the C drive.

My question is what brand and speed should I get? I have a 13G (the one going bad) and an 8G which has mp3s and anything I didn't want to loose off the main drive. So I don't think I'll need more than a 40G or 80G.

Any other helpful info would be nice. Like should it be partishoned (is that how you spell it?), if so how many times? Anything along those lines.

Thanks for any info.
~TJ

That's a tough question, TJ. It's really a matter of preference. I personally like Western-Digital. Here is the main reason why. My HD was heading south about two months after I bought it. I downloaded a utility that they provide and ran some tests which confirmed that it was indeed going bad. I got their support people on the phone and explained the situation to them. Within two days I had a brand new HD in my hands and ready to go, when I hadn't even mailed my old one back yet. GREAT customer service!

As for partitioning? You're likely to get several answers here also (and I suspect Aaron will have some good input). For me, the main reasons to partition a drive are these: To dual-boot your system with alternate operating systems or to have your OS on one partition and your files on another. That way, in the event of a situation like this, you won't lose your data, just the OS. Since you already have a separate drive for this kind of thing though and I doubt you are going to dual boot, I would say no. Again, just my opinion.

As for speed, I would suggest at least a 7,200 RPM drive. 10,000 if at all possible.