One last piece of advice: remember that absolutely every hard drive will eventually crash. There’s no way to avoid this. The average lifespan of a drive will be about 3-4 years, but at any time they can fail. Backup regularly. Keep the box from your new drive in case the drive fails; nearly every drive manufacturer has a 1-year warranty. If you do forget to backup, remember that it’ll cost you quite a bit to retrieve your data using a data recovery company. Rejoice! You now know how to buy a hard drive. Avoid subjecting it to hard shocks and keep it hooked into a surge protector. Read the documentation that came with it. Treat it right, and it will last you a while. Treat it wrong, and, well, let’s just say you should keep this page bookmarked.