Why does my computer report less hard drive space?
Many customers are confused when they see their new hard drive is reporting a lower number of reported usable capacity on their operating system. We are not actually losing any hard drive space. There are several factors that can come into play. One such factor is that there are two different number systems: binary and decimal. Binary states that 1024 bytes equals to 1 kilobyte, and the decimal system-- 1000 bytes= 1 kilobyte. Computers simply report the numbers differently than the storage industry standard: computers read binary whereas the storage industry use the decimal system.
You are not actually losing hard drive space.
For more information, please click on this link:http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/resource/tips-tricks/2004/missing-megabytes.html
Are these hard drives compatible with the Mac computer?
Our hard drives are partitioned with an NTFS file system for the PC. Mac is not fully compatible with this file system. Should you decide to purchase one of our hard drives for a Mac computer, you will need to use the disk utility in Mac to erase the disk to change it to Mac's own file system. Be advised that if you do this you will no longer be able to use this hard drive on a PC and is only useable on a Mac.
If you want it to work with both the PC and a Mac, you will need to download partition software to set the drive up as a FAT32 file system. Be advised that while the PC and the Mac supports this file system, there will be some limitations to it.
What is IDE vs. SATA?
If you are going to use the hard drive, internally - IDE (or ATA or EIDE or PATA) & SATA (Serial ATA) are two different kinds of connection from your laptop or computer. You really need to find out what type of connection you have before purchasing from us. If you are not sure, please email us the model number and we will try our best to research online for you. But we cannot 100% gurantee that we are right.
If you are buying an external hard drive, it doesn't matter what kind of hard drive is inside. The reason is that external hard drive communicates through USB port (or eSATA port). If you are considering to use the hard drive inside internally in the future, you may want to find out that does your computer take IDE or SATA?
What is OEM?
We are mainly selling OEM drive, not in a retail box. No accessories are included. If you need them, please let us know. No software is included. Fon installation, you don't need any software to install them. For installation manual, you can find them online from the manufacturer's website.
What is eSATA?
External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment or eSATA. eSATA is an external interface for SATA technologies. It competes with FireWire 400 and universal serial bus (USB) 2.0 to provide fast data transfer speeds for external storage devices. You would need an eSATA port (for external use) or adapter (for internal use) to communicate with motherboard.
Under what conditions will the drive require extra power from a 2nd USB port?
Older laptops and desktops may require two USB ports. To ensure that your hard drive always has adequate power, we recommend connecting to two USB ports using the included y-cable. | 
