Hard drive help

[rcrawfo3]

Rob,
Since I got your book I have been getting parts together to make my first pc build. I still don't understand why the drives that are for sale on line and even at Western Digital don't come with software. Does the software, say for pata drives, cover all drives in this catagory or is it gb specific? Will I have to find retail boxes for a certain size drive each time I upgrade? Thanks, Rick

[Rob]

You really don't need any software with the hard drive. The retail boxes come with diagnostic utilities, but you can download those.

Usually the same utility will work for many different models from the same manufacturer. SATA and PATA hard drives may need different utilities.