Notebook hard drive recommendations

[pippin]

So my notebook drive is on its way out.

Now I need to get another one. And I've never had to do this before, so I'm a little wary :

My computer is a HP Pavillion DV8310us. Currently has a 100gb drive in it (which isn't enough)

Here is my questions :

1. What brand do you guys recommend
2. What size? I'm worried about that as I can't seem to find the maximum hard drive limits
3. How hard is it to replace the hard drive? Anything I need to do with photoshop or anything?

Any help would be much appreciated!! :)

[JamesB]

usually on newer models its not all that difficult to replace the hard drive.

If possible get a 7200 rpm drive, this will help increase performance. There are drives over 160gig, but not sure what will work in your laptop.

Also you may want to get Archonis true image which will make an exact bit by bit copy of your hard drive so you will not have to re-install anything. you will need a gizmo like this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812232002
to connect the new laptop hard drive to your laptop so youo can clone old drive.

I did this earlier this year and the drive swap took a total of about 2 hours to clone the old drive and replace it. Its worked great since then

James

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by pippin

So my notebook drive is on its way out.

Now I need to get another one. And I've never had to do this before, so I'm a little wary :

My computer is a HP Pavillion DV8310us. Currently has a 100gb drive in it (which isn't enough)

Here is my questions :

1. What brand do you guys recommend
2. What size? I'm worried about that as I can't seem to find the maximum hard drive limits
3. How hard is it to replace the hard drive? Anything I need to do with photoshop or anything?

Any help would be much appreciated!! :)

1. Name brand won't matter much. WD, Maxtor, Seagate, Hitachi, and Toshiba are all good drives. Of course you'll get your name brand loyalist in here preaching about one specific brand being superior to another.....blah, blah, blah.
   
2. Size depends on your needs. Personally I'd get a 120gb or 160gb. But I have seen notebook drive as large as 250gb.
   • Other items to consider...is your current drive SATA or PATA (ide)?
   • If the current drive is SATA, then you can buy a SATA 1.5Gb/s or faster SATA 3.0Gb/s.
   • Also what is the speed of your current drive? 4200rpm, 5400rpms, or 7200 rpms? Again, personally I would get a 5400 or 7200 rpm drive depending on the airflow of your laptop. The faster the drive the more heat it could potentially produce.
   • The larger sizes and faster speeds can also decrease the laptop battery.
     
3. replacing the hard drive is not too difficult. Turn your laptop upside down and look for small picture of a cylinder. Near that pic you'll find four small phillip head screws. Unscrew all four and depending on the laptop manufacturer...the drive should slideout of the side.

EDIT: I agree with James...get that hard drive connector and True Image. True Image is very easy to make a complete duplicate copy of your current hardrive.

[adirty1]

maxtor and seagate are one and the same with seagate taking the better drive builds. I would stay with seagate which is closely related to the quantum drives which maxtor bought and now seagate owns.

From what I have seen Hitachi produces some really good drives. They are probably one of my top picks next to the new seagates or old quantums truthfully.

[Dennis_H]

Another thumbs up for True Image and the external box. It is very easy to transfer it all. I did it this year with no problems. Your only issue may be the drive size. I know some older machines had a 137Gb limit. I never could tell for sure on mine, so I just used a 120G drive. I did it for disk space coming from a 60Gb, so I was able to use the old drive as temp storage.

Dennis_H

[veritus]

True image is the way to go. As far as brand goes I've got a preference for Toshiba. I've had two different Hitachi ones fail.

[LoungeLizard]

Oh, I'd buy nothing other than a Chevy. Most rugged, best built, never had a failure. Wait...no...it's Ford....or...is it Chrysler? Honda? Toyota?

Get the idea? Listen to Sonny. I've used Toshiba, Hitachi, IBM (prior to selling to Hitachi), Fujitsu, WD, Seagate, and never had a failure. This is on both desktops and notebooks and over twenty years (my first PC was the original NON-HDD IBM PC in 1982 - my first HDD was a $570 10 MEGABYTE HDD!)

With a notebook, you need to educate yourself on what causes drive failures. Vibration (DON'T drag your notebook across the table!), shock, movement, heat (don't set it on a pillow or block the any openings...these things are OPTIMIZED to get rid of heat - block just one small opening and you've trown it all off.)

NEVER EVER move your notebook while the HDD is active - which can happen at any time! HP's commercial notebooks have a built in motion sensor that turns the HDD off when it senses motion (above a "safe" threshold!)

So...which HDDs do I buy? The ones that are cheapest after rebate!

[zeroendless]

1. What brand do you guys recommend

This should help a bit
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/08/...ity/index.html

2. What size? I'm worried about that as I can't seem to find the maximum hard drive limits

max out at 250GB nowsday, pay attention to the test result and chose which option you'll go for.

3. How hard is it to replace the hard drive? Anything I need to do with photoshop or anything?

Depend, some laptor has quick plug in and out hdd replacement, simple. Others require some works to get into one. The more compact your laptor is, the harder it's. I've done mbp, dell to tx series 10"3 viao. It's all can be done but be gentle and careful about them ribbon cable (if present).

[pippin]

well i turned the sucker off, and opened the bottom - found out it can take two drives which is pretty cool. Ended up buying a fujitsu 120gb.

Upon opening it i noticed that it is a straight plug in and whatever.

But. I don't know (read : cannot find out) if it is IDE or SATA. HP has no information (or they don't want do divulge it) , the drive has no information (there's no SATA logo or anything on there).

So if its IDE - its going in - if its SATA - well, looks like i'll be making the 30 mile trip back to micro center to exchange it (since they won't do a return on it) for something.

Oh, and enter me in the idiot of the year awards. My laptop is in the living room. I heard the sound... turned off the computer and guess what the sound was still going....

Turns out its the freaking DVD player!!!

[Cope]

Originally Posted by pippin

well i turned the sucker off, and opened the bottom - found out it can take two drives which is pretty cool. Ended up buying a fujitsu 120gb.

Upon opening it i noticed that it is a straight plug in and whatever.

But. I don't know (read : cannot find out) if it is IDE or SATA. HP has no information (or they don't want do divulge it) , the drive has no information (there's no SATA logo or anything on there).

So if its IDE - its going in - if its SATA - well, looks like i'll be making the 30 mile trip back to micro center to exchange it (since they won't do a return on it) for something.

Oh, and enter me in the idiot of the year awards. My laptop is in the living room. I heard the sound... turned off the computer and guess what the sound was still going....

Turns out its the freaking DVD player!!!

HP should have all of the details for your notebook. They still have my 2 year old Pavilion specs on their site. Do a search for the model and one thing that pulls up will be the specifications.

[pippin]

here's mine : http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...=29967&lang=en

all it says for hard drive is 100gb 4200 RPM

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by pippin

here's mine : http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...=29967&lang=en

all it says for hard drive is 100gb 4200 RPM

One way to check is pull out your hard drive and look at the connection.

SATA



PATA (IDE)

[Titaniumblade]

Whatever you do, I recommend that you get a drive that is no less than 7200rpm, you will be very happy! 4200 & 5400 are just to slow....

[Sonny]

Originally Posted by Titaniumblade

Whatever you do, I recommend that you get a drive that is no less than 7200rpm, you will be very happy! 4200 & 5400 are just to slow....

Not always the case. Yes the 7200 drive will be faster but she also has to consider heating issues. Some laptops do not have very good airflow to begin with and adding a faster drive will only add to the problem. Heat the worst enemy of hard drives and if the drive gets too hot then your performance will actually decrease.

[kenw]

the higher RPM drives also decreases battery life.

it would be very unusual to have an OEM drive in a notebook that was SATA. Possible but rare.