Laptop (computer) Question

[MarkD]

My Dell Laptop has a 100Gb SATA - 150, 7200 RPM hard drive.

 

Dell Sells an upgrade 160 Gb for $180

 

I can get a 320 Gb 2.5" for around $100. What specs are important?

 

Are the faster SATA drives backward compatable?

[Zembonez]

My Dell Laptop has a 100Gb SATA - 150, 7200 RPM hard drive.

 

Dell Sells an upgrade 160 Gb for $180

 

I can get a 320 Gb 2.5" for around $100. What specs are important?

 

Are the faster SATA drives backward compatable?

 

As long as you are replacing an SATA drive, I'd say yes.

 

I installed a WD SATA 320gig 7200 3.0 in my HP laptop to replace the old SATA 150 5400 rpm 80 gig and it boogies. I bought it from newegg for about 80 bucks. At the same time, I bought an external 2.5 HD case for the old drive and used it to drag all of my old files back onto the new drive. (great because you can swap identities and drag old emails, pics, etc.)

 

It made things really easy and now I have a backup 80 gig drive for the laptop.

 

I say go for it.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136280

[svensk]

My Dell Laptop has a 100Gb SATA - 150, 7200 RPM hard drive.

 

Dell Sells an upgrade 160 Gb for $180

 

I can get a 320 Gb 2.5" for around $100. What specs are important?

 

Are the faster SATA drives backward compatable?

 

As long as you are replacing an SATA drive, I'd say yes.

 

I installed a WD SATA 320gig 7200 3.0 in my HP laptop to replace the old SATA 150 5400 rpm 80 gig and it boogies. I bought it from newegg for about 80 bucks. At the same time, I bought an external 2.5 HD case for the old drive and used it to drag all of my old files back onto the new drive. (great because you can swap identities and drag old emails, pics, etc.)

 

It made things really easy and now I have a backup 80 gig drive for the laptop.

 

I say go for it.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136280

 

+1

[MarkD]

That is almost exactly what i was planning...Newegg for a WD 320.

 

Dell really pushed the proprietary button when I asked them for an upgrade path.

 

I already have a WD Passport 320 and love it.

 

Thanks guys!

[shocktrp]

You need to download all the drivers for your particular machine and put them on a CD before you make the swap - the Dell drivers are not included on the XP disk.

 

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx

 

(Otherwise you'll wind up with a working computer with no internet access and some other stuff probably won't work.)

[Zembonez]

You need to download all the drivers for your particular machine and put them on a CD before you make the swap - the Dell drivers are not included on the XP disk.

 

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx

 

(Otherwise you'll wind up with a working computer with no internet access and some other stuff probably won't work.)

Excellent point. Unless you have a specific "reinstallation" disk that says drivers on it, you'll have to go type in your service code. It's no big deal but you'll want them before the swap. I generally have everything including Windows on an 8gig USB drive for the reinstallation... MUCH quicker and easier.

 

You could also save them to the old drive in a folder if you intend to use it for a backup drive.

 

Another good Dell resource is here: Dell System Information

[svensk]

You need to download all the drivers for your particular machine and put them on a CD before you make the swap - the Dell drivers are not included on the XP disk.

 

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx

 

(Otherwise you'll wind up with a working computer with no internet access and some other stuff probably won't work.)

That happens all the time lol. I get calls from customers, "I can't get online! Let's check your IP address..IC you don't have one you need to install your chipset drivers. kbye".

[DofD]

I just did a hard drive upgrade on a laptop for a friend. What I did was to clone her hard drive where the software automatically adjusted the partition size to make use of the new and bigger hard drive. It was totally plug and play. Drive Image XML is free and worth a try.

[jimlem]

That is almost exactly what i was planning...Newegg for a WD 320.

 

Dell really pushed the proprietary button when I asked them for an upgrade path.

 

I already have a WD Passport 320 and love it.

 

Thanks guys!

 

Dell is famous for their proprietary crap to lock you into their upgrades. Even though this is not such a big issue with name brand HDDs, just be sure the one you pick as a replacement, is the same "thickness." All the 2.5" laptop drives are standardized in the W X L measurements but can vary from 9mm to 12mm thick (even more on some older models). Many Mac users buying parts from PC friendly vendors got hung up with just such an issue. Hopefully Dell mentions what your range for that measurement is, somewhere.

 

Also I just saw in a catalog last week, that you can now get a 500GB 2.5" SATA laptop HDD- (5400 RPM, I believe). I think it was Other World Computing's catalog. I must have tossed it cause I can't find it to get the details. I believe they had 500GB models by both Seagate and WD. I do remember that the price was not much higher than a 320GB HDD. Imagine 1/2TB in your laptop. You could travel with one hell of a nice movie collection and never have to insert a DVD the whole trip.

[omegafiler]

The only thing "proprietary" about Dell notebook hard drives is the HD carrier, which is quite easy to swap over.

 

He didn't say which dell notebook, but if it's got SATA, it'll be the standard 2.5" notebook HD that you can get pretty much anywhere these days. But I haven't seen the old 12mm height drives in quite awhile, certainly not since SATA showed up.

 

Also, given the choice I'd always go with the faster 7.2k RPM drive. Especially if you're running Vista!

[Zembonez]

The only thing "proprietary" about Dell notebook hard drives is the HD carrier, which is quite easy to swap over.

 

He didn't say which dell notebook, but if it's got SATA, it'll be the standard 2.5" notebook HD that you can get pretty much anywhere these days. But I haven't seen the old 12mm height drives in quite awhile, certainly not since SATA showed up.

 

Also, given the choice I'd always go with the faster 7.2k RPM drive. Especially if you're running Vista!

Most of the proprietary stuff on Dell machines is limited to power supplies and motherboards any more. Memory, drives, etc can all be outsourced if one knows anything about computers. (They prey on people who do not and it costs lots of $$$) I realize they are in it to make money... it's just nice to know you can get around most of that when upgrading.

 

I certainly agree that you should stay away from older tech 5400 rpm drives.

[[email protected]]

My Dell Laptop has a 100Gb SATA - 150, 7200 RPM hard drive.

 

Dell Sells an upgrade 160 Gb for $180

 

I can get a 320 Gb 2.5" for around $100. What specs are important?

 

Are the faster SATA drives backward compatable?

 

Before you consider another drive, consider this:

 

- how much stuff do you want to back up on external disks?

- what ever is on your computer hard drive needs to be on back up disk too.

- do you really need all that space?

 

I have a 1 gig drive and I never use more than twenty percent of it.

We used to do a years worth of work at the office on a 200 meg hard drive. that's about a twentieth of the room you're looking to get.

 

I wouldn't get more than you really use, and keep your files archived on external cd or what-ever. Keep the hard drive free of files as much as possible and use a utility to track where the files are on the cd's. Then when the crash happens, and it will, eventually, all your good stuff is archived and ready to put on the new drive or new computer.

 

Just my two cents worth.

[Zembonez]

My Dell Laptop has a 100Gb SATA - 150, 7200 RPM hard drive.

 

Dell Sells an upgrade 160 Gb for $180

 

I can get a 320 Gb 2.5" for around $100. What specs are important?

 

Are the faster SATA drives backward compatable?

 

Before you consider another drive, consider this:

 

- how much stuff do you want to back up on external disks?

- what ever is on your computer hard drive needs to be on back up disk too.

- do you really need all that space?

 

I have a 1 gig drive and I never use more than twenty percent of it.

We used to do a years worth of work at the office on a 200 meg hard drive. that's about a twentieth of the room you're looking to get.

 

I wouldn't get more than you really use, and keep your files archived on external cd or what-ever. Keep the hard drive free of files as much as possible and use a utility to track where the files are on the cd's. Then when the crash happens, and it will, eventually, all your good stuff is archived and ready to put on the new drive or new computer.

 

Just my two cents worth.

 

WOW!

 

I have over 180 gig of stuff on my laptop and about 275 gig of stored files on my main PC. My media PC is loaded with about 120 gig of music and video... plus I have several 500 gig backup drives full of archived and backup stuff. A 1 gig drive would last me about 10 seconds.

 

All users are different huh?

[stadt11]

I have a 1 gig drive and I never use more than twenty percent of it.

Um, I call

 

Is it a P1 w/ 64kb of RAM?

 

 

We used to do a years worth of work at the office on a 200 meg hard drive. that's about a twentieth of the room you're looking to get.

When was this, 1984??

 

Let me guess, you still backup on Floppies??

[omegafiler]

Man, I keep more stuff than that on my phone.