What to look for in a new internal hard drive?

[brassmonkey001]

Going on from this thread about problems with my Acer Laptop, I also find that the hard drive on my Dell laptop has started clicking on occasion and sometimes when it's started up it clicks a lot and doesn't boot up and requires a restart.
So basically it rather looks like I'll be shopping for at least one new hard drive in the near future.
So my question is what sort of thing should I be looking for?
Obviously the larger the capacity the better, but does a larger capacity compromise performance in any way? I.e. does it take longer to find or read or transfer files?
What else should I keep an eye out for?

TIA

 

[y2blade]

I bought a Seagate 500GB usb pocket sized HDD after many recommendations on PH

it has been faultless

edit to add = http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-500GB-Expansion-Portable-Drive/dp/B001XM4P1O/ref=pd_cp_ce_1

 

[brassmonkey001]

I bought a Seagate 500GB usb pocket sized HDD after many recommendations on PH

it has been faultless

edit to add = http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-500GB-Expansion-Portable-Drive/dp/B001XM4P1O/ref=pd_cp_ce_1

Very nice, but it's INternal I'm after.

 

[y2blade]

Very nice, but it's INternal I'm after.

bollocks...sorry buddy, it has been a long day

 

[brassmonkey001]

bollocks...sorry buddy, it has been a long day

No worries. Now get to bed, yer cheeky wee scamp!

 

[JediJase]

i've just put

a samsung 500gb 2.5inch hdd into my mates toshiba laptop no probs at all. £40ish from ebuyer. It had a 40gb before.

 

[Rasher]

Performance on laptop HD's is going to be pretty similar, as a rule of thumb newer stuff may be a bit quicker.

Hard Drives have not increased in speed nearly as much as other areas such as processor speeds / bus speeds etc so don't expect miracles. They still work like records with a head reading a spinning platter (Stylus on Vinyl) and this is what limits the performance to a large degree.

What does help is the size of any cache on the drive, but again not massively with a laptop / desktop (Server disk arrays with inteligent RAID cards can be vastly different in performance) so in reality you are unlikely to notice any huge differences regardless of what you buy.

The larger sizes will not really hurt either, although obviously if full then you have moe data and that would take longer to read / backup / virus scan the whole lot.

If you are bothered about performance the biggest performance gains would probably be had by "short stroking" the disk, this is where you configure a smaller partition than the full disk size, this means data only gets put on part of the disk (think of half a record being used) so the heads do not have so far to remove which improves seek times - see here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/short-stroking-hdd,2157-2.html

You can still partition the rest of the disk for less frequently used data or data not requiring the fastest retrieval times, like all them video's you download then never watch, or your music collection etc.

 

[(RIP) Bobble]

Look for one that spins faster i.e. 7200RPM as apposed to 5400rpm (faster read speed).

 

[ExpatinIstanbul]

This is a 1200 question, isn't it?

They're pretty much of a muchness. Get a big'un if you think you'll use it, but it'll mean you end up saving more crap than usual because you can, not because you need to.

7200RPM 250gb / brand name.

 

[LiquidLAN]

Interesting that no-one has suggested a solid state drive as its a laptop.

The theory is they draw less power, should give faster access times and last longer as they have no moving parts... not as cheap as normal hdds though. Size wise 120-250gb should be plenty to play with, get a NAS if you've got lots to store 4tb for less than 400 kites these days.

 

[Rasher]

Interesting that no-one has suggested a solid state drive as its a laptop.

Unless speed is essential the cost differential is unnaceptable IMHO, when they first appeared they blew the disk controllers on some machines as they really could run continuously at full bus speed and the chips would overheat.

7200rpm also helps, but it does not give the 40% increase in speed over a 5400 some may be hoping for, and again adds to costs.

Pays yer money and all that

 

[rce]

Clicking... are you sure it isn't the CD/DVD drive ?

 

[brassmonkey001]

Clicking... are you sure it isn't the CD/DVD drive ?

Not unless it's a ventriloquist type drive.

 

[MickyBlueyes]

I have fitted a Seagate hybrid HDD to my MAcBookPro recently like THIS which has some intelligent SSD on board which works well IMHO, and is a good compromise on cost/speed increase/storage size basis

 

[brassmonkey001]

I have fitted a Seagate hybrid HDD to my MAcBookPro recently like THIS which has some intelligent SSD on board which works well IMHO, and is a good compromise on cost/speed increase/storage size basis

Sounds interesting. :cool

So how do I tell whether a drive will be compatible with my machine?

 

[MickyBlueyes]

Sounds interesting. :cool

So how do I tell whether a drive will be compatible with my machine?

Well...if you can look at the HDD in the case by opening it up look at the spec printed on it, or the specs for the machine on the Acer web site/Googling.

Firstly you first need to find the connection/BUS type;

This will either be IDE or SATA (if it's IDE this HDD won't work)

If it is a SATA drive already carry on by checking it's physical size. A lot of new Lappy's use 2.5" drives some slightly bigger 3.5" ones some use adapter plates, this will be on the drive label also (or spec if Googled).

Other than that I think this HDD will work with any OS .

HTH

 

[gavinbell]

http://www.drivemylaptop.co.uk/ - used these guys for my last few hdrives! reliable and cost efficent