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  1. - Top - End - #1
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    Default Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    My computer is feeling full. I need a bigger hard drive. Which brand do you reccomend? What do you need to know about my system before you can tell me that?

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    It's pretty simple. Go to your local computer shop and ask for an external hard drive. You can buy a 1TB external hard drive for about $80-$90.

    Unless your computer is not working as well as it should then external hard drives are the way to go.
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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Ah, but It's a laptop, so I want to be able to move it around. Does that just mean same as you said, but ask for internal?
    Last edited by fizzybobnewt; 2011-09-02 at 08:38 PM.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Granted, my knowledge on computer technology sucks, so take the advice with a two grains of salt. But I would imagine it's not easy to insert a new internal hard drive into a laptop as it is in desktop computer.

    External might be your easiest way out. It's cheap, big and I think most, in not all of them are USB connected, so you can take it with you easy. It will take up a little space, but it's a good solution, if you ask me.
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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    I second Mordokai's sugestion.

    Replacing an internal hard drive on a laptop can be very fiddly and generally involves disassembling your laptop (usually by unscrewing things or lifting up your keyboard), which can invalidate your warranty.

    You also need to find out your hard drive connection type (PCMIA, Ultra ATA/IDE, SATA or proprietary, depending on how old your laptop is) and form factor (size of the slot your hard drive fits into, usually 2.5" unless you've got an ultra-slim laptop), before you can figure out which one you need to buy.

    Generally it's a hell of a lot easier to get an external USB HD.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Quote Originally Posted by Brother Oni View Post
    Replacing an internal hard drive on a laptop can be very fiddly and generally involves disassembling your laptop (usually by unscrewing things or lifting up your keyboard), which can invalidate your warranty.
    And even if it was nice and easy to swap out (some are) you then have to reinstall your operating system and all your programs, and then figure out a way to get all your other stuff from the old drive to the new one. You might as well just purchase an external drive and accept that you'll have to carry it around with you as well as the laptop--you can get ones that are specifically designed to be small and light to alleviate this issue, but they tend to be more expensive.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Just throwing out some examples on small hard-drives;
    LaCie Rikiki USB 3.0
    LaCie Rikiki
    LaCie Rikiki Go

    I use one of these myself so it was an easy example on what the sizes you can expect to carry around. But they might cost a bit more than others so look around.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Assuming that you have a proper carrying case for your laptop, the external drive is still the way to go. Since most laptops only have one enclosure for hard disks, like factotum said it would be way too much of a hassle to swap them out unless you really had no other choice.

    Couple things regarding external drives in relation to your laptop:

    Check to see if you have USB 3.0. If you do, then find and get a USB 3.0 external. These are the fastest (up to 5 Gbps transfer rate, but shared between USB periphrals) and generally only require one connection for both data and power.

    Elder Tsofu linked one, for example.

    If you don't have a USB 3.0 and you do have an eSATAp connection, get an eSATAp drive. These are almost as fast as a USB 3.0 drive (as fast as the vast majority of internal drives at up to 3 Gbps transfer rate), and provide power so you don't need to have an extra outlet. Often times the cable will be sold separately, however.

    For example:
    FreeAgent® GoFlex™ Ultra–portable Drive with FreeAgent® GoFlex™ Upgrade Cable — Powered eSATA (scroll down a bit to see it)

    If you don't have a USB 3.0 or an aSATAp connection and you DO have an eSATA connection and expect to only hook your computer up where there's two available power outlets (one for your laptop and one for your external), then look for an eSATA drive. These drives are as fast as eSATAp drives, but require a power outlet.

    The Free Agent Drive I just linked is a good example, minus the cable I linked.

    If you don't have any of the above and you DO have two free USB 2.0 connectors side by side, then look for a USB2 drive with a USB Y connector. One is for data and one is for power, these are the best you can buy with this kind of setup. Like eSATAp mentioned before, these are usually sold separately.

    For example:
    eGo Compact Helium Portable Hard Drive
    Iomega Porterable Drive Accessories

    If you don't have and of that, then find a USB2.0 external that doesn't require an external power supply. These are slow, but if you're using them to store media then that's usually a nonissue.

    The Helium I linked before does this as well.

    Disclaimer: As with all purchases, you should do research on your own before buying, so don't take my word that any of my examples are the best deals out there, or the best choices.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    As others said, its a bit trickier to replace a laptop hard drive, not hard by any means, but more involved then a desktop, and it means a complete re-install of the OS in many cases. Although a full reinstall can be nice at times, it is a time consuming process to get everything back the way you want it.

    External hard drives are the easiest way to do it. Chances are you'll have to find a USB based one, but there are some that do ethernet (which is much faster but less common for external hard drives but just about 100% of laptops will have the connection). eSata is the best way but much less likely to have on your laptop, not uncommon but not universal like USB and ethernet.

    As for brands, I've always been partial to Western Digital and thats who I get all my drives from any more. Though I haven't used a lot of the other brands, I did have a few problems with a Seagate, and I've never had any problems with my WDs so I haven't looked for anything else.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Thanks, everyone, but my dad (it's actually his computer) still wants to go with internal because we'll be storing programs more than files on it and he fears they will be slower.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Quote Originally Posted by Erloas View Post
    External hard drives are the easiest way to do it. Chances are you'll have to find a USB based one, but there are some that do ethernet (which is much faster but less common for external hard drives but just about 100% of laptops will have the connection).
    I think you'll struggle to find a laptop without a USB connection in this day and age, and USB 2.0's theoretical maximum bandwidth is 480Mbps, nearly five times faster than most Ethernet ports!

    fizzybobnewt, as already stated, it's certainly *possible* to replace the hard drive in a laptop with a larger one, but I'd be inclined to take it to a shop to get it done--even if you're used to taking desktop PCs apart and rebuilding them (which you don't seem to be) laptops are a whole different ballgame. A shop would probably also have software that would allow them to copy the entire content of your old drive onto the new one, too, complete with the OS installation!

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    I think you'll struggle to find a laptop without a USB connection in this day and age, and USB 2.0's theoretical maximum bandwidth is 480Mbps, nearly five times faster than most Ethernet ports!
    Unless you're using your computer for nothing more strenuous than playing freecell, it's going to be difficult to achieve anything near the theoretical limit with USB.


    Again, I recommend factotum's suggestion of taking it to a shop and having it done there.
    If your father still insists on doing it without help, then we can advise you further, but it's at your own risk.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    I think you'll struggle to find a laptop without a USB connection in this day and age, and USB 2.0's theoretical maximum bandwidth is 480Mbps, nearly five times faster than most Ethernet ports!
    Maybe it was worded poorly, but what I meant is that every laptop is going to have USB and ethernet, but eSata is still relatively uncommon.
    As for the speed of USB, maybe its mostly what I plug into USB ports but I've never had file transfers on USB devices even approach what I can do across ethernet. Of course I don't run external hard drives and the majority of transfers are to flash based media which generally has poor write performance. But even copying off them isn't that fast either and that is usually not a problem for flash based media.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    I'm not sure which of us was misunderstood here, but I wasn't saying anything about my dad wanting to install it himself. I meant, if the drive is connected by USB and a program is running from the external drive, will it be any slower than if it ran from the internal one?

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Quote Originally Posted by fizzybobnewt View Post
    I'm not sure which of us was misunderstood here, but I wasn't saying anything about my dad wanting to install it himself. I meant, if the drive is connected by USB and a program is running from the external drive, will it be any slower than if it ran from the internal one?
    Much slower.
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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Quote Originally Posted by fizzybobnewt View Post
    I'm not sure which of us was misunderstood here, but I wasn't saying anything about my dad wanting to install it himself. I meant, if the drive is connected by USB and a program is running from the external drive, will it be any slower than if it ran from the internal one?
    It depends on the program, if it's something like Word you should be fine but on the other hand I wouldn't want to run hardcore photo/video editing off of an external.
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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    In my opinion, the hard drive's like the third easiest laptop component to replace, especially in more recent laptop models (The first being the battery, the second being RAM on the condition that there isn't a module under the keyboard).

    Since you're flat out replacing an internal hard drive, what would be a really nice thing to do is use something like Macrium Reflect or PING to make an image of your current hard drive, but you might need to already have an external hard drive to actually do that. That way, when you put your new hard drive in, you start up that program and restore from the image you created, so you don't have to reinstall the operating system or any programs you already have, everything from your old hard drive is now on your new hard drive and nothing needs to be reregistered, nothing needs to be updated, and you don't need to hunt down drivers or install disks. You can either expand the partition to take up the full drive from there on out, or just make a new partition with the remaining empty space, whatever floats your boat. Seriously, all you people saying reinstalling the OS is a pain? DO THAT. IT IS SO MUCH NICER AND IT IS FREE PROVIDED YOU ALREADY HAVE THE HARDWARE.

    USB controllers are pretty much going to be slower than Hard Drive controllers, so yes, you're generally right in thinking that a USB drive would be slower than an internal hard drive.

    What you need to know about your laptop is whether your internal hard drive is SATA (Serial ATA) or IDE (also called PATA, Parallel ATA). It probably isn't IDE unless it's a very old laptop, but it won't hurt to check. If you can't find anything in Device Manager or kin about what kind it is, Here's a picture. Do note that most companies like to have an additional connector in between the hard drive and the connecting board, so you might need to remove something. SATA connections are forwards/backwards compatible, so 3.0 Gbit drives are usually the norm for whatever drive you're buying.

    For practical purposes, Hard Drives come in 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM speeds (there are also 10,000, 15,000, and other oddball RPM speeds, yes, but let's just pretend those don't exist, as well as Solid State Hard drives which are much faster, much more expensive, much more energy efficient, and usually have lower capacities). Difference between the two is slight and most consumers won't be able to tell the difference without running tests, but lower means slower read/write times but longer battery life. Bog standard is 7200, but lots of retailers sell 5400 to upsell battery life.

    For brands... All hard drives are practically made from the same components. If you read reviews, no matter what company you look at, you will find lots of people complaining about fast-dying drives or dead on arrivals for anything that isn't Solid State (and even then!). Failures are over-reported, successes under-reported. Go with whoever offers you the longest warranty without costing extra. I usually prefer Seagate, because their non-refurbished stuff usually comes with 3 years but it is ultimately your responsibility to check this out for yourself- and I've had no troubles returning my one failed drive. Western Digital is often mentioned for this reason, too. I'm biased against "green" drives whose firmware shuts down the hard drive when not in use, because that functionality is typically built in to the OS you're using and I don't want any conflicts there.
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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    I believe the easiest solution is to have programs in the internal hard drive and documents/pictures/films/etc in the external. Even if you buy a new internal drive anyway.
    Last edited by H Birchgrove; 2011-09-04 at 11:36 AM.
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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    BTW how big is the current hard drive?

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    136 GB. (Hidden self-referential phrase.)

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Quote Originally Posted by OracleofWuffing View Post
    What you need to know about your laptop is whether your internal hard drive is SATA (Serial ATA) or IDE (also called PATA, Parallel ATA). It probably isn't IDE unless it's a very old laptop, but it won't hurt to check. If you can't find anything in Device Manager or kin about what kind it is, Here's a picture. Do note that most companies like to have an additional connector in between the hard drive and the connecting board, so you might need to remove something. SATA connections are forwards/backwards compatible, so 3.0 Gbit drives are usually the norm for whatever drive you're buying.
    It's a little more complicated than that for laptops. I've come across laptops HDs where the connector was integrated into the drive and replacing it required changing the cable then re-soldering.

    Not all 2.5" drives are the same physical size, so you'll need to measure your drive first before buying a new one as well.

    It all depends on the age and make/model of the laptop - if fizzybobnewt lists what his father has, we can offer suggestions.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Ooh, sorry, I forgot you'd asked a question. It's a Dell MPS1530, dad says.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Quote Originally Posted by fizzybobnewt View Post
    Ooh, sorry, I forgot you'd asked a question. It's a Dell MPS1530, dad says.
    Well, that's good news. Say what you want about Dells, Playground, but IIRC they're some of the more moddable laptops around. At least, that's what the internet said when I looked to see what it would take to replace the graphics card on my Dell Inspiron laptop.

    Since the M1530 is an XPS-series desktop replacement machine, it should be about as upgradeable.

    However, I'd still heavily recommend getting an external drive. Some don't even require external power supplies, and unless you're running programs with loads and loads of loading you shouldn't see much of a performance drop (since most programs run mostly off of the RAM, IIRC). Compared to a laptop internal drive, you can get them in a much wider variety of places, probably cheaper, most likely with a much higher data capacity, and with far less hassle for the installation process.

    The third upgrade I purchased for my laptop was a 500 GB external drive, and I haven't noticed many problems with it at all. Though if you're gunning for portability, it is one more thing to attach to your computer, so if you're just as likely to be using the trackpad and built-in speakers as you are even a cheap mouse or headset, I suppose in the long run the internal drive will be less of a bother.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Replacing the hard drives on a Dell laptop is extremely easy, so you're fortunate there. It's literally a matter of removing a few screws from the bottom of the machine and then sliding the hard drive out. The plastic end case from the drive can be removed and installed on the new one, then the whole lot slid back in and re-attached. Did it myself on a Latitude 131L, and the manual I've found for the M1530 confirms it's the same:

    http://support.euro.dell.com/support....htm#wp1115893

    (Note that this manual assumes you'll have bought the replacement drive from Dell complete with the plastic part I mentioned above--I didn't do that myself, but if you want a bit of extra certainty that you'll get the right drive, you can do it that way!).
    Last edited by factotum; 2011-09-09 at 02:33 AM.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Hold on, Mando, what do mean by "loading"? Are you disagreeing with Obrysii? Cause that would be important.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    (Note that this manual assumes you'll have bought the replacement drive from Dell complete with the plastic part I mentioned above--I didn't do that myself, but if you want a bit of extra certainty that you'll get the right drive, you can do it that way!).
    You should check out the Service Manual, actually. Even if you purchase the drive from Dell, it won't come with a new Hard Drive bezel, so you do have to remove the bezel from the old drive, anyways. Not to put too fine a point on it, it's just two screws, making the whole thing "Unscrew 4 screws, slide out, unscrew 2 screws, screw two screws, slide in, screw 4 screws. Heh heh, I said screw. Then it's software time."

    Bonus, there's no additional adapter between the drive and the board on this model, so no fears there.
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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Quote Originally Posted by fizzybobnewt View Post
    Are you disagreeing with Obrysii? Cause that would be important.
    Yes, after a fashion.
    Quote Originally Posted by fizzybobnewt View Post
    Hold on, Mando, what do mean by "loading"?
    I mean exactly what it says. If the program needs to frequently read large amounts of data off of the hard drive (that is, to load it onto the RAM), you'll notice the difference in speeds fairly regularly. If not, then you'll only really ever notice it as a somewhat extended delay in the program starting to run, which will be proportional to the size of the program. If it's an USB 3.0 link, you might get a ~3Gbit/s data rate comparable to SATA interfaces.

    If the computer needs to read the disk frequently, you might also look into upgrading your RAM. If at all possible, an x86 system purchased within the last four-five years should be upgraded to 4GB RAM, while an x64 system can use more (though it may not need to). A Dell laptop's RAM is easy to replace: there should be a removable panel on the back. The RAM is identified easily enough: it's your standard thin little computer chip looking thing, and should have a catch or release lever or something. Pop out the old chips and slide in the new ones. The first time you do it might take you a while if you haven't fiddled with the computer before, but if you're familiar with the system the only things that are easier to replace are the battery and anything that just plugs in (USB attachments, power cables, etc.).
    Last edited by Mando Knight; 2011-09-09 at 12:47 PM.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Quote Originally Posted by Ricky S View Post
    It's pretty simple. Go to your local computer shop and ask for an external hard drive. You can buy a 1TB external hard drive for about $80-$90.

    Unless your computer is not working as well as it should then external hard drives are the way to go.
    I second this. External hard drives are great and they're practically a must nowadays. In fact, I need to get one of them myself. It's a better idea than keeping my data on over 60 gigs of flash drives.

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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    Quote Originally Posted by Mando Knight View Post
    If it's an USB 3.0 link, you might get a ~3Gbit/s data rate comparable to SATA interfaces.
    For what it's worth, it's USB 2.0. And for what it's really worth, the memory modules are 667 MHz SODIMM DDR2, the motherboard/BIOS has a maximum total limit of 8 GB for those, and no more than 4 GB per slot. For best results, both slots should have matching capacities, but that's one of the things that are best measured in benchmarks.
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    Default Re: Hard Drives: A Boring Thread Title

    You have a 163 GB hard drive and its full of "programs"? I find that...difficult to believe. Thats like, enough to install Dragon Age: Origins almost 8 times, even after factoring in 20 GB for the OS (which is a rather conservative estimate).

    My guess is that there is a lot of media on there as well. Movies, music, and ebooks. Move all that crap over to an external. You can access it just fine across the external. I run my winamp off my external, and it works just fine.

    Still, replacing the HD on a laptop isn't that hard. I changed mine on my Gateway when it died, and it was super easy. The hardest part about it was driving to my buddy's place to borrow his small screwdriver because I don't own one myself.

    The advise I was given when mine burned out was first to figure out what model you have. Right click "My Computer", and go to properties. One of the tabs says "Hardware", click there and open Device Manager. In there, you'll see a menu that says "Disk Drives", click that. One of them is your hard drive. For example, mine says "WDC WD800JD-75MSA3". Once you have that, do a quick search on a site like newegg or tigerdirect for the same model. Generally, it'll also recommend other devices in the same type, just with larger capacities. For example, mine is a 75 GB drive, so the -75MSA3 indicates that. If I wanted to upgrade, I'd look for something like a WDC WD800JD-250MSA3 (for a 250 GB drive) or WDC WD800JD-500MSA3 (for a 500 GB drive). The best thing about changing out like-for-like, is you don't really have to worry about compatability. Its the same exact device, just with a different capacity. Thats the easiest way to figure it out and requires almost no technical expertese at all.
    Quote Originally Posted by Fax Celestis View Post
    AILHAY THULUCAY! AILHAY THULUCAY! AILHAY THULUCAY!
    _________________________________
    A beholder’s favorite foods include small live mammals, exotic mushrooms and other fungi, gnomes, beef, pork, colorful leafy vegetables, leaves, flower petals, insects, and birds.

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