Laptop hard drives

I need to upgrade to a new hard disk, anyone has suggestions for websites, prices, manufactures, etc.

This is the one I am looking to buy currently: http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=5582&Item=TOSMK6022GAX

Thanks,

Prakash S
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

My first, last, and only recommendation for hard drives for laptops is 5400 RPM drives from IBM. I have the 60GB model (not the server class one, unfortunately, because I couldn't find anybody who stocked it), and it made a LARGE difference in performance over the stock 4200 RPM drive.

Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Brad,

Thanks, where did you get it from? IBM.com or some other website?

Prakash S
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Did a web search for vendors. Not even sure where I bought mine from, to be honest, since it was about 18 months ago.

Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

The IBM hard drive business was transferred to Hitachi, so if you're looking for what was an IBM notebook hard drive, you're looking for a Hitachi Travelstar unit. Look at http://www.hgst.com for details.

I've bought my drives from ProVantage (http://www.provantage.com) and Page Computer (http://www.pagecomputers.com).

Seagate announced the Momentus series of notebook hard drives, but they don't seem to be available yet. Toshiba announced drives with about half the peak power consumption of most others, but they do not seem to be available either.

Dan Brown
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Here's one that was listed on PriceWatch.com.  (It's a pricing comparison site that tends to feature smaller vendors and OEM (white box) components.)

http://www.a2zcomp.com/buy.asp?REF=1&SKU=08K0638

Robert Jacobson
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Are there 7200 rpm drives for laptops (Dell Inspiron)?

Anon
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

> Are there 7200 rpm drives for laptops (Dell Inspiron)? <

Not yet.  7200 rpm drives supposedly generate too much heat and draw too much battery juice to be practical for notebooks.

Robert Jacobson
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

7200 RPM 60GB hard drives are available for Sager (Clevo) laptops. I'm not sure how the manufacturer is.

dmooney
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

'how' should be 'who'

I think Toshiba makes the other drives Sager uses.

dmooney
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

Call the guys at http://www.dirtcheapdrives.com and talk to them about your needs.  I've always found them very knowledgeable and helpful when I've purchased storage in the past.  They also have good products and prices if you want to reward their assistance by making a purchase from them.  Disclaimer:  I am in no way associated with the company.

-
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

thanks guys.

Prakash S
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

I just installed a 7200 RPM Hitachi TravelStar drive in my ThinkPad this past weekend.

http://www.hgst.com/hdd/travel/tr7k60.htm

I bought it from:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com (formerly googlegear)

It was rather pricey, but I have noticed a HUGE performance increase over the stock 4200 rpm drive that came with my machine.  For example, after transferring my old drive image to the new one and expanding the partitions:

Old drive cold boot to WinXP Pro logon screen: 1 min, 13 secs

New drive: 39 secs

Old drive resume from hibernation: 22 secs

New drive: 9 secs

I have not noticed any heat-related problems yet, but my battery life did seem to suffer a bit.  Still, since I am almost always plugged in anyway, the extra performance was well worth it.

Tim Lara
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

The travelstar is by far the best drive for laptops. The reason is they are silent.
Unlike a desktop, laptops are notoriously hard to operate when you want to put them at long distance from your ears.

Just me (Sir to you)
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

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