Laptop HDD Question

E

european

New Member
Hello,

I have a Dell Inspiron B130 with a 40 GB drive. I'm not too familiar with upgrading components on a laptop but I'm sure its the same as a desktop PC.
I've upgraded the RAM on the laptop and now I am looking to upgrade the drive to a larger and perhaps faster HDD? (7200 if possible)

My question is... How do I know what the max capacity is on this Dell is for the Hard drive if I want to upgrade it. Will it be able to take a larger/faster drive?
I'm thinking an 80GB or maybe larger if possible.

Please help.

Thanks
Mike
:cool:
 
i think if you go to like newegg (if you want to order online) or a store around you that has hdd, you might be able to buy one. It has to be 3.5 inches. I think they are 7200 rpm.
 
It has to be 3.5 inches. I think they are 7200 rpm.
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You can't put a 3.5 inch HD in a lappy, you need a 2.5 inch drive

@OP - bigger drive is alright and even the larger capacity itself increases performance, but are you sure you want higher RPM? Remember, the higher the RPM the more power it will consume - if the lappy sits on your desk most of the time, it doesn't matter all that much but if you travel around a lot and need the laptop to have a long battery life it may not be a wise move.
 
Alright, sounds good.
What about the size? (HDD space in GB) Does it matter on how big the drive will be? Will the motherboard in this laptop recognize any size? Or am I limited to this 40gb?
 
Will the motherboard in this laptop recognize any size? Or am I limited to this 40gb?
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Pretty much any size should do; get at least 80GB, getting a drive only because of the higher RPM can hardly be called an upgrade.

You do need to find out whether the lappy's got an IDE or SATA hard drive, though. If you don't know which one it is, go to My Computer, then right-click the HD and hit properties. Go to the "hardware" tab, and post the model of the hard drive (if you're not sure which one of them is the HD, post all models numbers listed there...)
 
Here is the model number of the hard drive: Hitachi HTS541040G9AT00
What type of HDD is this? IDE or SATA? I believe this is a IDE drive but I am not too sure.
What brand/size and speed to you guys recommend? Are there any silent drives available for laptops? I have a very quiet samsung spinpoint in my desktop, just wondering if there is anything similar to this type of harddrive that I can install in the laptop.
 
What type of HDD is this? IDE or SATA? I believe this is a IDE drive but I am not too sure.
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Yes, it appears to be an IDE drive.

What brand/size and speed to you guys recommend?
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I would look at well-known brands like Seagate and Samsung. As for the size & speed, I recommend at least 80GB but now since you're at it, you might as well upgrade to 120GB so that you won't run out of space in the future. Whether you get a 5,400RPM or 7,200RPM drive, depends on you needs. Lower RPM consumes less power, but is slower, so if you need long battery life, definitely get a 5,400RPM drive. IMO a 5,400 drive should suffice, and they're also cheaper, but if you really need a fast HD, go 7,200RPM. 7,200RPM laptop drives are usually for "hardcore" stuff (kinda like 10,00RPM drives on desktops), though, unless you use software that really benefits from a fast HD I wouldn't bother putting my money on a higher-RPM drive. Windows gets really slow on a drive that's nearly full, and the capacity increase alone will improve the performance by a whole lot.

Are there any silent drives available for laptops?
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I guess... it's all relevant, though. My mum's laptop HD makes terrible noise, whereas my laptop's HD is fairly quiet, but if you listen carefully you can hear it when it's being accessed. How "silent" so you want? Generally, you won't notice the noise most of them make.
 
Well, the 120GB version is deactivated, I would just get the 160GB version out of those. According to the reviews, it's really quiet (all reviews seem to be positive and it's got a fairly good rating), so it seems like a great choice.
 
hackapelite said:
Well, the 120GB version is deactivated, I would just get the 160GB version out of those. According to the reviews, it's really quiet (all reviews seem to be positive and it's got a fairly good rating), so it seems like a great choice.
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Deactivated? What do you mean? This happened to me before when I bought my very first SATA drive about 3-4 years back. I plugged the drive it, it was just there for a secondary and windows didn't recognize it. I took it back to the store I purchased it from and they said it was not activated. They did it for me and when I plugged it back into my desktop it worked.
 
Deactivated? What do you mean?
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There ya go, off newegg:
What is a Deactivated Item?

When a product is out-of-stock, it may show as "Deactivated" on the item page. This could mean that the item is no longer available and we are searching for a new supplier. However, if an item has reached the end of its product life cycle and will no longer be available at all, the deactivation will be permanent.
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deativated why cant they just call it discontinued or out of stock lol
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Alright! Well I'm going with the 160GB
How should I install the new HDD? Mirror it? What software and other recommended hardware do I need?
 
european said:
Alright! Well I'm going with the 160GB
How should I install the new HDD? Mirror it? What software and other recommended hardware do I need?
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I would recommend removing the old HD and putting it in a external case and just use it as a external drive.You can remove a lot of the windows XP stuff from it and that will save you a couple of GB.

Nice thing to have.

You know you are going to have to format it and install the Operating system on the new drive????????

Also you will need the drivers for your current laptop plus any programs you want to put on the new Hd.

Generally speaking I like to start with a clean slate each time I re-install and only add the programs I am really going to use.
 
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