lap top hard drive

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scottatwittenberg

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ok.. my friend gave me a laptop with no hard drive..

hp n3410..

i just want to know what kind of hard drive it would take since i have never put a drive in a laptop before..

i assume ata100.. but i don't know what ata-6 is...

that's all

thanks
 
scottatwittenberg said:
what interface though?

i assume ata-6.. i just want to make sure first...
Click to expand...

Any interface but the new SATA laptop drives.

IDE laptop drives all use a 44pin interface even if they are ATA33 or ATA-6 or UDMA133 it don't make no difference, there are several thickness of drives, but yours uses a 9mm one.

==>Lazn
 
And whatevever you do, don't order a Toshiba, IBM or Hitachi drive, i've never seen so many models fail from those companys.
 
Brands of hard drives are like brands of cars. You will find people who love or hate any given brand.

I have over 100 computers using IBM laptop drives and have had very few (only one that I recall) failures. These computers are 700mhz P3's so the drives are ~5 years old?

Toshibas are fine too in my experience. (IBM=Hitachi FYI)

The only brand I stay away from is Maxtor, because I have had so many of these die on me, both at home and work. (every one I have ever purchased at home, and at work I have replaced 10 times the maxtors I have of any other brand even though WD is the most common brand I use) Others have had good luck with Maxtors, so go figure.

==>Lazn
 
IceWind said:
And whatevever you do, don't order a Toshiba, IBM or Hitachi drive, i've never seen so many models fail from those companys.
Click to expand...

The problem with that statement is Toshiba and Hitachi/IBM drives are the dominant two makers for laptop drives, with Hitachi hands down the majority producer. Also it's just not true. I refurbish and repair laptops for a living and they are both very reliable drives, and Hitachi is the only brand I use personally.
 
ok.. i am between these 2.. just cause i am..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822149026

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152501

the tosh is cheaper per gb and has a 16mb cache.. but the samsung is cheaper.. and well.. the laptop isn't very good anyways.. so i might feel better spending less money overall..

now.. where do i get the dimensions? i have no idea if either are 9mm or less


edit.. if found the toshiba. . http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Pa...00002563/818200000b8b000000010000659c00002837
who knows if the link will work.. it's 9.5mm tall..

samsung says 0.37in.. * 2.54 right? = 9.39mm

so.. what is an average laptop drive's height? is that half mm going to be a bad thing?
 
ok.. so i will repeat my last question

is 9.5 mm fine? or does it have to be less than 9? there are very few 8.5mm drives..

next.. the computer only supports ata33 the limit for that is 32gb.. does anyone know if i can update the bios or not to support a larger drive? i will probably buy an external enclosure so i can pop the drive out and stick it in there every oncein a while.. in that case i would do something like half of the drive for the laptop and half that can only be used when its in the usb enclosure..

or i could buy a 30gb drive.. but that costs almost $2 a gb..
 
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=225059

I would assume .5mm doesn't matter much, but you may have a 8GB limit in the BIOS.

A drive overlay program can usually get around that at the cost of some speed.

For the cost of the drive, you would probably be better off watching for one of those $400 laptop deals from dell, you would end up with a much faster comptuer and none of the limitations of old hardware.

==>Lazn
 
I totally agree. I take care of tons of ThinkPads, and the HD failures are simply astonishing whether it has the Toshiba or IBM Travelstars. Without a doubt the #1 fail item (LCD's are second, NIC's third).

-Larry

IceWind said:
And whatevever you do, don't order a Toshiba, IBM or Hitachi drive, i've never seen so many models fail from those companys.
Click to expand...
 
well.. i went ahead and ordered a 40gb samsung 5400 rpm'er.. i hope that the bios limit is at 32gb instead of 8.4gb.. i am pretty sure it will be.. but only time will tell.. i should have it by the end of the week... i also got an external enclosure so i can pop it in there and take it places with me..

i heard that it is bad to partition a hard drive in two equal parts, is this right? i can't remember the logic anymore.. it might be outdated... i will probably do 10 gb windows.. then somtehing like 15/15 with the other parts.. assuming the computer can handle over 8gb..
 
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