laptop harddrive, i need a new one, advice needed

Cold Dark Shadow

Cold Dark Shadow

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Mar 24, 2003
Messages
12,720
the hdd went out in my laptop and i gotta get a new one so lookin for suggestions
looking at 1TB sata, with a good warranty that can take lots of data transfers and running basically 24/7

what are some good performers? what should i check out?

if it helps any its goin in to a Toshiba p505-S8980
 
Was going to suggest a Momentus XT, but when i read the data transfer requirement, that kinda takes the SSD and SSD/Mechanical-hybrids off the list.
 
Running 24/7, does it really need to be an internal HD or is the laptop traveling 24/7? Internal SSD + external 1tb drive is a nice setup too.
 
its not used "on the go" or anything like that. i just use it for everything so it rarely gets turned off
 
Cold Dark Shadow said:
its not used "on the go" or anything like that. i just use it for everything so it rarely gets turned off
Click to expand...

So other than it being on all the time you don't have any particularly stressing applications running on your system, right?

Just pick a drive that fits and has a good warranty. No rocket science here. If speed is a concern, make sure you get at 7200rpm.

You could go SSD if you could relax the size requirement. SSD has no moving parts, so there is less heat and it runs longer off the battery (but it seems you don't use the battery). SSD will make everything load faster on the first go, making the system seem much snappier.

The external drive idea is a good one too, if you don't move the laptop. You could even turn it off when not in use to protect the data on it.
 
If you are wanting a 1tb laptop drive then you are most likely going to have to settle for a 5400rpm drive. There are no consumer grade 1tb 2.5 inch drives that are 7200rpm, however I do believe that both western digital and seagate make enterprise grade 1tb drives that are 7200rpm, but are quite expensive. If you just have to have 7200rpm then you will have to settle for 750gb. If speed isnt a major concern then the samsung spintpoint M8 is going to be the cheapest 1tb notebook drive that you will find. Western digital also makes a 1tb scorpio blue drive that costs almost twice as much as the M8. Also, one thing to note that gets overlooked by many is that you will want to find a drive that is 9.5mm in thickness. Make sure you scan the product page thoroughly before you decide, as some drives are 12.5mm in thickness and wont fit in most notebooks.
 
MGDMN said:
If you are wanting a 1tb laptop drive then you are most likely going to have to settle for a 5400rpm drive. There are no consumer grade 1tb 2.5 inch drives that are 7200rpm, however I do believe that both western digital and seagate make enterprise grade 1tb drives that are 7200rpm, but are quite expensive. If you just have to have 7200rpm then you will have to settle for 750gb. If speed isnt a major concern then the samsung spintpoint M8 is going to be the cheapest 1tb notebook drive that you will find. Western digital also makes a 1tb scorpio blue drive that costs almost twice as much as the M8. Also, one thing to note that gets overlooked by many is that you will want to find a drive that is 9.5mm in thickness. Make sure you scan the product page thoroughly before you decide, as some drives are 12.5mm in thickness and wont fit in most notebooks.
Click to expand...

Ya, forgot to mention that about the HDD size.
The Samsung M8 is 9.5mm Shadow.
 
yeah the size thing i was lookin at and also speed isnt toooo important, price is a little of a concern but id rather pay a little more for a drive thatll last so im not having to swap it out every 6 months lol

@ AQ_OC
i know its not rocket science im asking for pretty much brand/model suggestions to check out, i havent been in the tech stuff for a while and i know things have changed



thanks for the input guys, ill give them all a look and hopefully get something ordered, i miss my laptop! lol
 
If it were me, especially if storage space over speed is what want, I would go for the samsung spinpoint M8. There is nothing about the WD scorpio blue that justifies the extra cost, for the same storage size. The thing about 1tb notebook drives is that your options are extremely limited no matter what manufacturer you choose.
 
yeah ive kindda noticed that lol, might drop down to 500gb-1tb around that area and find an external spare drive when i need the space
 
I have a 1tb toshiba canvio external drive, which is 5400rpm, and a 500gb hitachi touro mobile pro external drive, that is 7200rpm. They both support usb 3.0, which has great transfer speeds. I wouldnt even consider an external usb 2.0 drive. The 1tb drive is in use almost all the time, and ive never had a problem with it. The hitachi is used less frequently, but I havent had to deal with any issues with it either, so I would recommend either.
 
Last edited:
The easiest way to tell is that the connector for USB 3.0 is blue, where as USB 2.0 is black.
 
Is the what you have?
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/toshiba-satellite-p505-s8980/4505-3121_7-33776094.html

Also if you don't use your optical drive much they make HDD caddies for those bays.

Nothing like having extra storage on hand, hopefully I can get a SSD for the main bay.

Looks like you only have USB2, but you should have a eSATA/USB combo port which you might be able to eSATA cable that supplies 5volts over the USB. See what the labeling say for the eSATA port.
 
i dont have the lapop with me right now to check but yes thats it

and i dont really use my blu ray drive much at all so that would be a cool idea :)

yeah its got the esata/usb combo port ill have to look up the specs for it
 
Cold Dark Shadow said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2012-_-EMC-012012-Index-_-SSD-_-20220581-L09B

worth it for a boot drive?

$55 after mir
Click to expand...

Yeah, that should work, it's large enough for the OS and system Apps. Also seeing this as a 18" NB this might have a 2nd HDD bay like some HPs so you want to see if that is the case.

I can help you find the right HDD caddy for the optical bay if you want to go that route because there are some crappy one out there which I got but works.
 
Last edited:
i wont be able to fully check it out in front of me til after the weekend, im house sitting right now
tried lookin it up online and didnt see much on it, just 1 post about there being a second drive bay but no pins for connection or something like that

ive had the bottom of it open and i dodnt remember if there was or not

being i really dont use my optical drive all that much i probably will be goin that route with it if it turns ojut the is not second hdd bay or an unusable one
 
ended up goin with the samsung m8 1tb, got it for 99 shipped thru newegg
got it thursday got everything reinstalled and up and running again but every couple hours i get the solid hdd light and it locks up completely and gotta power it down and reboot :/
anyone else have a problem like that with this drive?
 
I havent used one myself, but I had planned on purchasing one as my secondary drive for storage space. Did you ever have this issue with your other HDD?
 
no the old hdd never locked up like this one is
toward the end of its like it would freeze up a couple times but then after a few minutes pop back into play
 
Ill give that a shot and see, it seems to be gettin worse, been tryin to time between lock ups and one was 6 hrs but recently its got in the 1.5 to 3 hr range
 
When it locks up is there any kind of pattern or does it happen randomly? Also, I see where you stated that you had to power down completely and restart. Have you tried waiting like 10 min to see if will become responsive without a shutdown?
 
i notice when it locks up when firefox goes all cloudy and i look down and see the solid hdd light, i let it sit for like 20 minutes or so once and it did nothing, just stayed frozen.

but since ive installed hdd tune, it hasnt done it again yet lol
 
What programs do you have running in the background? Antivirus, defrag? Do you happen to have any other drive(s) around that you can test with? Since you said that your other drive started locking up, but did not require a shutdown, makes me think that the source of the issue not the HDD at all, but rather some other component. If you have, or can get access to, another HDD I would suggest trying it to see if you have the same problems with it as you are having with the M8. If you do, then it would be pretty safe to say that its not a HDD problem. If it doesn't have any issue, then its most likely the drive, and I would get in touch with either newegg, for a return, or get in touch with samsung for an RMA. Its times like these that make me glad that I keep a decent amount of old spare parts. Great for troubleshooting.
 
only stuff i have running is avg, firefox and WMP every so often. dont have any other drives to test unfortunately, the other was dead, couldnt get it to read on anything i stuck it in after it finally quit booting in this thing

im gunna see if i can find a smaller hdd to throw in here and see what happens and use the 1tb just for storage if it all works out
 
Have you gotten a chance to do any troubleshooting? I had planned to pick up one of these drives, but now seeing the issue that you are having im reluctant to pull the trigger. Please do let me know if you find out that the drive is, or isnt, at fault. I would appreciate it a lot.
 
well day 2 and still no issues, got to thinking about software updates and whatnot so been running thru as many as i can think of (windows, other software that can be updated) and everything checked out ok so it might have just been a random glitch or something, like i mentioned earlier it stopped locking up after i got HD tune loaded and ran and i dont remember in that time as well if i was running updates on anything.

so im really not sure whats goin on lol
 
Alright, it does seem odd, but if its no longer having issues then thats a good thing. Hit me up, if you would, if it starts acting up again. Thanks for all of the updates so far.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top