Replacing hard drive in notebook computer?

[LSvach31]

I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 with a Toshiba MK3021GAS hard drive (30 GB, 4200 RPM, 2 MB buffer, ATA-5). The drive has died! I hear a lot of bad stuff about Toshiba drives and wonder if I can replace it with a new, faster 2.5 inch drive with more capacity, e.g. 60-80 GB? I'm thinking of Seagate or Western Digital drives. Suggestions?

I've replaced many hard drives in desktops but never replaced a notebook hard drive. Are notebook drives pretty well interchangeable as far as mounting holes and connectors as they are in desktop hard drives? Since the BIOS is dated Sept 2005 I am assuming it is new enough to recognize any new drive?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[cfvh600]

Sorry to hear about your hard drive dying! You will gain from putting in a faster drive.I see you get ones with 7200rpm. I see you've seen the other post regarding the hard drive adapter.

 

[frenchsquared]

they are pretty generic, and easy to change

 

[lostandwandering]

Western Digital, Seagate or Hitachi would be my choices. I have a Hitachi Travelstar 100gb 7200rpm drive in my laptop (in the sig) and it's been good to me. Plenty of space and speed. As long as you get a drive that's ATA-5 you should be fine. As a side note, I haven't been able to find an ATA-5 HDD over 5400rpm.

 

[theworminator]

Yeah, they should be pretty easy to switch around. BIOS should automatically configure like in a desktop computer. And seriously, 7200 rpm. I'm sure you'll notice a difference. I use a 100 gig, 7.2k rpm Seagate Barracuda. And since Barracuda sounds infinitely cooler than Travelstar, that's TheWorminator: 1, LostAndWandering: 0.



PS: I'm joking, please don't hunt me down.