What to look for...
Choosing a Laptop Hard Drive
Interface Type
The single most important thing to get right when selecting a drive that will be compatible with your laptop is the interface type. Currently there are only two types of interface on the market. You MUST get the right interface for your laptop otherwise the drive WILL NOT fit.
The two styles of drive are IDE (also referred to as ATA or PATA) or SATA (serial ATA)
It will quite often tell you this in the specifications of your laptop. Otherwise, If you have taken your old drive out you can tell by looking at the connecting edge of the drive (make sure you strip the drive from any enclosure or connectors)
IDE
Identified by 47 golden pins laid out in two rows like this (click the image for a close up):
 "computer-4gb-hdPINS_a") |
This is the newer type of drive. It has a mostly black edge connector in two distinct sections with far fewer pins like this (click the image for close up):
 "sata") |
As you can see, the two types of interface are quite different. If it looks unlike any of these two images then the chances are you have not removed other connectors which laptop manufacturers sometimes fit on top (they are normally just pish-fit but can be a little tight).
If you don’t have access to your old drive then you can check our online database (coming soon) or email with a specific enquiry
Capacity
In the old days laptops used to have limits on the maximum size of drive they would take. Thankfully this is no longer the case and any laptop purchased within the last ten years should handle anything you throw at it. So really this is very much down to personal choice. Laptop drives come in various sizes ranging from 10GB to 200GB (and much larger on the way!)
It’s pretty much impossible to have too much space but I usually find that mid-range drives offer the best size/price ratio as the very largest sizes always demand a premium and the smaller ones can seem expensive for the size. Unless you have a specific requirement for an exceptionally large drive then most laptop users will be more than happy with 60, 80 or 100GB.
Spindle Speed
Hard drives store all their information on a circular disk called a platter which rotates a bit like a CD player. In theory, the faster the platter spins then the quicker your drive will be to access the data. Currently there are three main speeds which are:
4200RPM This was very much the standard until a couple of years ago. Very quiet and low power consumption. Fantastic value for money.
5400RPM Probably the most common speed these days. A good balance between noise, power consumption and price
7200RPM The fastest laptop drive at the moment. Can be a little noisy and demands a higher price
In real terms the tangible difference to the user between 4200 and 7200 isn’t that noticeable. For most users, the 5400 is a sensible choice or 4200 if you are on a budget.
Drive Height
As with capacity, the physical height or thickness of the drive used to be important. Most modern laptops are designed to take a 9mm height drive - this is the universal standard these days. Older drives used to be 12mm thick but they are not available any more and many laptops designed for 12mm will accommodate 9mm drives anyway. You really don’t need to worry about this unless your laptop arrived on Noahs Ark.
Manufacturer
On the whole, the quality of drives across the board is very high these days. However, my personal experience has taught me that long term reliability seems to be slightly better on some brands.
In my order of preference I would rate them as follows.
Hitachi (used to be IBM), Fujitsu, Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba
There are also other lesser known/rebadged brands on the market but i don’t really have much experience of them.
Please note: This is only my personal experience based on faulty drives I have seen while working in the laptop repair industry.
Conclusion
At first glance these is a bewildering array of laptop drives available and a myriad of different part numbers. In reality unless your laptop is very old (more than 10 years) then all you really need to know is if your laptop takes IDE or SATA. The rest is just personal choice. It’s also important that you make sure you have the relevant fitting instructions for your laptop. Most are quite easy but there are a few laptops on the market where changing a hard drive is a major undertaking. If in doubt you should check with your laptop manufacturer before going ahead.
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