Hard drive upgrade for an OLD Toshiba Satellite P15-S479

[IceBoy109]

I've come into possession of an old laptop that needs a new hard drive and I can't seem to find a source that contradicts the manual in saying 80gb max. The BIOS on the laptop is a bit outdated so I can take care of that, but I'm not too well versed with laptops....can it be possible that it would only accept an 80GB hard drive? I don't really want to put much money into this model seems to have a reputation for frying hard drives due to poor cooling. Anyway, many thanks for any and all help.

BTW....additional info:

Current drive is a MK6022GAX - IDE (ATA-5)
Laptop is on BIOS v1.20

 

[VirtualLarry]

The HD capacity limitations are at 8GB, 32GB, and 128GB, and 2TB.
So if it takes an 80GB, it should take up to a 128GB without issue, although it won't likely be able to handle anything larger. So look for a 120, or possibly a 160 (with the knowledge that you would only be able to use 128 of it).

 

[mfenn]

Larry already answered this, but I want to be explicit. You can use any IDE drive that you want, but it will only see up to some maximum amount (probably 128GB). Obviously, you still want to get the best bang for your buck, so I'd look at the WD Scorpio Blue 120GB.

 

[IceBoy109]

Thanks for the responses. I've only ever owned desktops and can't really recall ever dealing with a HD cap (aside from 2tb). I assume there's no simple way to bypass this limitation or someone would have mentioned it.

In reading up on this particular Toshiba laptop, it seems to be a bit notorious for hard drive failures. I'm not sure if it's because the stock hard drive (Mk6022GAX) was poor quality, just runs kind of hot, or if it was poor case design that caused a heating issue that caused hard drive failure...but is there a laptop HD that you could suggest that would work here and is known for running cool?

 

[mfenn]

Thanks for the responses. I've only ever owned desktops and can't really recall ever dealing with a HD cap (aside from 2tb). I assume there's no simple way to bypass this limitation or someone would have mentioned it.

In reading up on this particular Toshiba laptop, it seems to be a bit notorious for hard drive failures. I'm not sure if it's because the stock hard drive (Mk6022GAX) was poor quality, just runs kind of hot, or if it was poor case design that caused a heating issue that caused hard drive failure...but is there a laptop HD that you could suggest that would work here and is known for running cool?

Pretty much any of the smaller capacity 5400rpm drives (like the 120GB that I linked) will be single-platter designs and thus run quite cool.