Help purchasing new notebook hard drive

[letsgetsilly]

I've dealt with a few notebook hard drives before, and they all have been proprietary and non-interchangeable.

I have a dell w/ a broken IBM Travelstar 40gb hd (model IC25n040atcs04-0). I searched pricewatch and found a couple $80 replacements from Hitachi (who took over IBM's hd dept)

I want to make sure that a new hd will be compatable with this computer. This broken hard drive has a slid-in style interface, kind of like a PCI card. I just discovered 2 seconds ago that this is an adapter and can slide off to reveal pins, kind of like a standard desktop HD.

Is there anything I should be aware of before ordering one of these hitachi hd's as a replacement?

Thanks for your help,
Adam

 

[letsgetsilly]

bump?

 

[bacillus]

Any 9.5 millimetre 2.5 " IDE hard drive will do.
Just make sure that you install the adapter from the old hard drive onto the pins of the new hard drive.

 

[tiap]

Travelstars are still your best best. They just came out with 80 and 100 gig 7200rpm drives, but I don't think they are in stock yet. They really boost your performance. I use 80 gig 5400rpm and is much faster than oem 4200. check zipzoomfly for best prices.

 

[corkyg]

And the best 80 GB, 5400 rpm drive in laptop size is the Toshiba with a 16 MB cache. The new Hitachis are not all that great - a high rate of failure. Second to Toshiba are the Seagate Momentus drives.

 

[letsgetsilly]

Thanks very much for your help. I have an older machine, but I'm sure it could use the boost of a better hard drive.

Check back often I will for more tips.

Thanks again,
Adam

(sorry about yoda talk)