Laptop Hard-drive?

[gujuguy007]

I'm sure people have run into this issue many times and I was wondering how to go about replacing a laptop hard drive. I figured out where the hard-drive is, but I was wondering about compatibility issues and size. I'm looking for a hard-drive around 20 gigs. More would be good, but I'm not sure if the laptop has enough resources for a larger drive(i.e. power, speed, etc). (FYI: It's a Compaq Presario, only 2 years old. Don't have the model number with me but I can post that up as soon as I get home.) Thanks to anybody that can help.

 

[gujuguy007]

anybody?

 

[jschuk]

As a rule of thumb, laptops with a HDD bigger than 8GB should be able to upgrade to anything. A laptop that is only 2 years old should be able to see any HDD. Stick with a 9.5mm drive for compatibility.

 

[gujuguy007]

I'm not quite sure whether the laptop is IDE ULTRA ATA-5 or ATA-4. How would I go about determining that?

 

[dmoney]

you could try one of the usb drives(jump drive) which ive seen as high as 1 gigabyte. This can be a pricier option but a lot easier than messing with the insides. You also might contact the company you bought the laptop from to find out the stats.