Replace broken HD in old Laptop

[Showtime]

Hi,

My friend recently dropped her toshiba satellite a135 laptop and the drive seems shot. I opened it up and the drive doesn't seem to be spinning. I'm 99% sure it's the drive, but could the sata connectors have broken off or anything weird where a new drive wont work? I doubt it's possible without physical evidence, but wonder if I should test another drive on it before ordering.

So I need to find a reliable 160+ GB hard drive for cheap. I don't know what drives are currently reliable. Looking for any recommendations or advice you may have before I order some cheap drive from newegg.

Reliability > Performance
2.5" SATA
160 GB or more.
5400 RPM
Low Price

TIA

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you want reliability, even in the face of sudden shocks, you need to invest in an SSD.

If this is a much older laptop, though, it might use IDE drives. Is it newer than about 2007? I have a laptop from 2006 and it uses IDE. Newer ones use SATA. Nearly all SSDs these days are SATA-only.

 

[Tom]

LOL at SSD. you've got to be joking..

I've had good luck getting hard drive deals from Amazon. Heres what I would get today..

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...PDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1305047790&sr=1-6

 

[flensr]

I like western digital scorpio drives. If you can afford the scorpio black then get it, otherwise the scorpio blue is almost as fast but a bit cheaper.

You should test the old laptop drive in another computer first though. You can probably put it into a desktop computer that has SATA, and test it. If the old drive is good, then the laptop is broken so there would be no need to spend money on a replacement drive. So test the old hard drive first.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Honestly, I would probably just get some cheap drive from newegg. LOL. If you search around for a deal you might be able to find free shipping and save 7 bucks. The only way I see to save a significant amount of money ( >$10 ) is to get a smaller capacity.

This is what I would get. 7200 rpm, 16mb cache, free shipping = $50

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136278

If you want a 5400 rpm, then I'd get this. With shipping = $47

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136391

edit: Do what flenser says first. It would only take 2 minutes to hook the laptop drive up to your desktop and verify it is broken. Might be nice to have that peace of mind before ordering.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Ditto don't buy the drive for a dead laptop make sure you need it before you buy it.

 

[Tom]

Honestly, I would probably just get some cheap drive from newegg. LOL. If you search around for a deal you might be able to find free shipping and save 7 bucks. The only way I see to save a significant amount of money ( >$10 ) is to get a smaller capacity.

This is what I would get. 7200 rpm, 16mb cache, free shipping = $50

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136278

If you want a 5400 rpm, then I'd get this. With shipping = $47

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136391

edit: Do what flenser says first. It would only take 2 minutes to hook the laptop drive up to your desktop and verify it is broken. Might be nice to have that peace of mind before ordering.

You can get double the capacity Scorpio Blue for less money from Amazon.

 

[TheStu]

You can get double the capacity Scorpio Blue for less money from Amazon.

Dang, that is a great price. I should tell my friend about that for his PS3. Never really thought to check Amazon for computer hardware. I mean, i know that they sell basically everything, but I usually look at newegg first.

 

[Tom]

Dang, that is a great price. I should tell my friend about that for his PS3. Never really thought to check Amazon for computer hardware. I mean, i know that they sell basically everything, but I usually look at newegg first.

Yea, I was the same way. But back around December when I was buying a drive for my new xbox 360 I did a search for the compatible model and Amazon popped up.

Which was great because besides a great price, no tax in TN and I had a Prime Trial at the time so free 2 day shipping.

So I look on amazon now when I'm shopping for computer hardware, although I've nothing against Newgg, I shop there too.

 

[Showtime]

TYVM all!

I will test that drive out in my desktop later. I never thought of it lol.

I will probably grab that drive from amazon. Double the capacity for a relatively small investment. Seems like win win.