Tell me more about laptop harddrives - which ones are compatible?

[metroplex]

I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 and would like to buy a second hard drive to use (as a primary drive).

Which HDs are compatible? Are they all the same? I found a ATA-6 / 2.5" HD on sale and I can buy a Dell caddy. What else do I need to know to make sure the new HD is compatible?

 

[metroplex]

ttmft

 

[John]

Any 2.5" 9.5mm drive will work fine.

 

[metroplex]

Thanks. I wasn't too sure which would fit, they're all 2.5" and the drive I saw was .37" height or 9.5mm

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

laptop drives are standard, just like desktop drives. Just make sure that its pata or sata (whichever you have on your system). As of now, sata ones are still rare, even on high end laptops

 

[metroplex]

The site only shows "ATA-6" but I'm assuming it is PATA since SATA would be SATA-150?

 

[Finns14]

I don't under stand you want to add another HDD? Laptops only hold one HDD at a time I think your better off maybe upgrading to a big HDD once and if thats not enough get an external

 

[metroplex]

I have a 30GB HD that is packed with data and on the verge of dying (I can hear it clicking... the dreadful sector error type clicks). SMART shows it has been running for nearly 3.5 years now (total hours).

I need a relatively clean HD to use at work just for datalogging sensor readings. I do not want to tote my personal files all over the place. I have a new caddy on order as well.

The new HD I ordered is a Samsung Spinpoint 40 GB ATA-6 HD, 8MB cache and 5400 RPM.

This is a rather big step up from my 4200 RPM 2MB IBM Travelstar 30GB HD. I do not need gobs of HD space since I have desktop PCs for more intensive tasks.

Thanks for the info everyone! Im hoping it will install w/o any problems...

 

[Finns14]

On dell's its super simple all you do is pop out the old one and slide the new one in then just reinstall XP

 

[Nocturnal]

Actually there are a few laptops that have a bay that can hold an additional hard drive. I believe it is the business class Dell models.

 

[metroplex]

There is a pin adapter, but I tihnk the new caddy comes with one anyhow.
XP SP-2 is going in as well, that's also one reason for the clean new HD install. My current install of XP is about 3-4 years old and has crashed on me 5 times. I've managed to ressurect it each time.