2.5" Hard Drives by Toshiba and Western Digital Rev Up

pschmid

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2005
333
0
18,780
Finally! A standard-sized 2.5" 200 GB drive reaches our labs from Toshiba. Western Digital's 2.5" play offers 5,400-RPM. Both serve to prove that drives can be small and offer great performance.
 

Luscious

Distinguished
Apr 5, 2006
525
0
18,980
Just an FYI: check your notebooks BIOS. Many laptops have a 128GB barrier which means that if you cannot upgrade your machine's BIOS, you're gonna be stuck with 120GB drives.

BAD: 4200RPM

NICE: 200GB

BEST: 200GB @ 7200RPM

It's high time manufacturers got rid of 4200RPM technology, trying to back up a 200GB 4200RPM drive is not something I am going to wait hours for.

I would like to see a 7200RPM 120GB drive for older machines and a 7200RPM 160GB sata drive. Come on manufacturers! Get your act together!
 

muzicman82

Distinguished
Oct 14, 2003
21
0
18,510
I've always been a fan of Hitachi (formerly IBM) TravelStar hard drives. Since their very first 7,200 RPM 2.5" drive, I've never settled for less in a notebook. They've also been VERY reliable for me, as I've never had one go bad yet. I'm currently using a 7K100.

I think more than 100 GB in a laptop is too much. That's a lot of data to put at risk of being on the road and such. There's also the possibility of theft. I've had plenty of Western Digital and Toshiba drives fail on me also. I'd rather go for speed and reliability over capacity.

If there's a 2.5" drive out there faster than the TravelStars, let me know.