Laptop Hard Drive Question

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Hi,

I have a general question regarding laptop's hard drive. Do all
manufacturers use the same standard hard drive these days? Can I buy a
generic 2.5" hard drive from CompUSA and install it on a Dell or
Toshiba?

Thanks in advance!

Terry

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Terry <gobeyondgobeyond@yah00.c0m> wrote:
>I have a general question regarding laptop's hard drive. Do all
>manufacturers use the same standard hard drive these days? Can I buy a
>generic 2.5" hard drive from CompUSA and install it on a Dell or
>Toshiba?

In general, yes. There are some thinner drives used in some of the
smaller laptops, but if you bought from CompUSA (for instance), you
can always take it back. I've only run into size constraints once,
and a little plastic grinding solved it just fine.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

In article <MPG.1c7e7b5a501e7cfd989688@news.tc.umn.edu>,
gobeyondgobeyond@yah00.c0m says...
> Hi,
>
> I have a general question regarding laptop's hard drive. Do all
> manufacturers use the same standard hard drive these days? Can I buy a
> generic 2.5" hard drive from CompUSA and install it on a Dell or
> Toshiba?
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Terry
>
Laptop drives come in 12.5 mm and 9 mm height profiles. The 12.5 profile
is older and most current models are 9mm. Newer / thinner laptops
require 9 mm drives. 9mm drives fit the older laptops just fine,
generally, so go with a 9mm drive.

However, you'll probably get a better deal from an online place like
www.zipzoomfly.com

Marc

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On or about 2/18/2005 9:58 AM, it came to pass that Terry wrote:
>>Laptop drives come in 12.5 mm and 9 mm height profiles. The 12.5 profile
>>is older and most current models are 9mm. Newer / thinner laptops
>>require 9 mm drives. 9mm drives fit the older laptops just fine,
>>generally, so go with a 9mm drive.
>>
>>However, you'll probably get a better deal from an online place like
>>www.zipzoomfly.com
>>
>>Marc
>>
>
>
> Thanks to all who responded! When I was browsing an online catalog for
> Dell's Inspiron Hard drives, made by a third party, I noticed that they
> have different part numbers for a 40GB drive for different Inspiron
> models.
>
> Terry
Terry
Not sure which Inspiron you have, but if you are saddled with an older 4200 RPM
drive you may be amazed at the performance boost from a 5400 or 7200 RPM drive
with an 8 or 16 meg buffer. I installed a Hitachi 40G, 5400 RPM with 8 meg
buffer on my aging, well actually antique Dell Inspiron 7000 and and got about a
200% performance improvement. YMMV

Like the others here have said, you will likely get a better price purchasing
from an online site. Pick a model, then use something like Froogle or PriceWatch
http://www.pricewatch.com/ to search by price and get vendor reliability.

Arn