Determining HD size upgrade for laptop

[rklepper]

I purchased a laptop with a 60 GB HD. I would like to upgrade the drive to a larger one. It has a SATA drive right now. Is there a limit to the size I can use? I know that it is 1.5 GB/s so it will need to be jumpered to use the newer 3 GB/s drives. I just want it to take with me to download photos to while I travel.

Thanks

[Jon]

Get as big a one (from a manufacturer you trust) as you can afford. Your wallet's really the only limit.

[rklepper]

Get as big a one (from a manufacturer you trust) as you can afford. Your wallet's really the only limit.

Excellent. They are really cheap right now. 109 for a 500 GB drive.

Thanks

[Tom Reid]

If the laptop is functionly well, and you have no intentions of upgrading the OS, perhaps consider buying an external USB drive like a Western Digital Passport.

[cdifoto]

Get as big a one (from a manufacturer you trust) as you can afford. Your wallet's really the only limit.

Agreed.

If the laptop is functionly well, and you have no intentions of upgrading the OS, perhaps consider buying an external USB drive like a Western Digital Passport.
Also agreed. I have an 80GB for the OS/primary and an 80GB for the expansion bay (because it's just a temporary backup location), and a 500GB full size in an enclosure sitting on my desk.

[Tom Reid]

I have a 1TB WD on my desk and a 250 Passport for on the road. The beauty of the Passport is it tiny size and it's powered off the USB so no power adapter needed.

[_aravena]

^Yup! I agree. Why bother trying or paying to install a HDD on your laptop?

[tekkie]

If the laptop is functionly well, and you have no intentions of upgrading the OS, perhaps consider buying an external USB drive like a Western Digital Passport.

same thing I do, way cheaper, way easier

more risk of losing it though

[rklepper]

Well I ordered a 500 GB Seagate Momentus for $109 from Newegg. I will just have the IT guys at work save a copy of everything on the current disk and then we can just put it right back on without having to reload all the programs, etc... I really do not want to have an external as the only reason for having this laptop is for traveling and I do not want one more thing to try to carry around.

Thanks everyone for your input.

[GSansoucie]

Make sure you read the specs on the drive before you purchase it.

You might wind up with a 5400 RPM, or less drive when a 7200 at the same capacity is available. If at all possible, you will want a 7200 RPM drive.

If you use your laptop on battery power a lot, take a little extra time in researching the power requirements for your new HD. You can expect a little degradation in battery life with a new drive, with the wrong drive, you could see a large degradation.

Check out the reviews at www.newegg.com (whether you buy the drive from them or not, the info from the reviewers can be very helpful).

[Tom Reid]

same thing I do, way cheaper, way easier

more risk of losing it though

On that note don't forget to backup the backup!! I've always had a habit of saving to external and doing a DVD backup. Last hockey season I neglected to do the DVD backup for a couple of games and wouldn't you know it my external drive died. That was a lesson in itself. It was a Comstar external and I left it powered up all the time. I had no idea they had no method of cooling and it pretty much overheated. DOH!! The data is recoverable albeit at a price.

I'm now a WD Mybook fan because of their vent holes and I'm in the habit of only powering up the drive when I'm reading or writing to it.