how to choose a harddrive

I have a compac presario that has quite a number of damaged sectors on the hard drive. I need help picking out a new harddrive. Please help me pick one by answering some questions.

1) what is the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit, and should i upgrade to it.

2) how do i pick a harddrive that is compatible with a compac presario.

3) i would like to upgrade the ram to 4 gig. is this possible.

4) where do i find a tutorial about tearing down and rebuilding a compac presario.

Thank you.

 

#1 - 64-bit is supposed to be twice as ... something ...as 32-bit. As far as switching? I'll let the gurus here hash that out for you.

#2 - We would have to know the model # of your machine to recommend this, but if you match the specs (IDE or SATA, similar footprint and capacity) of the old drive, the new drive should work.

#3 - Again, we need to know the model # and operating system/service pack #.

#4 - Major Geeks. :major

 

This has nothing to do with the hard drive. 32 bit vs. 64 bit refers to the OS and other software, not the hard drive.

I believe Presario models came in both desktop and laptop editions. As Caliban said, we need to know the model.

Visit www.crucial.com and use their Memory Advisor™ tool to know your options for upgrading RAM.

 

One hard drive to consider for a laptop is:

Seagate's Momentus XT
Reviewed, Finally a Good Hybrid HDD
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3734/seagates-momentus-xt-review-finally-a-good-hybrid-hdd
Seagate Momentus 500 GB
MODEL No ST9500420ASG
( note the "g" on the end of the Model #, very important )
Serial No 5VJ740ZT
Cyl 969021
Tracks per Cyl 16
Sectors 63
Size (formatted) 465 Gigs

I purchased one, and am very happy with it. This type of drive (Hybrid), is part way between the usual drives and full SSD "drives". Full SSD is very expensive at the moment, but that is the way all drives will probably be by 2020, IMO.

Bazza

 

The laptop is a compac presario f750us. 1 gig ram and 120 gig harddrive the o/s is vista

 

Any 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s will work in your laptop. Here's a Western Digital Scorpio Black WD3200BEKT 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive -Bare Drive for about $61 including shipping.

Regarding RAM, again, visit www.crucial.com and get info on your model, including the maximum RAM it will support.

Eh, you really don't want to tear down a laptop, do you? Bad idea. You can replace a hard drive and add RAM without "tearing down" the laptop.