Laptop Hard drive questions

I have some newbie Questions. From other posts I've made It's starting to look like I might be replacing the hard drive in my Toshiba. I'm going to try to reformat first, I'm just waiting on the op system disks

After a Google search I've found several drives that say they are direct replacements for my model but Most are no name. I looked at Newegg & they list several but don't specify what they will work in.

My questions are,
1) can I use any drive as long as it made for a laptop
2) I currently have a 200 MB drive , can I go bigger without major mods.
3) I see some drives listed as bare, others not. Whats the difference ?

Sorry if these are rookie questions, but my search-foo is weak.
Thanks,
John

 

Need to know what the laptop model is to know what size of drive you can go for.
Also, when you stated, 200MB, I hope ye meant 200GB
Not sure what bare drives mean, though, if they state OEM drives, they typically mean you just get the drive itself, and none of the filler box/stuff.

Mostly, want to look at the 2.5" drives.

 

* Toshiba Model?
* O.S
* Why are you going to buy a bigger disk, do you really need it?

 

No you can't just use any "new HDD" as some are "legacy" (manufacturers try and monopolise your upgrade potential and limit any and all choice).

 

The model is a Toshiba Satellite A105-s4064 & it is has a 100 Gb:-o Fujitsu mhv2100bh HHD now. The operating system is XP media center 05.

Just thought of going bigger if It will make an improvement.

 

Hello, i found your laptop model, and this is the best option i found to expand your hard disk:

Toshiba 320GB 2.5” 5400RPM Notebook Internal Hard Drive - SATA

Here are more results:

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/afin.to?stt1=Laptop+PCs&stt2=Satellite&stt3=A105-S4064&sttSeries=Satellite^A105#resultsMatrix

Here is a webpage where you can search by yourself:

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/afin.to?stt1=Laptop+PCs&stt2=Satellite&stt3=A105-S4064&sttSeries=Satellite^A105#resultsMatrix

Tell usif you found it usefull!!

 

Well the reformat went as expected . After reading your posts I did decide to go with the Toshiba drive mentioned by itmortiz.
At least if Toshiba recommends it should work. While I was there I picked up a Kingston 1GB memory card ( mine is a 512MB ) which I'm not going to install till I get the system back right.

Thanks for all the replies & i'll let you know how I make out. Might be a week or two, i have a lot on the burner right now

Thanks, John

 

Where did you hear this? This is incorrect for any retail or consumer level product made in the last 8 years or so as long as the BIOS supports the size of the drive and the interface is correct (SATA or IDE); hard drive upgrades and replacements are extremely common and done at every PC repair shop I've ever worked at, trained technicians at or partnered with and they're done using OEM parts from Newegg or TigerDirect.

 

I suppose you are correct in more modern times but there will still be "specific" parameters to satisfy before you can replace. You must agree you can't just use any old HDD even if from another laptop and I suppose I was trying to emphasise this point.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I remember very recently someone wanted to replace a laptop HDD but there were other parameters (apart from SATA, 2.5", etc) that had to be satisfied and really ltd the amount of choice for that model.

 

You certainly can use any HDD, even if from another computer (and you plan to reload the OS, since obviously the software won't work unless it's an identical machine), as long as the interface is the same and the form factor is the same.

The one limitation aside from form factor and interface on what drive one can choose for a machine only applies to IDE drives being used in machines made 8+ years ago; the 28-bit LBA system used by older BIOSes that read IDE drives using the ATA-1 standard cannot read drives over 137GB due to a limitation on how many cylinders a 28-bit addressing system can handle, but even that can be overcome in most models with BIOS updates.

That being said, if your laptop is 8 years old you probably aren't putting a hard drive into it that costs more than the machine is worth.

 

Excellent and very informative response.

 

Thanks for the help. I installed the new hard drive the other day & It works perfect.