Dell Inspiron HD Upgrade

[PonzSpyder]

I want to upgrade the hard drive in my Dell Inspiron 8000 but I do not want to do it through Dell. The last time I needed a replacement they gave me a refurb with the same problems as the one I was trying to replace.

Problem is, I went to Dell upgrades to see what type of HD they suggest for my model and I came up with this...

DELL.COM:
$499.00 - DELL 60 GB 4200RPM EIDE/ATA-6

Besides the price on this hard drive, the only thing that confuses me is the ATA-6 remark, WHAT IS THIS?? Does that mean ATA-60 in Dell language or is that a different type altogether.

The one I want to buy is currently out of stock at new egg, but I need to know if it will work, as it is an ATA-100 drive, can anyone please explain? I don't want to end up buying a $120 paperweight

NEWEGG.COM:
$127.50 - Seagate 40GB 5400RPM IDE ULTRA ATA100

[mike_sanfil]

na, DELL just wants to charge the crap out of you. You would be best off if you did the upgrade yourself or brought it to a local comptuer store.

[John Prophet]

I think basically a laptop hard drive is a laptop hard drive...at least as far as them fitting in the same spot etc...there are all 2.5" drives.

The main thing to look for is the spindle speed.

I see in that example it is 4200...which is the slower speed now I think..they also make 5400 and now 7200 for laptops.

Faster spindle speed makes apps start faster etc...but it also produces more heat and uses more battery..so there is that tradeoff.


If you just want more space then just keep the same spindle speed.

You dont have to buy a Dell hard drive or go thru Dell....for those kind of prices they are crazy.


Pay no mind to the ATA rating.

I think you will like these prices better http://www.newegg.com/app/listProduc...tby=11&order=0

All you have to do is buy norton ghost and ghost the old drive over to the new drive.....which is a little tricky with a laptop cuz there is no other hookup for the second drive.....what I do in that case is take the hard drive out of the laptop...put a 3.5 to 2.5 IDE adapter on it and take it to a regular desktop machine and then do the ghosting there.

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I would be VERY careful trying to use the disk copying software that comes with any of the hard drives....we see all kinds of horror stories and frustration when pople use that junk, lol....norton ghost can be found cheaply..usually you can buy norton system works for around $15 which comes with ghost.

for example http://216.185.135.132/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=481

JP

[John Prophet]

I think ata100 = ata5 so maybe ata133 is ata6...either way it really makes no difference because those drives arent getting close to making out even ata100 yet...and with the slower spindle speeds I doubt theyd max out ata66.

Also all the ata standards are interchangable/backwards compatible etc...so u can use either ata5 or ata6..which is the same as saying ata100 or ata133

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The drive you linked to would work just fine....it IS the faster spindle speed of 5400 so it will be a little faster, maybe a little hotter/louder...and maybe use a little more battery.

But it will work just fine.

for reference...almost ALL drives in desktops today are 7200 rpm...and before that the standard was 5400...so a 4200 rpm drive would seem very slow by todays desktop standard....a 5400 would be a decent little boost

[PonzSpyder]

Thank you for the replies so soon

I will hopfully be ordering it tonight or tomorrow just wasnt sure about the ATA situation with laptops.

BTW, I think it might be between the seagate and a 60GB toshiba one that I saw had a 16MB buffer on that link you gave me.

Thanks again