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    Are all laptop harddrives compatible?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Jdizzay, Jun 18, 2006.

  1. Jdizzay

    Jdizzay Newbie

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    I just picked up a used Dell Latitude C600 to use as a backup PC. The only problem I have with it is that the harddrive is only 6 GB. I'd like to pick up a ~20GB HD from eBay or somewhere else cheap, but I've heard that some laptop harddrives aren't compatible with certain laptops.

    Is this true? If so, how can I figure out which harddrives will fit in my laptop?
     
    Jdizzay, Jun 18, 2006
    #1
  2. matt_h1

    matt_h1 Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

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    There are Sata and IDE drives, If its a old laptop it will have IDE.
     
    matt_h1, Jun 18, 2006
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  3. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

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    The C600 uses a ide connector. If you can swing it, I would suggest a 5400RPM drive for better system performance.
     
    ZaZ, Jun 18, 2006
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  4. Jdizzay

    Jdizzay Newbie

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    Oh, cool. So all I need to find is any 2.5" IDE laptop HD and it should fit?

    Thanks for the answers btw :)
     
    Jdizzay, Jun 18, 2006
    #4
  5. Ice-Tea

    Ice-Tea MXM Guru NBR Reviewer

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    No. Back in the day, there were some Bios limitations to the size of HD's you could fit. Some of these limitations can be lifted through tols provided by WD per example, some can be lifted through Bios updates and some can not.

    Suggestion: use an external USB enclosure as backup.
     
    Ice-Tea, Jun 18, 2006
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  6. ZaZ

    ZaZ Super Model Super Moderator

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    The C600 is a fairly recent notebook using a PIII. I don't see any issue here.
     
    ZaZ, Jun 18, 2006
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  7. Iter

    Iter Notebook Evangelist

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    Very old laptop cannot recognize higher capacity HD, some of them only detect up to 30GB or 40GB, but the price of lower capacity seems to be not worth and not a big difference!!
     
    Iter, Jun 18, 2006
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  8. Ice-Tea

    Ice-Tea MXM Guru NBR Reviewer

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    I recently had to update a PIII motherboard to recognise anything beyond -I think- 27GB.
     
    Ice-Tea, Jun 19, 2006
    #8