Notebook Hard Drive left me confused!

Hey guys, I know this might be a stupid question.... i was just wondering if anyone could help clear some things up for me... Quite recently,... and sadly (due to my carelessness), my internal hard drive for my compaq presario 2200 notebook has been fried. I think it was because of my excessive downloads of music, and such...

I want to get a replacement for my internal hard drive. But i can't seem to find it anywhere except by ordering from HP directly. I talked to the comp. technician from HP Compaq and they told me that i could get any brand of HD - provided that it meets certain specifications (3.5" foam factor, 1" height, 4200rpm and max 60GB UltraATA/100 EIDE)...

However after talking to a friend of mine,... i was told that my laptop would be fine as long as the new HD physically fits into the notebook... is this true?

I just need some clarification b4 i do anything costly regrettable.

 

It is true that as long as the hard drive fits in the notebook, it will work. However, your notebook only has enough room for a 1" high 3.5" UATA/100 HD or smaller.
So, any UATA/100 HD of smaller size would work, including 2.5" notebook HDs, although you might exprience problems securing those to the laptop.

 

you need a 2'5 inch formfactor hard drive. Just about any 2'5 hard drive will fit into your laptop. They range from like 40 gb to i think 160. As far as I know this is what you need.

 

so there's no limitations as to how much space i can have? if that is the case, then why did technician tell me that it has to meet the certain specification (3.5" foam factor, 1" height, 4200rpm and max 60GB etc...)?? sorry, i'm new to all this stuff

 

I don't know much about the presario, but if it is an old one, then probably a size limitation might be there. Gimme a minute, and I'll check and tell you....

EDIT : It is probably a PATA/IDE hard drive, from what I've been able to search.. hence the size/RPM restriction.

 

You need an Ultra ATA/100 EIDE hard drive - 4,200 RPM, 3.5-inch form factor, 1.0-inch height.

 

i have never fry a hard drive on my old presario 2200....

when i changed my HD before in my presario 2200 (coz the preinstalled HD is too slow!!!), i just bought seagates brand (the old HD is hitachi)...

any 2.5" ultra ata/100 HD will work in this lappy...

here's what i bought before...

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...40fc010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&reqPage=Model

 

fry that technician!!!LOL

 

I think UATA/100 mobile HDs only go up to 60GB and 5400rpm. Anything faster/bigger would be SATA.

 

no.

seagates have up to 160gigs UltraATA/100 Mobile HDDS.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/laptops/momentus/momentus_5400.3/

 

Seems to be some misinformation and confusion here. To clarify, a 3.5" HD will NOT fit your laptop, or any laptop. It MUST be a 2.5". SEcondly, there may possibly be a restriction on size, but I really doubt it, and it would be BIOS related. Most likely as long as you are running win XP and format the drive as NTFS then there should be no issues.

Also, you definitely require the PATA interface, also known as (E)IDE. SATA is the standard on new drives, be sure not to order SATA. The rotational speed is not limited - you could choose between 4200 and 7200 rpm - the higher the faster the drive. I'd avoid purchasing another 4200 rpm drive, go with either the 5400 (best price point) or the 7200 if you'd like to maximise performance.

I'd call HP back and ask for clarification. The guy must have meant to say 2.5" drive. He probably stated that specific model because that's what the computer told him to say - these "tech" guys you generally reach on the phone are more sale-people than tech agents, and he's trying to convince you to buy through HP - don't. It will be expensive and unnecessary. Check out any number of vendors. If you'd like to purchase online, you'll probably find your options are pretty limited in Canada. I went with tigerdirect.ca for my 7200 rpm drive, and got a pretty good price.


Good luck.

P.S. - you did not burn out your HD from downloading too much.