HD dead and HP dropped the ball - replacement drive?

Hey guys,

So my hard drive crashed and is dead and HP is back-ordered on my drive. I can't wait until they can ship me one to get a new drive. Can I just buy any 2.5" drive to replace mine? Or will only certain ones work? I had a 100gb Hitachi TravelStar originally.

Thanks!

 

You need a SATA drive, make sure when you buy it you get one that says that and of course it has to be 2.5". All round I think seagate and hitachi are the two that are value for money and work with HP. Not really sure if HP demand only those two brands work or its open but those two are your the best for speed and space.

 

well as your laptop is still under warranty hp would get you a replacement drive
as the same thing hppend to me once when my hdd failed you may have to wait for a week or two at the most if im not mistaken
if your in a hurry you could always buy a 2.5" SATA HDD from EBAY or tigerdirect or anyother online or retail store
also check if the Serial ATA or PATA in device maager wile it usually is the former rather than latter

 

They are sending me a new drive, but it's back-ordered and won't get here for another week, and I simply can't wait that long (I have finals and final papers coming up). So I have to go get a drive myself. I'll just sell their replacement when they send it.

So just need to get some SATA drive, either a Seagate or a Hitachi?

 

well a 2.5" SATA drive will probably do for ore info you could refer to the hard drive guide located here
when your other HD dos arrive you could make it into an external hard drive as shown here

 

Thanks guys, off to the store I go.

 

all the best choosing a good drive
hope you read the hdd guide though it may help you quite a bit

EDIT: i just remembered if you want to be sure you could always download a free utility like HDtune

 

niemassacre - Greetings - How do you know that it was the HDD that died - what was the error?

 

I was playing a video game when the drive began stuttering and the screen was stuck. I restarted and the Windows XP loading screen came up, then the screen went blank for about 15 minutes. A blue screen then flashed very briefly and the computer restarted itself. I went to the BIOS and ran a HDD diagonstic test, but it failed to read the drive. I then inserted a Windows XP CD that a friend had and tried to run check disk, but it said I didn't have a hard drive installed. I then reseated the drive, but it still failed.

EDIT: I also haven't bought a new drive, since I found out my old drive cost 180 bucks retail and I don't feel like paying that. Anyone have a good site for buying drives cheaply that can ship quickly?

 

www.newegg.com

 

Thanks!

Anyone have any opinion on my old drive? Is it caput?

Also:

Hitachi vs. Seagate (for a 100gb 7200rpm drive): any opinions? The Hitachi is currently out of stock. Is the Seagate good? And could I get a WD or would that not work with my computer?

 

by the way you described it, it sure sounds that way...

 

Does your system have hard drive shock protection system? If yes, then not every drive is compatible with this system. Read this thread for more information...
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=110036

Basically if you are buying a new HDD just as a placeholder until HP ships you a replacement or dont care about the protection systems, then any 2.5" SATA HDD should work fine otherwise I would research further and get a HDD which is compatible with HP's shock protection system.

 

Seagate is the best in my view.

Been using them for years, and never had a problem with 'em.

Can't beat their 5 year warranty.

 

niemassacre - Thank-you much for the detailed reply on the problem - I didn't know about the HDD diagnostic test. I can say I learned something today & another good reason to stay tuned to these Forums!

 

So I express ordered the same drive I was using via newegg.com and it should be here tomorrow. I also ordered an external enclosure that I'll use to set up the hard drive HP is sending me as my back-up drive.

Hope it works out! Thank you guys for all your help in this.

 

Update:

I got my new drive, installed it and the BIOS self-test completes successfully now. However, when I put in the Windows XP disk and it goes to the Setup blue screen and I say to install, it still says there's no hard drive installed. Any ideas? I have no idea what's wrong now.

FURTHER update:

I figured out I had to disable SATA native in the BIOS - when I figured this out, Windows XP recovery console now runs on my old drive. Unfortunately, for some reason I can't ifgure out my Administrator password. I always logged into Windows with my fingerprint. I tried all my standard passwrods, nothing worked. Right now I'm installing Windows XP onto the new drive and I'm setting up my old drive in the enclosure I bought, hopefully I can get my files through that way. However, when I put the drive into the enclosure, I realized that it seems to need one of those hard drive holders to be a snug fit. This didn't come with my enclosure. Do I need to get one myself?