HP DV6500T: Need to replace the hard disk

Hi,

I have HP- DV6500T with WD 160 GB HDD 5400 rpm. 2 days back I got a S.M.A.R.T warning indicating that this hardisk is going to fail, and I should replace the hard disk. Therefore I am looking for a reliable hardisk which will not die in just 15 months.

In new drive I prefer capacity more than 200 GB.

I will appreciate if you all can suggest what drive I should be looking for

Thanks
Amit

 

Generally Hitachi and Seagate are the better notebook drives, in my experience. Check out NewEgg for OEM drives from them.

You are looking for a 2.5" SATA drive (SATAI, SATA1.5, SATA150...same tech, different name).

 

Have you pulled out the drive and checked to see if it is under warranty? Usually, hard drives have at least a 3 year warranty. Open up your machine, find out the hard drive manufacturer, go to the manufacturer's website, and check on the warranty status (you'll need the drive's serial number).

If it's not under warranty and you're gonna get a new drive, I would get a 5400 RPM drive. Notebooks tend to get hot as it is internally and a 7200 RPM drive would exacerbate that problem and likely reduce the useable life of the drive.

 

I would definitely look at the warranty status of the laptop and drive as sr.agent.riot and tomashi mentioned. If the Hard drive is still under warranty you can return it to the hard drive manufacturer, and if your laptop is still under warranty HP will replace it.

Now if you still want a larger hard drive go ahead and purchase it. What you can do after you get the broken hard drive replaced, is purchase a 2.5" hdd enclosure and put the replaced hard drive inside and use it as a usb/firewire device. That way you aren't wasting a perfectly good hard drive (if it is still under warranty through the manufacturer or HP and you can get it replaced)

In regards to the RPM of a hard drive, there isn't that much of a difference in heat between the 7200 and 5400 RPM hard drives. I like the 7200 RPM drives, because I've tested them and found a good increase in the speed at which the hard drive writes and reads data. I will never go back to using a 5400 RPM drive when I have a choice in the matter.

 

Download HDtune to check which SMART tests are failing

Also run a disk integrity check while your at it

 

With regard to reliability, I don't think the brand matters much, except that you'll find the longer warranty (5 years) with Seagate. Assuming you're an average user, your drive should last much longer than 15 months. One thing that will definitely kill a drive early is HEAT, due to the expansion and contraction of the platters. It is particularly a problem with laptops because of confined space and inadequate attention paid to drive cooling (they figure it just has to survive past the laptop warranty period). You might want to check the operating temp of your laptop. If running hot, you can try a few things such as cleaning the heat-sink fan, or using a chill pad. You can also look for drives that advertise as running cooler and quieter, even though most seem to say that now. I don't think the 5400 vs. 7200 would matter all that much. Good luck.

 

Thanks a Lot for all your replies!!!!

I cheked my notebook warranty, it expired a month before . I found the Serial number off the HDD from THE SMART logs and cheked on WD site. it seems they just gave 3 monthe warranty and it is expired too.

I will definately download HDtune and check what exactly is wrong.

Thanks
Amit

 

FYI... This week at Circuit City and Best Buy you can purchase a WD External USB drive, i.e. http://tinyurl.com/6nsrww, $99.99 for the 250GB and 79.99 for the 160GB. The External enclosure contains the WD Scorpio (same drive as in the HP Computer). I know as I have and use one for my data backups. Just take the case apart and remove the drive and install in your notebook. Only problem is that you would invalidate the drive warranty but it is a good price and a quick fix.

 

You might want to be careful on this, because not all of the external hdds have SATA interfaces. I've taken a ton apart and some of them have an IDE interface and that won't work with your laptop.

Here is a list of HDDs that will work in your laptop that range from $50-$100 from newegg, and you won't have to void the warranty of the hdd:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&N=2010150380+1035907918+4027&name=$75+-+$100

 

I tried using HDTune. i get the graph but HDTune is not able to dispaly diskproperties or logs. Attached are the snapshots.
P.S. I am running Vista.

Also i did some lookup for the drives. In your opinion which below listed one will be good for my DV6500T

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152111

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...tails.asp?EdpNo=3312093&body=MAIN#detailspecs (Serial ATA 3 Gb/s & 1.5 Gb/s)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3925582&body=MAIN

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3201424&body=MAIN



Hitachi one says it can support STAT 3/Gb and 1.5 Gb. Is it compatible with my Laptop?

Please Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks
Amit

 

Hello all,

I saw this discussion about no issues while upgrading and felt so unlucky that I have this issue.. So I upgraded to 250 GB HDD 7200 rpm,16mb cache....the problem I run into is that the OS (win XP pro) won't boot sometimes...more on this here...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4829662

Also I am not alone, here is another person I found...there was a third but i cannot find the post anymore...

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?board.id=Hardware&message.id=6262&query.id=644757#M6262

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?board.id=Hardware&message.id=6228#M6228
just a word of caution..its either just my machine or may be me doing something crazy...I don't know..I returned the new drive and am waiting on a 5400 rpm slower bro...I know that sounds stupid..but thats the way it worked for me...i tried two fresh installs and jumpers...no success...