Hard drive
Most modern laptops use 2.5″ hard drives. Older laptops use IDE hard drives, newer laptops use SATA hard drives. SATA and IDE drives are not interchangeable, they have absolutely different connectors.
If your laptop came with an IDE hard drive you cannot replace it with a SATA drive. The connector on your drive will not mach connector on the motherboard.
As you see on the pictuer above, a SATA drive has two flat connectors and an IDE drive has two rows of pins.
SATA hard drives has faster data transfer rate then IDE drivers. SATA – 150MB/s and IDE – 100/133MB/s.
Laptop hard drives spin at different speeds and most common are 4200RPM, 5400RPM, 7200RPM.
The RPM number indicates how fast the hard drive platters spin. Hard drives with high RPM number are quicker than hard drives with low RPM number because they can access data faster.
SATA connectors on a laptop hard drive are similar to SATA connectors on a destkop hard drive. You can connect a SATA laptop hard drive to a desktop computer using same SATA cables.
WHERE HARD DRIVE IS LOCATED IN A LAPTOP.
On most laptops the hard drive can be accessed from the bottom.
On some laptops the hard drive is burried inside the case and it’s necessary to disassemble the laptop in order to access and replace the hard drive.
HARD DRIVE UPGRADE.
A hard drive is the slowest part in any laptop. If you would like to speed up your laptop, replace your low RPM drive with a faster one. Fast RPM drives are backward compatible with low RPM drives.
If you would like to install a larger hard drive, take a look at the user’s manual and laptop specifications. Make sure your laptop supports larger drives.
Laptop parts | Repair Man | 
December 26, 2008 2:53 pm
March 4th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Diego,
Yep, could be a faulty hard drive. Does it display any error message when restarting?
Listen closely for sounds coming from the hard drive when your laptop loading Windows. Can you hear any repetitive clicking noises or maybe unusual grinding noise? If yes, probably it’s a failing drive.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:49 am
I have a HP Pavillon dv6000. When I want to turn it on, it starts working, I can hear the fan and the lights come on just like normal, but after 30 sec (even before loads windows) seems like it turns off by itself and starts the process again, and again, after about 7-10 times it finally is working.
Do you think it could be de hard drive failing? Any ideas?
Thanks
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:10 pm
You cannot repair the hard drive. When it starts making noise, it must be replaced. Back up all important files ASAP if you can.
February 3rd, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I have a bad hard drive. As soon as I start my laptop it starts making very loud noise. I know it’s coming from the hard drive because when I remove it and start the laptop the noise disappeares. Can I repiar the hard drive or it has to be replaced?
February 1st, 2009 at 11:08 pm
[...] the next picture I compare SATA connector found in laptop hard drives with the SATA connector found in CD/DVD drives. As you see, these two connectors are a little bit [...]
January 13th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Sam,
I don’t think that you’ll see any difference in performance or longevity if you use either one. Just make sure to buy the correct type which is supported by your laptop.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Found many cheap hard drives on eBay, all different brands.
Toshiba, Hitachi, Western Digital, Seagate, etc… They all fit my laptop. Should I care about the brand?
January 9th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
It should be. The hard drive can access data faster now.
January 9th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Whoo hoo!
I replaced my old 4200 drive with a new 7200 drive.
My laptop is waaaaay faster now!
January 4th, 2009 at 1:07 am
Thank you. I have an IDE drive. Found a new enclosure for $17 and ordered it. Hopefully it will work.
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:14 pm
tim,
You can do that with an external USB enclosure for laptop hard drives. Buy an enclosure for your drive. It will cost you about $10-30. Remove the hard drive from your laptop. After that you install your drive into the enclosure and connect it to another working computer. The external drive will pop up in My Computers (if there is nothing wrong with the drive).
Now you can access the hard drive and backup all your data.
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:43 pm
My laptop stopped booting. I have tons of pictures and music inside. I don’t care about the laptop it’s old. Is there any way to get my stuff? Please help.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:32 am
Ben,
Your laptop supports a 40 GB drive, so there shouldn’t be any problem with larger hard drives too.
I believe you can safely install 60GB, 80GB, 100GB or 120GB drives.
If you want to use drives larger than 160GB, you should the laptop specifications. In some cases it might be necessary to update the laptop BIOS in order to support larger drives.
Here’s something else you can do. Go to the manufacturer’s website and search for optional parts (upgrades) for your laptop model. If they list a larger drive in there, it means your laptop will support that size.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:02 am
I want to upgrade the hard drive. I have a 40GB drive installed. Can I upgrade it to a 100GB drive?