Upgrading a Laptop Hard Disk - Page 3

Once you know what sort of interface your hard disk uses, you're almost ready to go shopping for a replacement drive. There are however one or two remaining things you should consider before buying anything.

Firstly, and possibly most importantly; how big a disk will your laptop recognise? Like their desktop counterparts, some older laptops might have size limitations imposed on the installed drive due to the motherboard BIOS. The most common limits are 8GB, 32GB and 137GB. If these limitations exist in your laptop model, they can sometimes be overcome by installing an updated BIOS, or alternate drivers from the laptop manufacturer' website.

If the manufacturer doesn't mention anything about disk size limits or fixes for such limits on their website, then finding out how big a disk your laptop can take is often a more fiddly job, but it isn't impossible. My preferred method involves a few Google searches; one to find out what the main chipset in the laptop supports (open CPU-z , go to the 'mainboard' tab, and search for the 'chipset' listed there in Google. Then see what disks have been used in conjunction with that chipset in people's computers, even if they're desktop machines. This isn't an ideal method, but it's fairly reliable). The second search involves simply looking for other people with your laptop, and seeing what disk sizes other people have managed to upgrade theirs too.

Obviously if you know your laptop at the time of purchase had the option to add a 160GB disk, or if you've already got something bigger than 137GB in there, then there's no need to do all this as your motherboard obviously doesn't have any limits (the same goes if your current disk uses the SATA interface - this is so new that the rest of the laptop will have no such disk size restrictions). And finally, if your laptop is under five or so years old, then the chances are still very good that you can put whatever size disk you want in there, without worrying about it not working.

*Note* to use disks larger than 137GB, you'll also need to ensure you're either using Windows 2000 SP3 or later, Windows XP SP1 or later, or Windows Vista. If you're using Windows 2000/XP without the pre-requisite minimum service pack installed before attempting to upgrade, Windows will be unable to address the new disk correctly once you've migrated your data, which will more than likely stop it from starting correctly! So make sure your operating system is up to date first.

The last thing you need to consider before buying an updated disk is simply why? What do you want or need? Increased capacity, improved performance, or just an excuse to dismantle something?

If all out speed is your desire, (and if you aren't bothered about cost or capacity), then a Solid State Disk (SSD) might be what you're after. Using flash-based memory technology, you can now get disks with no moving parts that can read and write data at over 100MB/s, this puts even the best mechanical disks to shame, which struggle to reach even half this speed. The access times are also nearly non-existent, which again improves performance immensely. The only downsides with SSDs are their price and comparatively low capacities (currently an average 32GB SSD costs well in excess of £200, £400 for a particularly good one, with larger models shooting up in price exponentially from there).

If however your requirements consist of simply needing more room for all those pictures and music, as well as giving your laptop a bit more oomph in the speed department, then a modern 200 to 250GB conventional drive might be your best bet, and this is my recommendation for 99% of the people who ask. At a price of under £60 for 250GB, you certainly can't complain about value for money with modern laptop disks. These newer disks are also much faster than their predecessors, owing to higher areal densities (how much data is packed onto the disk), and faster rotational speeds (not as fast as an SSD mind you, but still a vast improvement over a disk from a couple of years ago). They're also quieter, and generally use less power than older disks.

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Article Navigation:

• Introduction
• Preparation
• Getting The Right Disk For The Job
• Shopping!
• Clone Wars
• A Disky Exchange
• Activation
• Waste Not, Want Not
• Until Next Time