Replacement Hard Drive
 

Drive crashed on a newer Toshiba satellite. Id like to buy a new one but Im worried about getting one and finding out I need some ridiculous proprietary connector. Suggestions?


This has been resolved please go to post 31.

Show me a picture of the connector ports on the hard drive.

$10 monopoly says it's a standard SATA/IDE data port, and another standard power port. It's far more economical for toshiba to buy mass quantities of standard production hard drives than it is to specify their own proprietary connection.

Also 5 inch HDs are much cheaper then the 3 inch, would I be better off just getting a massive external 5 inch and running my OS off that?

Unlikely - you'll find the load time for your operating system and primary programs will probably be very undesirable. You'll also have to lug around the external drive whenever you're going somewhere. Finally, it will be a complete pain in the ass to boot from the hard drive unless you have an external SATA port on the computer. USB ports generally aren't designed for loading up an OS, and I expect that most BIOS don't support USB, as it's generally run strictly by the operating system. Better yet, if your computer has two hard drive bays, consider getting a small SSD for your operating system, and running everything else off a standard 3.5 drive.

AFAIK it only has one bay. It would be pretty obvious if it had more then one right?

Probably. I know my gateway has 2 bays, but only one drive actually installed. I had considered getting a second drive and running the OS from it, but never actually followed through.

99% chance it is a standard laptop hard drive. Go on newegg and find one, and while you are at it... get a 7200 or 10k RPM drive. It's a significant step up over the OEM hard drives. If you want me to verify, post a model of satillite.

To the left of the five trace connecter there is a five prong male connector. Cant get a good picture of it.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i1...09-10_1326.jpg

Are you high? Nobody has made a 5.25" drive since... well, it's been at least a decade.

That looks like a standard 2.5" SATA drive to me.

Post the model number - no pictures needed. :) What you are likely looking at is a hard drive tray...the hard drive PINs are pretty much universal and look like this:

http://www.laptoprepair101.com/wp-im...arddrive-2.jpg

They will likely plug into that tray via a connector.

Newbsauce, that's a PATA drive. Satellites have been using SATA drive for a while. Wouldn't hurt to have the model number, but the connector in the picture ICT55 posted is definitely SATA.

Here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...SATA%203.0Gb/s

5400 rpm = fail.

Thats the drive this thread is about. Im looking at the 7200s since the 10000 is out of the price I want to pay.

5400 RPM in a laptop = lower power consumption. Hell, my laptop has a 4,200 RPM drive in it. Is it a speed demon? No. But I can watch movies for four hours on a single charge, and the whole thing weighs 2.8 lbs.

I dont know that much about laptops, is there anything specific I should look for?

Joe how many times have you edited your posts on this thread? Every time I look your posts say something different.

Nine.

edit: No, wait. 10.

edit II: No, wait. That made it 11.

edit III: Dammit, this is an endless cycle.

edit IV: I just add new info as I come across it.

edit V: I edited post #21 below several times as well, as the system kept converting "BIN" to lowercase on me.

edit VI: I also edited post 27 to add the joke about SyQuest.

Sorry I ment 3.5 and 2.5.

Think Im going to get the cheapest 500g, 7200rpm drive. Any thoughts?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148374