Increasing Harddrive

[swatguitar85]

I only have a 40G harddrive and need more room. Should I go with an external or just get a new one? I have a Dell Inspiron 5150.

[kennydoe]

seagate 200GB hard dirve (internal) for less than $90 http://edealinfo.com/DDCateg/harddrives.shtml
~K

[jemsite]

the inspiron is a NOTEBOOK computer. if it lacks firewire, i'm not sure how a USB2 drive would work to be honest... but that is the easiest solution... glen

[fettouhi]

Originally Posted by jemsite

the inspiron is a NOTEBOOK computer. if it lacks firewire, i'm not sure how a USB2 drive would work to be honest... but that is the easiest solution... glen

It has firewire and 2 USB 2.0 ports .

Regards

André

[fettouhi]

Originally Posted by kennydoe

seagate 200GB hard dirve (internal) for less than $90 http://edealinfo.com/DDCateg/harddrives.shtml
~K

Then you can buy a USB 2.0 or Firewire box for it and you have a great external drive.

Regards

André

[darren wilson]

External drives are not exactly the most convenient thing if you're actually toting your notebook around, but it might be a good option for offloading and archiving a lot of files you aren't using.

I upgraded the hard drive in my old PowerBook to an IBM TravelStar (now Hitachi TravelStar) and i found it to be an exceptionally fast and quiet drive.

[fettouhi]

Originally Posted by darren wilson

I upgraded the hard drive in my old PowerBook to an IBM TravelStar (now Hitachi TravelStar) and i found it to be an exceptionally fast and quiet drive.

True they are fast and quiet the IBM/Hitachi TravelStars but IMHO they suck . I've had 5 IBM drives in the last 7 years and all of them stopped working after less than two years. The quality of IBM hard drives have really gone down IMHO since Hitachi took over. I have a 80 GB Fujitsu-Siemens in my DELL Inspiron 8200 and it's great.

Regards

André

[swatguitar85]

So how do I go about changing the internal harddrive? Will I lose all of my current files?

[fettouhi]

Originally Posted by swatguitar85

So how do I go about changing the internal harddrive? Will I lose all of my current files?

If you want to change the the internal drive, you will need to back up all your stuff. On the side of your DELL laptop there should be a plate with a screw in it. If you remove the plate (laptop must be turned off of course ) you should be able to take out drive straight away. Then you can put in the new drive and do a reinstallation. You can then buy a USB case for your old drive (you can get those on ****) and use it as an external drive and you should be albe to get to your old data again.

Regards

André

[Polaris20]

Seagate has a 100gig laptop drive now for like $200, that's supposed to be pretty good. I do believe that's what Apple is currently using in the PowerBooks, for the 100gig option.

[JESTER700]

I've had good luck with travelstars, but they were all 40GB or less, so no experience with newer ones.

Do you have a second bay? You can get a removeable drive bay that allows you to use a second drive just for storage. This is the way to go anyway - you shouldn't goop up your system drive with data files. But in a laptop, it does cost you in battery life.

[kennydoe]

Originally Posted by swatguitar85

So how do I go about changing the internal harddrive? Will I lose all of my current files?

Last time i bought a hard drive (i think it was a maxtor) it came with software that asked me if i was upgrading my hard drive and wanted to backup the old data. Obviously this required me to have both drives hookered up in the same machine at once. I don't know if you can do that on a laptop (hate 'em, never use 'em),

Anyway, the software is included and hopefully backing up your old system to the new hard drive won't be a problem.

~K

[shredmaster]

i use my laptop for remotely recording bands with pro tools. i use an external hard drive firewire, to record to. when i get home i connect the external to my workstation (also with pro tools loaded) and that is where i do all my edits and mixing. plug and play between the 2 units is really nice! via external firewire.