External Hard drive

bargains_galore_3

Hi,

Not too sure if this is gonna be the right forum for this question;

I have a Dell Latitude D600 laptop with
Intel Pentium M processor 1500MHz 239MHz
512 MB of RAM

I have disk space of 27.9 GB I only have 774 MB left.

I am looking to improve my laptop. I have been told by a friend that all I really need is more disk space and has recommended an external hardrive.

Whats the best one out there and I am looking if possible for a wireless one which I could access from any point in my house.

Thanks-

MercilessKiller

To be honest, an external hard drive is a solution, but not sure if it's the best. With only a 30gb internal hard drive, I'd recommend replacing that one for an 80gb minimum drive. That would require messing about with reinstalling windows and restoring your backed up data.

The issue with an external drive is, it is exactly that. External. use your laptop at uni? starbucks? take it to other places? If so an external drive can be a mess about which is why they are very common as external storage for desktop machines taht don't move

https://www.ebuyer.co.uk is a great place to buy either notebook hard drives or external hard drives. Also remember that due to the age of your laptop, USB 2 isn't likely to be installed, thus data transfer to an external hard drive would be a LOT slower than an internal one.

To put in a new internal hard drive, it's relatively easy Just a few screws on the bottom of the lappy and it slots in (in replacement for the current one)

Good luck

MercilessKiller

odd. Not sure what you were looking at but I've found a lot of 500GB ones between £50 and £60, with quite good specs

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149457

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149357

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146069

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136212

Couple of western digital ones there too.

Personally I haven't used any of the above so if I were you, read the reviews on each one. Whichevers best should do Note I still advise getting an internal one instead though

Inactive

carol6 wrote: »

MK,

I was looking for a Western Digital 500GB external hard drive and following your suggestion tried ebuyer. Prices looked very high to me compared to others. Saw the same item on Amazon for half the price that ebuyer was asking - > £100 on ebuyer, c.£54 on Amazon.

Am I missing something here? Are these like for like products?

carol

Possibly ( probably ) not, some are USB alone connected, others require a power pack and are usually physically larger and cheaper.

MercilessKiller

Very true. Power over USB can be a little more expensive...

But that's just another reason why to get an upgrade internal drive.

bargains_galore_3

MK thanks for the information.

I am a total idiot when it comes to my laptop, how do i change the internal memory?
how do i know which one to get?
And how do i know which one to get?

These may sound like obvious questions but i need all the help i can get.

Thanking you all in advance!

DCFC79

Depends what operating you are running and what you do on the laptop

bargains_galore_3

I think I am working on windows XP (not 100% sure tho) my laptop is used solely for browsing the internet, looking at my photos from digital camera and uploading music to my ipod.
pretty standard stuff i think.

MercilessKiller

bargains_galore wrote: »

MK thanks for the information.

I am a total idiot when it comes to my laptop, how do i change the internal memory?
how do i know which one to get?
And how do i know which one to get?

These may sound like obvious questions but i need all the help i can get.

Thanking you all in advance!

Ok the first thing I'm going to say, is your laptop is aging. Though buying a new laptop hard drive solves the problem you posted, I think upgrading to a new laptop (around £300) would be a fantastic option if you can afford it. You'd have a lot more space and a faster computer to work on

Going back to the original, a notebook hard drive (also called a 2.5" drive) would be what you need to buy. 80gb or more would be a decent enough space for you so it's about what is affordable on ebuyer again

If you turn your laptop over, you'll see lots of compartments held together by screws. One of those compartments has the 2.5" hard drive in (google image 2.5" drive to see what they look like). It simply slots out of the laptop and the new one slots in. Easy.

Also just to note, laptop memory is different from laptop disk space. Memory is the name for "RAM"... at the moment you have 512mb of RAM, which is relatively low in todays standard, thus recommending the upgrade to a new laptop. The RAM stores data for applications you are currently running

Finally to find out your operating system, click start > right click my computer > click properties. On the dialog that comes up it will tell you your operating system.

Once you've put a new hard drive in, you'd need to install windows again so make sure you have the disk first, as well as the laptop drivers (disks that came with the laptop).

How does that sound?

bargains_galore_3

MK many thanks for the information and taking the patience to reply to my stupid and long questions.

I think your first suggestion is the best one for me which is to bite the bullet and buy a new laptop as you said my laptop is ageing at an astonishing rate.

To pick your brains again, what sort of laptop I can expect to get with approx £300 I am however going to probably wait till the January sales.

Thanks all

robredz

One possible problem to be aware of is that the install files for windows will probably be on a hidden partition on the old hdd and the Windows CD is a rescue disk that needs to access the hidden partition to re-install windows. This is because the supplier will have an OEM licence so will not give a "complete" windows install disk. so you may have to budget for a new copy of windows or maybe download and install Ubuntu Linux.