Replacement hard drives

Breast_Cancer_Survivor

I've got 2 hp g7000 laptops that need new hard drives.

I've been looking on ebay for 160 GB 2.5" internal sata hard drives but noticed that some say 5400 rpm & some say 7200 rpm.

1) What does rpm mean & does it matter which kind I buy?

2) Am I looking at the correct ones & how easy will it be for me a technophobe to replace them?

3) Will the original recovery discs put evrything I need back on them or do I need to buy Windows again?

Many thanks.

fwor

1. Not really important, but it states the drive's rotational speed - you'll maybe get slightly quicker access, but higher RPM will probably consume more power.

2. If you can use a jewellers screwdriver and aren't hamfisted you should be Ok. A quick online search will probably throw up a "how-to" if you're in doubt.

3. Not sure - I'll leave that to someone who knows HP laptops better.

Breast_Cancer_Survivor

fwor wrote: »

1. Not really important, but it states the drive's rotational speed - you'll maybe get slightly quicker access, but higher RPM will probably consume more power.

2. If you can use a jewellers screwdriver and aren't hamfisted you should be Ok. A quick online search will probably throw up a "how-to" if you're in doubt.

3. Not sure - I'll leave that to someone who knows HP laptops better.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Rossy.

The higher the rpm the quicker you'll be able to save/retrieve your data

I always go for higher RPM drives

You will be able to slip the new drive in and and reboot from the master discs no problem

Just make sure that when you've replaced the drive, when you boot the laptop look for the F button assigned to "Boot device"

Most use F2 or F10 or F12

Breast_Cancer_Survivor

Rossy. wrote: »

The higher the rpm the quicker you'll be able to save/retrieve your data

I always go for higher RPM drives

You will be able to slip the new drive in and and reboot from the master discs no problem

Just make sure that when you've replaced the drive, when you boot the laptop look for the F button assigned to "Boot device"

Most use F2 or F10 or F12

Thanks Rossy.

davb

Breast_Cancer_Survivor wrote: »

Will the original recovery discs put evrything I need back on them or do I need to buy Windows again?

The recovery disks should restore it to ex-factory state, with Windows installed and OEM pre-activated.
You will then have to join to your network, (if wireless with your passkey) install antivirus, and download x years of Windows updates. Any programs you have installed such as Office etc would need to be reinstalled, and any of your data restored from backup.

Breast_Cancer_Survivor

davb wrote: »

The recovery disks should restore it to ex-factory state, with Windows installed and OEM pre-activated.
You will then have to join to your network, (if wireless with your passkey) install antivirus, and download x years of Windows updates. Any programs you have installed such as Office etc would need to be reinstalled, and any of your data restored from backup.

Thanks for your help.

Hammyman

Nothing to add except that Ebay isn't particularly cheap for new hard drives.

You can buy a 250GB one from Scan for £4 more than the cheapest new 160GB one on Ebay. Add another £1.50 and you can increase that to 320GB. And thats new from a company who've been around well over a decade.

KillerWatt

If you can justify it, go for an SSD.

I've just upgraded the SSD in my desktop from an Intel X-25M (80GB) to the Crucial C300 RealSSD (256GB), and what a difference.

Don 't get me wrong, the Intel is quick (and still is) with read rates of 225MB/sec and write rates of 75MB/sec, but this new Crucial jobby is making the Intel drive show it's limitations.

The same benchmarking software I used to confirm the Intel speeds showed the Crucial drive to be reading at 370MB/sec, and writing at 219MB/sec.

Only drawback to this latest toy is that I now need a new disk controller or a new motherboard, because my current SATA headers only go to 3Gbps - which means my read rates max out at around 260MB/sec due to the controller being saturated at that point.

Even so, it's still very quick with boot times to desktop and ready to go in 8 seconds, and a "clean" Windows 7 install time of 6 mins 18 secs (again, start to finish).

Intel's MTBF for their X-25M is set at 5 years (no mention of power cycles or hours), whereas Crucial rate the MTBF of the C300 at 1,000,000 hours (that's 114 years of continuous use) so the old problem of early demise for flash memory is obviously well sorted these days.


PS
Before anyone asks, the missus has had the old Intel SSD transplanted in to her laptop to give that a very noticable speed boost..so it's not for sale I'm afraid.

Tropez

One thing to consider about higher RPM drives is that they generally produce more heat. In a desktop PC this isn't usually much of a problem but in the close-confined spaces of some laptops this can cause issues as some laptops are not very good at dispersing heat and are also prone to dust build up which causes further heat dissipation problems.

Not all laptops will suffer problems with 7200RPM drives installed despite the extra heat but those that are already getting very hot from normal operation may be best fitted with a 5400RPM drive.

Sublime_2

Its not hard to replace hard drives. Do an internet search for a step by step guide if unsure.