Laptop Hard Drives - Guide to Upgrading

When it comes to upgrading the laptop hard drives, the options are overwhelming. Today, you can choose from (1) internal and (2) external laptop hard drives and (3) PC card like hard drives.

Internal or External laptop hard drives?

While replacing your internal hard drive looks like a straightforward idea, it may not always be the best choice, as it is not easy to accomplish. You would need to uninstall the old drive, find a new one that matches the slot, transfer data from your old drive into the new one, and install a new drive. In comparison, adding an external drive seems to be the easiest way to go but it may have some disadvantages.

Choosing the right type of hard drives

As I've been working with laptops 12 hours a day, I've come up with these general guidelines and more specific suggestions on how to decide on the right type of laptop hard drives. This guide will help you to decide:

1. Determine the purpose of your new hard drive

Don't want any hassle or money spent- just get me a new hard drive:
get an external USB 2.0 hard drive - it's average priced and easiest to install.
Need an additional drive for a backup:
get an external USB 2.0 drive or FireWire 400 drive. Look for a drive with the option to activate a backup by the push of a button.
Need more capacity (more GBytes) for general storage:
get an external USB 2.0 or FireWire 400 drive or a new internal IDE drive.
Need to store and play video games or digital movies:
get an external FireWire 800 drive. Internal drives do not provide enough capacity to store such large amounts of data as movies or games require. They are limited to the size of portable internal drives that are 2.5" or 3.5".
Need the fastest drive, the average capacity is ok:
get an external SATA drive. This is the fastest drive available. The external SATA drives are actually converted internal IDE drives.
Need to be able to transfer files from one laptop to another:
get an external USB or a PCMCIA portable drive. Most laptops have USB ports and PC Card Type II slots, so you can easily unplug and plug these type drives to another laptop. These type drives are plug & play.
Need the largest capacity drive and the highest speed possible:
get an external FireWire 800, these drives are very fast and tend to be of very large capacity.
Need the cheapest drive:
get an internal IDE drive. You'll also be able to reuse your old internal drive by converting it into an external USB drive if desired.

2. Determine the price range

The internal laptop hard drives are slightly cheaper than the external ones. There is only a $10-20 price difference between 40GB, 60GB and 80GB drives but you'll encounter a large price jump when going to 100GB and higher. Portable drives are also more expensive.

3. Determine the capacity

To determine the capacity you need go to the External Hard Drive guide. The average capacity depends on drive type:

The standard drive capacities are 1GB, 5GB, 10GB, 20GB, 30GB, 40GB, 60GB, 80GB, 100GB, 120GB, 160GB, 200GB, 250GB, 500GB.

4. Determine the portability

Need to carry the drive around, or need to constantly transfer data from one laptop to another:
get an external portable USB or FireWire drives. Many of these types of drives can fit into your pocket.
Need to carry my most important data with me:
consider getting a PCMCIA drive that is of the size of a credit card. These drives are good for some small size backup or storage.

5. Determine the means of connecting it

USB 2.0 or 1.0?
most of the recent laptops have a USB 2.0 port(s) built-in. If your laptop has a USB 1.0 port than I do not recommend you use it. Instead, get a PC Card adapter for USB 2.0.
FireWire 400 or 800?
some laptops may have a FireWire port built-in. It is usually FireWire 400. In order to connect a FireWire 800 drive you will need a PC Card adapter for FireWire 800.
PC Card slot type II?
every laptop comes with at least one PC Card slot type II, often in the combination of two.
SATA?
in order to connect a SATA drive you would need a hard drive conversion kit (from IDE to SATA) and a PC Card adapter for SATA.
Internal drive 2.5" or 3.5"?
if you're trying to replace a 3.5" thicker drive with a 2.5" thinner drive you will need a chassis adapter.

What will it take to upgrade laptop hard drives?

Depending on whether you've chosen an external or an internal drive, you need to understand what steps will you have to take to upgrade your laptop hard drive:

External installation

most of the external hard drives are Plug and Play under Windows 98SE, Me, 2000 and XP. With the USB, FireWire, SATA and PCMCIA drives all you'll need to do is to connect them to a corresponding port or an adapter, and they'll be recognized by your laptop immediately. No re-booting or software installation required for most of these drives unless they come with backup enabling software.

Internal installation

In order to upgrade an internal drive you will need to:
- find a new matching hard drive - see replace hard drive
- clone your old drive onto a new drive - see clone hard drive
- uninstall your old drive
- install your new drive - see install hard drive
- reboot your laptop
- convert an old drive into an external USB drive if desirable.

Remember: when upgrading laptop hard drives always try to re-use old internal drives by converting them into external ones.

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