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[L45]Laptop Hard Drive Compatibility

by Peter Stewart, Pet

Although flash based hard drives are becoming more popular, they still don't have the same value for money that current hard drives achieve. For same price as a 32 GB non-volatile flash disk you can get a whopping 750 GB hard drive. For the meantime you can take advantage of a combination of these two technologies.

Hybrid hard drives, or H-HDD combine these two technologies to offer an increase in performance as well as an improvement in power consumption. The flash memory is stored onboard the hard drive and picks up where a normal hard drive leaves off. You can get much higher speed as the mechanical latency associated with most hard drive is not there. Power consumption can be improved because frequently used application data can be stored and then pulled from the flash memory.

These advantages apply mostly to notebook hard drives. Laptop drives are much slower than desktop hard drives, and power drain is a big concern. With these additions H-HDD manufacturers hope to make laptop hard drives reach similar speeds to their desktop counterparts.

Currently, hybrid hard drives require that you run Windows Vista, not because it needs Vista, but because it needs ReadyDrive, a feature that comes with Vista. Which data is stored on the flash part of the drive is controlled by the operating system, and in Vista, ReadyDrive takes care of this. ReadyDrive sees how you use your programs and which ones you use the most, it then puts the most heavily accessed application data onto the flash memory part of the hard drive.

Power is saved when there is a read/write done onto the flash portion of the disk. Because there is no motor, flash media draws much less power. However, when the data is written to the disk the motor still needs to be used and therefore uses that power that was saved.

The super-fast access speeds of the flash disk more than make up for the lower transfer rates that is able to maintain. The fast cache that has become an integral part of hard drives is not replace in these models, but the flash part just complements the functions of the drive.

In actual use there is not really much advantage to this kind of hard drive. Despite some hype, there is very noticeable difference in real world applications and doesn't save much power either. Just wait for flash-only drives to come down in price, which is already happening, or for now just use a traditional model.

Upgrading your laptop hard drive can be done easily. If your laptop was manufactured last 1997and has 3.0 GB or a bigger hard disk drive, the choices to upgrade it are unlimited.

Laptop hard drive that uses a 9.5 mm hard drive height is an exemption. The exemption pertains to laptops that were manufactured before 1997. The mounting hole patterns of these laptop hard drives are standardized. It has separate screw holes situated 3 inches on the longer side.

CHOICES OF HARD DRIVES

Laptop hard drives are not owned by laptop manufacturers. Therefore, laptop hard drives will work with any type of laptop. Almost all laptops have a 2.5” mobile hard disk drive. There are also few ultra-portable laptops that use 1.8” drives.

Four things to consider when buying new hard drives:

1. The Capacity

Not all laptops can take advantage of hard drive capacities that are in excess of 80 GB. This is due to the BIOS or Operating System's limitations. To access the full capacity of an ATA interface hard drive, a minimum OS configuration of Windows XP or Windows 2000 is required.

2. The Speed

Present hard drives are available with the following spindle speeds:

- 4200 RPM – this is the spindle speed found in older laptops. It takes less power to turn the platter at this speed. It has extended battery life.
- 5400 RPM – New 5400 RPM disks gives an improve performance with very little reduction in the life of battery.
- 7200 RPM – It has high performance. However, you need to sacrifice the battery life.

3. The Interface

Many laptop hard disk drives use an ATA interface like:

- IDE
- EIDE

New laptops are currently set up to use a Serial ATA (SATA) interface. Your laptop can be set with one or the other. ATA and SATA laptop hard drives are not exchangeable.

4. The Buffer

The temporary data storage buffer cache is being used to enhance drive performance. The buffer cache can be checked initially when data is requested from the hard drive. It is a lot faster to retrieve it from the cache as compared to the drive. Many laptop hard drives incorporate 8 MD buffers. Others are limited to only 4 MB while others may offer a 16 MB cache.

TRANSFERRING OF DATA

Transferring the files, programs and operating system from your old laptop hard drive require new steps to be followed. These are:

1. Use a Desktop Personal Computer

- Removed the old laptop drive
- Connect it to an open ATA or IDE channel on the desktop. Use an adapter.

2. Use a utility like NORTON GHOST to create the image of the drive. Store it on the desktop's hard drive.

3. Desk top must be shut down.

- Removed the old laptop drive
- Install the new laptop drive
- Reboot the desk top
- The image stored on the desktop hard drive is then transferred onto the new drive.

4. Use an external hard drive

Using of an external hard drive and a back-up utility is another method.

5. Others

The Universal EZ Hard Disk Drive Upgrade Kit for All Laptop Computers of Apricorn shortens the task. You can also use the Apricorn EZ Hard Drive Upgrade Kit of your old laptop hard drive as an external hard drive.

It also has a kit for upgrading SATA drives. It is known as the APRICORN EZ Upgrade Universal SATA 480 Mbps USB 2.0 Kit.

Removing and Replacing Laptop Hard Drives

It is necessary to know the procedure in removing and replacing hard drive units. This information must be given by your laptop manufacturer.

Step-by-Step Procedures:

1. Universal EZ HDD Upgrade Kit for All Notebook Computers:

Upgrading your laptop's hard drive fast and easy can be done via EZ Upgrade. It includes:

- External Hi-speed USB 2.0 drive enclosure
- USB Cable
- AC adapter and
- EZ Gig II Data Transfer Utility

These are the things you will need to transfer all your

• applications
• settings
• data and
• OS to a new hard drive

2. Apricorn EZ Upgrade Universal SATA 480 Mbps USB 2.0:

It includes:

- External Hi-speed USB 2.0 drive enclosure for SATA HDD
- USB
- Auxiliary power cable
- EZ Gig II Data Transfer Utility

Your old drive can be used as an external storage or back-up device. It also includes all hardware and software needed for upgrading Notebook SATA hard drives.

You can also use old SATA hard drives as an external Hi-speed USB 2.0 back-up tool. It can transfer data through Hi-speed USB 2.0 Self Powered USB enclosure. No AC adapters are needed.

Article Source : Pg. 318

About Author

Both Peter Stewart & Jayesh Bagde are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Peter Stewart has sinced written about articles on various topics from Family, Bad Breath and Computers and The Internet. will give you all the latest information you need to know about hard drives and give you help in choosing. Peter Stewart's top article generates over 49500 views. to your Favourites.

Jayesh Bagde has sinced written about articles on various topics from Home Management, Fitness and Home Management. For more information on please visit our website.. Jayesh Bagde's top article generates over 135000 views. to your Favourites.