Upgrading Laptop Hard Drive

[BennyC]

Hi guys,

Did a search and saw numerous threads but none answered my questions.

I currently have a Sony Vaio C series Laptop with a 120GB HDD. I'm running out of space so it's time to upgrade!

I'll probaly be going for a 320GB and am aware the faster the RPM the better. Provided the dimensions of the HDD fit then its all good.

Now my actual questions:

I have the recovery disks for my laptop and all the cd's etc it came with.

Once I have installed the HDD do I need to just bung in the recovery disks and let it do its thing? will this also reinstall vista? I'm a bit as I'm not sure If I have OS disks, or is the OS on the recvery disks?

Also will any size HDD work? provided the dimensions aren't so great it can't actually fit inside!

Sorry if it's not very clear!

Thanks in advance

Benny C

 

[fobose]

I upgraded my laptop 120GB seagate drive to a 320GB western digital drive, and using the recovery disks that came with the laptop it installed everything on to the laptop so it was in its original state (as when I first turned the laptop on).

 

[BennyC]

I upgraded my laptop 120GB seagate drive to a 320GB western digital drive, and using the recovery disks that came with the laptop it installed everything on to the laptop so it was in its original state (as when I first turned the laptop on).

Thanks, did you need to set the 1st boot device in the BIOS to the CD drive?

 

[miniyazz]

Any 2.5" drive will work. But faster spin speed isn't always better - they run hotter and use more battery, and putting a velociraptor in there would just be silly, though technically possible
And platter density is an important factor in determining drive speed - higher the density the better, obviously.

Edit: Any size drive, within reason, should work. Largest currently available in 2.5" form factor is 500GB, but if you were keen you could use SATA/power extension cables to plug in a 3.5" drive into the 2.5" bay totally unnecessary though, if you needed the extra size/speed you'd use USB or eSATA!
Already there's a 512gb SSD out though, I'd expect 1TB ones in 2.5" to be available by the end of the year, though of course not cheap! Capacity on them is now passing that of mechanical 2.5" drives, just as it passed that on 1.8" mechanical drives a while back. Next they'll be competing in size with 3.5" HDDs..

 

[BennyC]

Ended up buying a Toshiba 500GB 7200rpm as thats what the local shop to me had(Original HDD also happens to be Toshiba, reasonable price and I wanted to do it today. Just changed the HDD's over in the cradle/tray and put it into place.

My laptop boots and the HDD makes some strange clunking and lots of clicking noises, as if it's trying to spin up but can't. Pressed some F keys and the screen goes black, after about 5 minutes i'm presented with the Bios menu. I've got the first of the 2 recovery disks I made in the DVD drive, will try getting it to boot from here. If I exit out of the bios I am presented with a black screen, blinking cursor and the message 'operating system not found'.

Any help would be great!

 

[BennyC]

Turns out the HDD appears to be faulty. Went to a friends and borrowed his 2.5" caddy, tested 3 hard drives, my current, one of his and the new. New one didn't show up at all and sounds like someone slurping a drink thru a straw! Back to the shop on monday!