Laptop hard drive upgrade

[Wing Commander Fowler]

Hi Chaps,

question is relating to my Sony T1xp laptop which has a rather limiting 40 gig of hard drive. I was wondering whether I could upgrade this and if so is there a maximum size I should consider? Have found a series of cheapish units 60,80,100 and even 120 gig on ebay all within a sensible price for such an advantage I would gain.

A friend advised me that the larger the hard drive the more heat it creates and that this may be the limiting factor. The T2xp is the later model and this came with 6ogig as a standard.

Any help and advice greatly appreciated as ever!

[el !]

WCF, you can install the disk that you want - temperature is not a problem, beside, all 2.5 units are built with strict power consumption (hence temperature) objectives. There are only two real issues:
1st get yourself a 7200 rpm unit - anything less is just too slow for today world.
2nd get an external usb case so you can clone/copy your data without going thru the hassle of installing OS, apps and related disk-joking. Then you will be able to use the 'old' disk in the external case as a backup - always a good idea expecially with laptops.

[seacue]

I am in need of a new 2.5-inch hard disk to replace the dead unit in my HP laptop. HP wants essentially the price of a new laptop just for the replacement drive - uninstalled.

My present (dead) Toshiba drive has the S.M.A.R.T. condition-monitoring "hooks".

I can't find the SMART feature listed on any new drive specs. (OK one or two obsolete drives mention it.) Is the SMART monitoring feature so standard that it is automatically assumed these days?

Thanks for any info,

seacue

[el !]

seacue, get yourself the drive of your liking and worry not about smart or not.
That was just a marketing hype of few years ago and is probably in any drive now. Toshiba is still a leading brand and if that gives you peace go for it.