Laptop hard drive compatibility?

[acmadude]

I'm looking into getting a new laptop (the Acer Aspire 2012WLMi), but the model I'm looking at only has a 4200 RPM hard drive. I think I might upgrade it to a 7200 RPM drive (probably the Hitachi 60GB one. It's not cheap, but this laptop will probably (hopefully) last me a while, so I think it'll be worthwhile. The reviews I saw on NewEgg said it was a good purchase).

There aren't any compatibility issues between laptop hard drives and laptop brands (namely Acer), are there? No issues with proprietary parts, right?

I didn't think there'd be any issues, but I wanted to check and make sure.

Thanks.

Oh, and once I get the laptop, I'll be sure to post a review here :)

[serotone9]

i'm 99.9% sure all these modern notebook hard drives are inter-compatible (is that a word? :p). check with the seller to be 100% sure, but unless acer has some weird proprietary situation (doubtful) you should be fine.

[mynameis]

I would check the thinkness of the laptop harddrive. I have a 2.5in hard drive, I bought an enclosure for it, the enclosure case wouldn't fit because the HD I have it too thick, I assume they make some that are less thick that would fit in that enclosure.

[ua549]

Most notebook drives require a proprietary caddy of some sort if the drive is accessable without taking the case apart. The other thing to check is the wattage on the new drive versus the wattage required by the old drive. Notebook power is notoriously stingy.

[jimmyjazz]

I have the hitachi and it was a very good drive in my i8600. It died today without any warining so I would check on the return policy and warraty. In my dell it was part of the audio jack so you should probably make sure that it well be able to be placed in your acer like mynameis suggested.

[mynameis]

Originally posted by jimmyjazz
In my dell it was part of the audio jack so you should probably make sure that it well be able to be placed in your acer like mynameis suggested.

Your dell is similar to my dell, the hard drive tray is the part with the audio jacks on it, but you can remove the hard drive from that tray and replace it with some standard 2.5in drives.

[ua549]

Originally posted by mynameis
Your dell is similar to my dell, the hard drive tray is the part with the audio jacks on it, but you can remove the hard drive from that tray and replace it with some standard 3.5in drives. Don't you mean 2.5in drives?

[mynameis]

Originally posted by ua549
Don't you mean 2.5in drives?

Yeah, I have been saying 3.5in this entire time, when I meant 2.5in, I'll go back and edit that.

[almer]

I would not worry about competibility as long as your laptop is usung 2.5 drives (I am sure it does as all the contemporary laptops).
Very good descision to replace 4200 HD wit 7200.
I did this about a year ago and could not be happier. Great improvement. Hitachi is the great choice. Quiet, fast, reliable.
Get a usb]firewire enclosure for the original drive and enjoy the added benefit of a portable storage also.

Good luck.

[acmadude]

Hey guys. Thanks for the replies. I actually got my new notebook a few days ago and swapped out the hard drives successfully.

At first, there was a bit of confusion as I put in the new hard drive and the computer didn't recognize it. At this point I started freaking out thinking it was defective or incompatible or something. So, I took it out, lined it up with the old one to make sure they were the same size, shape, connector, etc. At first they looked just about identical, then I saw that the connectors were actually different. Now I'm thinking "Oh great, they have different connections! I'm not going to be able to use the new one!"

Then I realized the hard drive that came with the computer just had a removable plug extension so that it'd dock into the case more easily. :)

So then, I was like "Whew!" I took it off the old drive, stuck on the new one, slid it into the case, and everything worked out from there.

The old one now resides in an external enclosure. I figure I'll use it to backup my new one every once in a while (if I'm good about it :) ). It still has the original

And as a side note, the new laptop has been working great. It's the Acer Aspire 2012WLMi and has a Pentium M 1.5Ghz, Mobility Radeon 9700, and 512MB RAM. I'll try and get around to posting a detailed review at some point soon.

[Saffire]

mmm, is the original hard drive that slow? Since I'm getting the same model as you I'd like to know ;)