laptop hdd upgrade

so yaaay it's christmas and i have a new to me refurbished dell inspiron 8000.
WONDERFUL
well almost....
i'm stuck with a piddly 20 gig hdd and i haven't had it 24 hours and i'm already worried it's gonna be full before the new year.
.
well i did my research and replacing it seems to be pretty simple (i'm a newbie to laptops)

Dell says they only guarentee hdd's they offer but others will work.
I'm looking to get a 60 gig if i can but i've noticed the prices to be rather scary.
so FINALLY we get to my question.
am i paying $200 for this no matter what pretty much?
which hdd should i get?
will dell tell me if the drive i choose is compatible? (FOR FREE?)
i'd like ot only spend around $100 if possible but looking at prices i don't think that's gonna happen.

Another idea i had... instead of replacing the 20... could i simply by a new 40 and use both drives in the same laptop?

i've noticed an extra 3.5 in bay in the front and in reality icould dump the floppy drive if i wanted too.

Basically i just need some direction on the best way to go about this upgrade without getting ripped (STEP one: don't buy from dell.com heh)

thanks for any help in advance...
merry christmas
brandon

I am not familiar with the physical configuration of the 8000.
But if it's like the 8200 (which I have), you can only have one hard drive in at a time.

You won't be able to put it in a modular bay.
At least not without some special casing (that I know).

And yes, laptop hardrives are that expensive.

All laptop harddrives should work fine.
I would recommend Toshiba or Fujitsu.
Heard the IBM TravelStar is pretty speedy and reliable now, so maybe that's another choice for you.

that was a very fast response
thank you for your input
brandon

A 60 GB Fujitsu or Toshiba will run you about $160 from newegg.com, and 5400 RPM models are just a few bucks more. They've also got an 80 GB Toshiba for $191.

I had just upgraded my I8200 with Hitachi 60GB 7200 rpm drive.
Can not even express how happy I am. Drive is quiet, cool and extremely fast. If your I8000 supports it (and I believe it does), go for it. Few extra $ would be well spent money.
Check Dell forums on the competability.
Highly recommend.

yes i'm going to upgrade it i think soon
the current drive seems to have some bad sectors and acts a little funny so it's an excuse for me to blow some hard earned money :)