~♫~ Nancy Lorenz ~♫~

If you don't have a warranty, wouldn't you be better off just getting a generic slightly faster and/or bigger harddrive locally?

It's what we did with my studio laptop when its old harddrive was fucked. They all seem to be about the same physical size (we found random pdfs to check).

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I'm completely ignorant of what HDs fit in the Toshiba Satellite A200. If there are better generic ones locally and one knows how to check to see if it fits, I would love to know.

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Well from memory we just checked austin site (where Chris likes to buy computer gear) to see what they had in stock. Then googled the specs of the hd's we liked the looks of and the original hd. Then compared the voltage/current it took, physical sizes, type of connector thing (whether it was SATA or not?), etc...

Well when I say we, I mean me, then I got Chris to double check everything. Then when we went to buy it, I double checked with the guy in the store, taking the old HD with me.

Also getting a 7200rpm speed rather than a 5400rpm plus upgrading to win7, made me the happiest person on the planet. :P

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Shit. I don't know what the specs of the HD are, so I'm going to have to dig them up.

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Well I found the info on the reciept then googled from there, if that helps.

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Ugh, I'm having a hard time finding the info. I am low on blood sugar and in a cranky mood. I think I need to smash some things.

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The specs for the drive are on the site you linked :) It looks to me like a bog-standard 2.5" SATA drive.

Really, all you need to know are the physical size and the interface.

The interface is SATA or SATA-II and the size is either 2.5" or 1.8" (wide). Unless your laptop is one of those itty-bitty sleek and sexy little ones, it'll be 2.5", and you can always pop the cover off to double check with a ruler :)

The drive that you linked is SATA-II, so your laptop must be compatible with that. As SATA-II is backwards compatible with SATA-I, you can put either kind in there; the SATA-II one will just be a little faster. Same goes for 7200 RPM vs 5400 RPM - the faster one will be .. uh ... faster.

The cheapest parts shop in existence is msy.com.au. By navigating their horrendous website, I found the following prices:

2.5” Hitachi SATA 320G $65 / 500G $78
2.5” Seagate SATA 320G $65 / 500G $78
2.5” W.D. (Western Digital) SATA 320G $61 / 500G $77

And they have a shop in Balcatta.

Be warned: they stay cheap by
a/ not having EFTPOS or accepting credit cards
b/ doing their own web "design"
c/ not hiring anyone with a clue or often much English, nor enough staff. Hence there are often queues out the door.

So the best strategy is research exactly what you need yourself, ring, confirm and order the exact part over the phone, and have it sitting for you to pick up when you go down there. That way you can zoom straight past the queue, and have significantly less hassle than trying to work out what you need on the spot.

Course, if that all sounds like too much hassle, just ring your nearest Harvey Norman, or largish computer shop, and ask them their best price on a "7200RPM Seagate 2.5" SATA-II internal hard drive, 200GB or larger, with an 8MB or larger cache". It shouldn't be much more than $10 to $20 above the msy price, so unless Balcatta is convenient to you, that might be better anyway.

RPM= revolutions per minute
GB= gigabytes

Really, any of those drives above should be fine, but if I was to pick one, I would say go for the Seagate, in either size. Seagate tend to be the most reliable.

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I'll go the Seagate, I think. They've been the most reliable for us.

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Lovely. How's Balcatta for you convenience-wise?

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Probably not the best considering the drive, but it's better than nothing and my Dad should be able to help me get there. :)

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countessdeweird.livejournal.com

I live in Balcatta and would be willing to pick it up and bring it in your direction- I study at UWA and my parents live in Mosman Park so I'm often down in the western suburbs. Not sure if you'd be comfortable with that, since we've never met, but the offer is there if you'd like :)

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http://www.laptopspedia.com/Toshiba_Satellite_A200
http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/satellite

ps: they aren't "about the same physical size" - they're exactly the same physical size. Standardization, you see. Either 2.5" or 1.8"

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... I'm going to assume that was directed at me as I'm the one that first said that.

I'm also going to point out that 'about the same' was just a manner of speech. I tend to avoid specificity. It's a thing.

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