Hardware shopping

[stephbg]

Hi Lazyweb
Where should I buy a replacement internal hard disk for my Dell laptop?
TIA

ED: OMG This is much harder than I expected. It's an out-of-warranty Inspiron 640m and I can't for the life of me find a laptop-suitable internal hard disk for sale on the Dell site.

ED2: I am now resigned to the horror of hardware swapping and complete re-installation. Ick.

Comments

[rabbit1080.livejournal.com]

I know a good shop in Osborne Park, but first... I assume it's a 2.5" drive? What sort of connector - SATA or, er, the older one?

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

2.5" SATA

[rabbit1080.livejournal.com]

NetPlus Micro Computers, 3 Hector St, Osborne Park
phone 9242 7288

They usually stock 2 or 3 brands of HDs. Get a Western Digital or Seagate one. (Last time they also had Samsung - no way I'd get that one.)

I might be able to help change drives tomorrow arvo, but I know nothing about Windows. I tend to be ok with hardware though.

Good luck!

[anthanum.livejournal.com]

my experience with Dell replacement parts was similarly awful. After many many weeks of exhaustive searching a dodgey replacement power supply was located from some knock-off factory OS. That was an inspiron range from around 2 years ago.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

Having proved that the drive is physically faulty, the next step (after backing everything up!) is still to check whether the drive is within warranty. The laptop warranty and hard drive warranty aren't necessarily related. Dell often uses Hitachi drives, which may have 3-year warranties. (As you haven't mentioned the brand or model of drive, it's all guesswork.)

Dell themselves will simply sell you a drive at a mark-up, so going to them for a replacement would be a waste of money. Decide what size/brand/model of drive you want and get it wherever you can get the best deal. If you use your laptop a lot, it's probably worth going for a brand which gives you a good warranty, obviously.

[fogod42.livejournal.com]

You may be able to avoid the complete reinstallation if you are still able to book from the computer right now.

Try cloning the hard drive first:

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=418&page=1

Pretty good article for semi-pros, but I think it is easy enough to follow some of it.

And a list of free programs to make a clone on the PC are:

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/05/5-free-apps-to-clone-your-hard-drive/

Just my 2c