Laptop HDD upgrade

[timtadams]

I have a 60 GB HDD in my 4.5 year old toshiba laptop.

I want to put a 500 GB HDD in it. Is it possible that there is a maximum capacity that my laptop can use?
There are limits for SD cards and such, like some phones/cameras/laptops can only read SD cards with under a certain capacity, like 1GB, or 512 MB

I never even considered this, but someone mentioned it to me

 

[Steve_God]

I 'think' it will be limited by the motherboard without updating the BIOS... but might want to double check.

Update: Did a quick google, and that 'was' the case when HDD's were around the 8Gb mark - should be ok assuming you swap it like-for-like with the same type of HDD.

 

[timtadams]

I 'think' it will be limited by the motherboard without updating the BIOS... but might want to double check.

Update: Did a quick google, and that 'was' the case when HDD's were around the 8Gb mark - should be ok assuming you swap it like-for-like with the same type of HDD.

Cheers Steve,

I too noticed the barriers, including the 8GB one, but wasnt sure past that. i'll still contact Toshiba to be extra sure

 

[webvictim]

You should be fine, just make sure you get a 2.5" laptop HDD with an IDE-style connector. The newer SATA style won't work.

 

[Dark_Angel]

Advise here is fine, but I'd try to upgrade your entire laptop tbch.

The price you'll pay for a 500gb HD isn't *that* far off the price of a dual core processor lappy these days, you could probably pick one up brand new for around the £300 mark.

That said, if your laptop is fine for your current needs, fair enough. Bear in mind, though, that your current laptop probably has a 1.6ghz(ish) processor and around 512mb-1gb RAM ?. Upgrading the entire thing to a dual core lappy (Which as I've said you could get for £300) would massively improve performance (£300 would get you a 2ghz dual core, 4ghz respectively - and at least 2gb RAM.)

I've no doubt someone can probably get you even better for that price.

 

[Steve_God]

Other cheaper option (if you're just looking for storage of either movies/music/etc...) could be to buy an external hard-drive. You can get 500Gb drives for around £40 now

 

[timtadams]

I completely agree with both points, but im a cheap uni student, and intend to keep this laptop till i finish my degree at least (halfway through, got 2.5 years to go), so the expense wont be wasted. I put 2GB of RAM in it a few years ago which wasnt wasted Also, the processor is 1.73 GHz Centrino, however, the computer actually performs quite fast for its processor. Im always surprised at how it compares to other computers with faster processes. So im still happy with it

I can get a 500 GB WD 2.5" internal for AU$91, which is pretty similar to 40 pounds (maybe just a bit more). I also intend to get a 1TB external to back everything up, as well as storage for my movies. Backup is important, and backing up on partition on the same HDD is not good if the HDD fails
good idea?

And if i ever upgrade my laptop, i can stick my 500 GB into my 60 GB PS3, so it wont be wasted.