Replacement HDD can anyone suggest?

[barnstormer]

Hi,

I'm trying to help out a friend who has an HP Pavillion 6620 and its hard disk is failing.

I want to replace/upgrade it but she doesn't want to have to swap any other components just the HDD.

The existing is a Quantum Fireball lct10 10.2AT p/n LB10A11 rev 01-a which i believe from maxtor's website (they took over the quantums) that it has a spin speed of 5,400 and is ATA66 with a 3.5" disc. It only needs to run Windows 98 on it and doesn't have to be bigger than 10GB but can be if it's easier.

I found that there is one shop selling reconditioned ones on ebay, but they want £56.50 for a small second hand drive which sounds a bit pricey, and it would be nice if i could get something new.

Any advice you could give me on replacements would be great - although please don't say get a new computer

Thanks in advance

[The Dude]

Any 3.5" IDE drive will do nicely


You can get a brand new 300GB drive for £60 these days, so that ebay item is the biggest Ebay rip-off you will encounter for a while.

I'm 99.99% sure I've got a working 10/20 GB drive you can have, PM me with an address and i'll bung it in the post for you.

[Stiggy]

Any of these will do. Take your choice of 600 products from £14!

You can narrow it down to just Quantum drives if you're worried about compatability, although it shouldn't be a problem.

How do you know your disk is failing?

[barnstormer]

Thanks guys for your quick responses.

The drive came up with some error apparently (i didn't see it) and it started clicking which I know is not a good sign. It is also about 6 years old.

So are you saying that any 3.5" IDE drive is backward compatible? Does it not have to have the same spin speed or anything?

It looks from the link you posted Stiggy that this one http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/computi...657085/details is probably the same anyway so I might try that.

Thanks for the offer The Dude, but as it's not for me I would like to get a new one.

Cheers guys you've solved my problem thank you.

[The Dude]

Yep, ANY 3.5" IDE drive will go straight in..

if you're gonna buy one, get something at least 20GB.... 10GB is a bit skimpy these days, even running Win98.

[Paul Shirley]

Don't even consider 20gb drives, I doubt they even manufacture drives that small nowadays and they're expensive!

The main thing to worry about is if the PC can support drives larger than 32gbyte, most larger drives can be jumpered to run as 32gbyte but check first. No point trying to get a 5400rpm dinosaur either, just get a standard 7200rpm one and enjoy the speed boost.

[Uridium]

Think you'll struggle to find anything smaller than 40gb nowadays, if you do it will be old stock and you'll probably pay over the odds.

Best bet is probably an 80gb 7200rpm disk, expect to pay about £35 inc P&P and VAT

try somewhere like www.aria.co.uk or www.scan.co.uk

Ebuyer are normally a £1 or so cheaper but their CS is rubbish as is their returns process should you have a problem

[barnstormer]

Thanks for all your help

I didn't realise I could just swap in any 3.5" IDE drive, i thought this might not work with the existing motherboard etc. I will take a look around and give her a bigger hdd.

I have so much still to learn

Cheers

[barnstormer]

Just found this bit of information on the www.misco.co.uk website

Interface Speed
Interface speed is measured in ATA/100 or ATA/133. There isn’t much noticeable difference between the two values. To get the maximum performance from your hard drive, its interface speed must match the interface speed of your PC. If not, you must install an interface card that matches the speed of the new drive.

Now, I believe the existing hdd is ATA66 so will that mean that most new ones will need this interface card?

[The Dude]

Nope, it just means that your 100/133 drive would only operate at ATA66 transfer rate.

Even that is theoretical though, It's quite possible that the existing HDD is the weak link in the chain, and the Mobo already supports ATA100 etc.....


Either way, you don't actually NEED the ATA100 interface, and on a PC of that age I very much doubt you'll notice any difference anyway.... In fact, I know for a fact you wont.

[barnstormer]

Thanks The Dude - that's a big help.

Now i'll finally shut up and order one