Larger HDD for Laptop

i've purchased larger hdd for laptops not specific to the model, but it would always help. if you have USB you can get an external drive for music and other "stuff"

Many laptops have BIOS set to autodetect hard drive. If you can get hold of a larger drive that fits physically, it will be up to the BIOS if it will be detected. The ones I've tried upgrading have autodetected fine, but you may run into a size limit at 8G or something, depending on BIOS age. You should be able to use whatever size is detected, even if drive actually is larger.

Regards
/RID

Your Toshiba will accept larger drives... but to SNTSFN's suggestion.... I agree... an external, hooked to the USB port would allow you all the storage you need, without the hassle of reinstalling everything for more space

http://www.wdc.com/products/usb120gb.asp

http://www.usbgear.com/

http://www.everythingusb.com/


the WD solution is very nice for laptops

bill

The physical size is the most important thing once you determine whether Toshiba supports large size disks for this model.

2.5 inch drives come in varying heights.  7, 8, 9, and 12 millimeters are the typical sizes.  Obviously, if the laptop's space for a hard drive is only 7mm tall, you can't put a 12mm disk there.  So in the advanced section of the user's manual should be a list of specifications.  See if it lists the size of the drive.  If not, there should be a model number.  You can look on Toshiba's website for the size specs of the drive there.

Wonders if the laptop accepts two hardrives? Cause if not you're gonna have to reload all those programs to your new hardrive along with windows operating system. Just a thought.

OK, I had a chance to dig around Toshiba's website and found that this series of Satellites uses the 9.5mm height disks.  So all you need to do is make sure that's the size of the new disk (that's also the most common of the four standard sizes).  The capacity consideration is much less important because you can always use the free utility, called BIOS translation software, with computers that have problems with large capacities.

I'm not too worried about having to re-install everything, one of the programs alone takes up 1.5gb so I only have a few programs along with Windows XP to fill it up. I had considered an external, but I am very portable so I'd prefer not to have to carry it around along with the laptop.

Magarity, how do I use the BIOS translation software? I assume that it will update my BIOS to accept a larger HDD, where could I find it?

I found this;

http://www.laptopshop.co.uk/laptop-notebook-hard-drive/HITACHI-DK23DA30F-laptop-notebook-hard-drive.htm

This is Ideal if it would work.

Sorry, I forgot to mention I do live in the UK. And your right we really do have to pay more in britain. (Which Sucks!)

Thankyou all of course!

Points go to Magarity.

Thanks!!

Day 1: Question asked.
Day 2: Problem Solved.

Brilliant!!

In the highly unlikely case you need it, here is Hitachi's link for thier BIOS translation software which they call DiskManager2000:
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#diskmgr2k

Note that they mention XP and 2000 are unlikely to need it and one of your comments mentions installing XP.  So do not download and use this software unless it becomes apparent that you definitely need it.