Which hard drive to choose for a laptop - a complete guide

What is HDD in a laptop? HDD – Hard Disc Drive or hard drive on which all your data is stored - photos, movies, music, games, documents, etc. Also, the operating system in which you work is stored on the HDD. And if you see the inscription, for example, “HDD 500 GB”, this means that the laptop has an internal hard drive of 500 gigabytes, “HDD 1 TB” - 1000 gigabytes.

As a rule, a new hard drive for a laptop is chosen in 3 cases:

1. the old disk has failed;
2. The memory capacity of the old HDD has become insufficient;
3. in order to increase the speed of the laptop (in this case, they usually replace the old HDD with an SSD or a hybrid HDD, or, if possible, leave the old HDD and install an SSD in addition to it).

At the moment, the slowest part of any computer, including a laptop, is the hard drive. In most cases, this is what slows down the work. Therefore, many new computers and laptops are equipped with a more modern type of permanent memory - an SSD.

This statement practically does not apply to 3D games; slowdowns in games are most often due to a weak video card, less often due to a weak processor or lack of RAM.

What kind of hard drives are in laptops?

Laptops have smaller hard drives than desktop PCs, namely 2.5 inches instead of 3.5 inches. In other respects, except for the physical size, these HDDs are not much different. A “laptop” hard drive can be easily installed in a desktop PC, and it will work fine there.

Hard drive from a laptop - on the right, from a PC - on the left

What are the advantages of an SSD drive?

An SSD drive has the following advantages over an HHD:

• Speed ​​of work. SSD drives are many times faster;
• SSD is more resistant to falls and other damage;
• Such a drive requires less energy than a HDD;
• SSD does not heat up;
• It is more compact;
• It does not make noise during operation.

In fact, all the characteristics of an SSD drive make it superior to an HDD. It would seem, why then a solid-state drive at all? The answer is simple: cost. Yes, SSDs are significantly more expensive, which often turns users off.

Types of hard drives for laptops

So what options are there to replace your old hard drive? Types of internal storage:

1. HDD (HDD) – the oldest and slowest type of internal storage available today, information is stored on magnetic disks.

   This is what a hard drive looks like from the inside

   Pros of HDD:

   • cheaper than SSDs and hybrid hard drives (on average, a 1000 GB HDD costs the same as a 120 GB SSD);

   unlimited number of data rewrite cycles (but this does not mean that it is eternal).

Disadvantages of HDD:

• slow;
• may fail even with minor shocks and vibrations when turned on;
• makes noise when working.

Cons of SSD:

• high cost;
• limited number of information recording cycles (in fact, modern operating systems, such as Windows 10, have long been able to carefully work with SSDs correctly, without overloading them, as a result of which the service life of the SSD is approaching the service life of the HDD).

Hard drive rating

As a conclusion, here are the top 5 best laptop hard drives that are relevant in 2020.

Western Digital WD Black 500 GB (WD5000LPLX)

Internal HDD with a capacity of 500 GB and a size of 2.5”. The model has a good amount of cache memory - 32 MB and a high rotation speed of 7200 rpm. Connection type – SATA III. Operating volume – 25 dB under load, in idle mode – 23 dB. The model is available in several memory configurations. An excellent option in terms of speed and cost. Price – 2700 rubles.

Western Digital WD Black 500 GB (WD5000LPLX) on Yandex Market

Toshiba HDWL120UZSVA

HDD with high capacity and buffer – 2000 GB and 128 MB. Rotation speed – 5400. Connector – Sata 3. The model supports NCQ technology, that is, it places tasks in a queue in such a way as to achieve maximum efficiency in their execution. Form factor – 2.5”. Volume during operation – 24 dB, during idle – 23 dB. The drive is among the best due to its large capacity and high speed, while being quite quiet. Price – 5300 rubles.

Toshiba HDWL120UZSVA on Yandex Market

Western Digital WD Blue SSHD 1 TB (WD10J31X)

1 terabyte SSHD hybrid drive. SSD – 8 GB. The model has a SATA 3 connector. Type - 2.5". Cache memory – 64 MB. Noise level – 24 and 25 dB in idle mode and under load, respectively. Disk rotation is 5400. The advantage is energy efficiency and large volume. At low rotation speeds, the model shows decent performance. Price – 14,000 rubles.

Western Digital WD Blue SSHD 1 TB (WD10J31X) on Yandex Market

Intel SSDMCEAW080A401

80 GB solid state drive with SATA 3 connection type. Data read and write speed – 490/540 MB/s. Form factor – mSATA, NCQ support available.

Important! The model is characterized by an increased service life of 1.2 million hours, has minimal energy consumption and increased resistance to mechanical stress.

There are modifications with more memory. Cost – from 12,000 rubles.

Intel SSDMCEAW080A401 on Yandex Market

Samsung MZ-76P1T0BW

Solid state drive with a large capacity of 1000 GB and write/read speeds of 530/560 MB/s. Connection type – Sata III. Form factor – 2.5”. The model is characterized by high consumption, but is positioned as a gaming one. An advantage can be considered high resistance to mechanical stress, that is, the laptop in which this drive is installed is not afraid of shaking and constant movement. Service life – 2 million hours. Price – 18,000 rubles.

Samsung MZ-76P1T0BW on Yandex Market

How to view the hard drive on a laptop

To see the capacity of your hard drive, you need to go to My Computer (in Windows 10 - This Computer). We look for either an icon with the same name on the desktop and open it, or, if there is no such icon on the desktop, open Explorer; there should be a folder icon in the control panel (bottom left).

The folder icon is Explorer

In the Explorer window that opens, on the left, click on “This PC” (in Windows 7 – My Computer).

In the Explorer window, select “This PC” on the left

A window will open showing all connected storage devices: internal and external hard drives, SSD drives, USB flash drives, memory cards, etc.

Displaying hard drives in Explorer

From the example above we see that in our case, the laptop is connected to 2 local disks (internal), one USB flash drive (a drive called ESD-USB) and one CD drive. Displaying two local drives does not mean that there will necessarily be two hard drives installed inside our laptop. There may be one hard drive, but software can be divided into several - two, three or more.

If our goal was to find out the total volume of all hard drives , then we simply sum up the volume of the found local drives, in this case it is 100 GB + 465 GB = 565 GB.

If the goal was to find out the real number of physically installed disks in the laptop (usually cheaper laptops have one installed from the factory, more expensive ones have two - HDD and SSD, but there are exceptions), then right -click on any of the local disks, for example , by C, in the menu that appears, click “Properties”. In the window that opens, go to the “Equipment” tab.

Open the properties of any of the disks, then go to the “Hardware” tab

On the “Hardware” tab, in this example we see 3 devices. The first is an SSD disk (in this case the name contains the abbreviation “SSD”, but it may not be present), the second is a hard drive (usually indicated by markings of Latin letters and numbers without an explicit abbreviation), the third is a USB flash drive (in the name there is the abbreviation “UFD” - USB Flash Drive or flash drive for a USB port, and the abbreviation “USB” itself is also in the name).

If the disc markings don’t tell us anything, we can simply enter the entire marking into the search bar of the browser and search for information on the Internet.

Thus, we established that the example laptop has one hard drive and one SSD drive installed. In general, as a rule, most laptops have only one space allocated for 2.5-inch drives. The second disk is usually installed by users themselves instead of a DVD drive (to do this, you need to purchase the appropriate mounts - sleds for 2.5-inch disks).

As for SSD drives, they come not only in 2.5-inch cases, but also in smaller versions. So in our example, the SSD drive is a small board and connected via an mSATA connector.

This is what an mSATA SSD drive looks like

It is installed in a connector on the laptop motherboard; an example of a connector and the allocated space for an SSD are highlighted in a red rectangle.

View of the laptop from the inside

And this is what an SSD drive already installed in the slot looks like.

The SSD drive is installed in the mSATA connector

An inexperienced user may confuse such an SSD drive with a Wi-Fi module, but two wires (black and white) are suitable and connected to the Wi-Fi module, but in this case we see that there are no wires connected to the board. In addition, the Wi-Fi module is almost 2 times shorter (in the picture it is located directly above the SSD).

Well, and, in fact, the hard drive itself, installed in its connector in the picture below.

Hard drive in a laptop

It is also worth mentioning that not every laptop has an mSATA connector, therefore, before purchasing an SSD drive of this format, be sure to find out if there is a corresponding connector inside your laptop. In general, mSATA is an outdated connection connector; it has been replaced by the more modern M.2 interface. When selecting M.2 SSDs, you need to be careful; they differ both in length and in connection interface - SATA or PCIe.

Determining the model of the installed HDD

It happens that you need to look at the model of the HDD installed in your laptop. It is very easy to do this using standard Windows tools, regardless of the version of the operating system, be it Windows 7, 8 or 10. To do this, you need to open the “my computer” window, all hard drives, including virtual ones, will be displayed here. After all, as you know, one physical hard drive can be divided into many virtual ones.

Next, you need to right-click on any of the HDDs and select “Properties” in the context menu that appears. In the properties window, you need to switch to the “Hardware” tab, this is where the name of the hard drive is displayed . Just enter the markings of your hard drive into a search engine and you will find out all the details about it. There is another way to find out the model of the installed hard drive - installing third-party software.

If it is not possible to turn on the laptop and see the HDD model in it using programs, then it makes sense to open the hard drive compartment in your laptop and look directly at the disk itself, or rather at the sticker on its surface, indicating all the characteristics.

As you can see, choosing a new hard drive for your laptop is not a very difficult process if you have some knowledge. I repeat, you first need to measure the height of the old disk, and then choose a new one, based on the recommendations given. Good luck to you! See you soon on the blog pages pc-information-guide.ru

SSD or HDD – which is better for a laptop?

If your budget is limited, and you want to increase the speed of your laptop, then it is best to have both an SSD and a HDD installed in your laptop. The operating system is installed on the SSD, in which case your laptop starts to boot and shut down much faster, programs also load faster, in general it feels as if the laptop has a second wind - lightness and speed have appeared, after the old hard drive. Well, a hard drive is needed to store large amounts of information - a large collection of films, music, photos, games, etc. After all, large-capacity SSDs are still very expensive. Therefore, the best solution would be to install a 120 or 256 GB SSD, as well as a 500 to 2000 GB hard drive (depending on your budget).

An SSD can be installed in a laptop in different ways (not all methods may be available in your laptop model):

1. Instead of the current hard drive. That is, we take out the hard drive and insert an SSD instead. This method is the least preferable; it is used only if it is impossible to install an SSD in any other way. But this method is available for any laptop, even relatively old ones (only if the hard drive is not with an IDE connector, but with a SATA connector).
2. Instead of a disk drive. We buy a sled for a hard drive or SSD, remove the drive, install the sled instead of the drive, and insert the SSD into the sled.
3. There is no need to remove anything if the laptop motherboard has a special connector for SSD - mSATA or more modern M.2. This method is the most preferable, because... You won’t have to remove anything from the laptop, and at the same time, mSATA or M.2 SSDs are very compact and lightweight; a laptop with them will hardly add any weight. When purchasing an M.2 SSD, be careful and find out in advance which SSD is suitable for you: M.2 SATA or M.2 PCIe; they are not compatible with each other.

If you cannot install two drives inside your laptop at once, then you will have to choose from 3 options:

1. Hard disk ( HDD) - chosen by those people whose budget is limited, and at the same time they need a large amount of memory (500-2000 GB or more), for example, to store a large collection of films, music, photos, videos, games.
2. SSD is chosen by those for whom the speed of the laptop is more important than a large amount of memory (they often buy models with 120-240 GB, since prices for more capacious drives are high). In general, SSD is, of course, a more suitable type of memory for a laptop, since it is not afraid of shaking and shock, and also works much faster. But it also costs more (if you compare SSD and HDD of the same size).
3. A hybrid hard drive ( SSHD) is a compromise technology for those who want both a large amount of memory and their laptop to run faster than on an old hard drive. But still, hybrids are afraid of shocks and work slower than a full-fledged SSD.

It is also worth mentioning Intel Optane - this is a technology similar in principle to a hybrid hard drive. Only in this case, the SSD and HDD are not a single device inside one case, but physically separate devices. The Intel Optane drive is installed in a pair with a regular hard drive (for it, a separate M.2 PCIe connector must be soldered on the laptop motherboard). After certain settings, the operating system begins to save all the most frequently used files to a faster drive – Intel Optane. After this, the operating speed noticeably increases, but it still falls short of the operating speed of conventional SSDs.

What is the difference between an SSD drive and an HDD hard drive?

The new generation of storage devices is called the SSD (Solid State Drive). It is sometimes mistakenly called an SSD hard drive, although in fact it has nothing to do with the previous generation of devices, since it no longer contains mechanical parts - it is a purely electronic device with microcircuits.

In fact, it is rather a very large and fast flash drive. Due to the fact that there are no mechanics, the SSD has very high speed and reliability. And as a result, at the moment the price is very high compared to traditional hard drives. In addition, the advantages of SSDs over HDDs include noiselessness and lower power consumption requirements.

The parameters that determine their performance are the same as HDDs, but for obvious reasons the rotation speed is missing. Their volume ranges from 32 to 960 GB, all have the latest interfaces - SATA 2, SATA 3 or PCI-E. Since SATA cannot provide the maximum benefit from using SSD drives, they are often equipped with a PCI Express connector, which increases the speed by 7 times. Such a drive is inserted into the PCI-E slot on the motherboard.

How to increase hard drive memory on a laptop

It is worth clarifying that you cannot increase the memory capacity of your hard drive; you can only clear part of the occupied memory or replace the hard drive with another, more capacious one.

Before spending money on a new hard drive, try clearing the old HDD of unnecessary files; sometimes this procedure helps to recover significant disk space.

1. First, you need to delete the files created by Windows. To do this, open the “This Computer” (My Computer) window, click right Click on drive C and select “Properties”. In the window that opens, click “Disk Cleanup”. Don’t worry about your personal data, this method does not delete your photos, music, documents, games, etc., only files created by Windows that can be safely deleted.

   Cleaning up the C drive

   An assessment of the freed space will start. Next, a window will automatically open in which you will need to check all the boxes.

   Selecting files to clean

   Please note that the list of checkboxes is scrollable, so you need to scroll to the very end and check all the boxes. After this, we will see in the column “Amount of freed up space” how much disk space we can free up using this method. In our case, this is only 105 MB, since the computer in the example is cleaned regularly; in your case, the volume may be much larger. After checking all the boxes, click “OK” - “Delete files”, cleaning will begin, which may take some time (depending on the number of junk files, as well as on the speed of the laptop). After cleaning is completed, click “Disk Cleanup” again, we get into the same window where we checked the boxes, but now we need to click on the “Clean up system files” button.

   Cleaning system files on drive C

   After assessing the freed up space, in the window that appears, we also check all the boxes and click “OK”. Using this method, it is sometimes possible to delete up to several gigabytes of unnecessary files, thereby increasing the free space on your hard drive.

2. Open Local drive C – Windows folder – SoftwareDistribution – Download. And delete all files and folders that are in the Download folder.

   Delete Windows update installation files from the Download folder

   This way we will delete Windows update installation files that have already been installed on the system and are no longer needed. Also in the SoftwareDistribution folder there is a DataStore folder, the contents of which can be safely cleared; it stores the update history. Don’t forget to empty the trash after these manipulations, because if you don’t do this, the amount of free space will not increase.

3. Next, you can search for and remove unused programs and games that can take up a lot of space. For this right Click on Start with your mouse and select “Applications and Features”. A list of all installed programs and games will open, click on the unnecessary ones and click “Delete”.

   We remove unnecessary programs in the “Applications and Features” window

   Attention : if you are not sure why this or that program is needed, then I advise you not to delete such unfamiliar programs, because Sometimes you can remove something you really need, for example, a program along with a driver for a device or some system components, without which some programs and games will not work.

4. Next, you need to use third-party programs to clean your disk from junk files. Follow the link to the official website of the CCleaner program https://www.ccleaner.com/ru-ru/ccleaner/download/standard, save the file with the program, after downloading, open it and install it. After installation, open the program and translate it into Russian: in the left menu, click Options – Settings and in the Language field, find and select Russian.

   Enable Russian language in CCleaner

   Next, on the left, click on “Cleaning” – on the bottom right, on the “Cleaning” button – OK.

   Cleaning your laptop from system junk files using CCleaner

   After clearing junk files, I recommend cleaning the registry from errors. To do this, on the left, select “Registry” - “Search for problems”, after finishing the search, click on “Fix selected”; it is not necessary to save backups, so in the window that appears, select “No”.

   Cleaning the Registry with CCleaner

   In the new window that appears, click on “Correct marked”. This way we will be able to free up some more space on our local disk and also remove some errors.

If you have not been able to increase your free space to the desired level using these methods and the laptop has not started working faster, perhaps in this case you should think about purchasing and installing a more capacious and faster drive.

Differences between HDD and SSD

No matter how much free disk space there is, it will still not be enough over time. Therefore, it makes sense to think about installing two drives at once - SSD and HDD. The first, for example, will go under the system, and the second can be used to store documents.

@remorecover.com

On a classic HDD, information is stored on magnetic plates. And the magnetic head, moving along them, reads the necessary data. It is the operation of the head that can create additional sounds.

An SSD drive, roughly speaking, is a kind of large-capacity flash drive. It does not make noise, does not get hot, and is not afraid of shocks or shaking. But at the same time, it costs an order of magnitude more than a hard drive and has a limited resource in terms of the amount of recording.

@reedr.ru

Recently, you can find a hybrid SSHD that combines a hard magnetic drive and a solid-state drive. Data is stored on the hard drive, and frequently accessed information is loaded into cache memory. All this happens automatically, so no switching is required from the user.

The speed of such devices is lower than that of an SSD, but higher than that of an HDD. And the cache memory capacity is 8–32 GB, which is often not enough.

How to choose a hard drive for a laptop

To choose the right hard drive, you need to consider 5 recommendations:

1. Form factor . We select only 2.5 inch HDD.
2. Thickness _ It is worth keeping in mind that 2.5-inch hard drives can have different thicknesses, and if your laptop is quite thin, then it may have a thin HDD installed. A thicker disk simply may not physically fit there. Therefore, before purchasing, it is advisable to remove the old disk and check its thickness, or better yet, go straight to the store with it. Or find information on your drive on the Internet.
3. Connection interface. IDE is the oldest interface, found only in very old laptops and desktop PCs. SATA, SATA 2, SATA 3 are more modern standards for connection and data transfer, interchangeable with each other. That is, for example, a SATA 3 hard drive can be installed in a laptop with SATA 2 support, and it will work fine in it, but only at SATA 2 speed. Each new generation of SATA is faster than the previous one.

   Visual difference between SATA and IDE connectors

   At the moment, hard drives of the SATA 3 standard predominate on sale, so if your laptop has an HDD of any SATA standard (1, 2, 3), feel free to buy SATA 3, they are practically the same in cost. If you installed a disk with an IDE connector, you will only have to purchase an IDE one.

4. Rotational speed. The most common (rpm): 5400 rpm, 5900 rpm, 7200 rpm, 10000 rpm. The higher the spindle speed, the faster the hard drive. But there are also disadvantages to this - HDDs with higher rotation speeds are noisier, heat up more and are more expensive (there is also an opinion that disks with higher speeds have a shorter service life, but we could not find official information on this matter). Most laptops come with a 5400 rpm HDD installed from the factory. This speed is quite sufficient for storing files - movies, music, documents and other things, but for the operating system it is preferable to choose something faster, then the laptop as a whole will work faster. The best option, as mentioned earlier, is to install an SSD for the operating system, and a hard drive with a speed of 5400 rpm for storing multimedia files. If you intend to use only one hard drive (including for the system), then it is better to take a hybrid drive (HDD + SSD), or, as a last resort, an HDD with a higher rotation speed.

   1st line – regular hard drive, 2nd line – hybrid hard drive with a small SSD

   From the example above you can see that both hard drives have the same capacity (500 GB) and approximately the same cost. At the same time, the second option would be more preferable to purchase, since it has a built-in SSD drive, which will automatically store the most frequently used files, which will give a noticeable increase in speed. Also, the second option has a lower spindle speed (5400 rpm versus 7200 rpm for the first), which is a little slower, but the presence of an SSD in this case compensates for the loss of speed, and operation at lower speeds will reduce the noise and heating of the HDD.

5. Cache memory size . Everything is simple here: the more, the better. The second hard drive has several times more (128 MB versus 32 MB for the first), which will also have a positive effect on the overall speed.

Operation speed

When it comes to choosing a hard drive for a laptop, you cannot ignore its speed, because it affects the performance of the device. It is important to understand that the operating speed itself consists of several other parameters.

The connection interface is the technology for connecting memory to the motherboard. Today there are types SATA II and SATA III. They are interchangeable, but if you install a hard drive with SATA 3 support on SATA 2, the operating speed will be slower, namely 3 Gbit per second, despite the fact that the third version is capable of transferring up to 6 Gbit per second. Thus, it will be correct to choose a drive that supports exactly the interface provided by the laptop. There is no point in choosing a more productive option, since it costs more money, and the speed of installation on the old connector will not increase.

On a note! SSDs mostly operate via SATA 3, but can have different form factors - mSATA, PCIe and M.2. Such options operate at a speed of 6 Gbit/second and are installed in small laptops. Visually, such disks are more reminiscent of RAM than a hard drive. They have a small volume.

Cache or buffer capacity is a kind of RAM on the hard drive. It temporarily stores data and affects the exchange speed; the larger the buffer, the faster the drive. Modern options offer models with capacities from 8 to 128 MB.

Rotation speed is another parameter that affects performance. Measured in revolutions per minute. On the market you can find options with 5400 and 7200 rpm. It is worth understanding that there are some nuances here.

1. 5400 rpm is better for a laptop on which long-term data storage is planned, and the gadget itself is not designed for high loads. A drive at this speed is quieter, requires less power and lasts longer.
2. 7200 rpm provides higher data transfer and is relevant for high-performance systems. The downside is that they are noisier, consume a lot of energy, and also get very hot.

Advice! By default, options with 7200 rpm should not be ignored. Some manufacturers equip high-speed discs with the IntelliPower function, which independently regulates the number of revolutions depending on the type of work.

To choose a hard drive for a laptop, you should understand the type of tasks for which it will be intended. If you need a gadget for gaming and resource-intensive applications, then it is better to take a drive with a high number of revolutions and support for IntelliPower technology . At the right time, the revolutions will reach maximum values, and during normal operation they will drop, which will save energy consumption and extend service life. For a gadget that is used in the simplest everyday tasks - movies, office or surfing, the option with a rotation speed of 5400 rpm is quite sufficient.

Which company to choose a laptop hard drive

As for hard drives specifically, in stores you can find companies such as:

• Seagate;
• Western Digital (WD);
• Toshiba;
• Hitachi, etc.

It is worth saying that absolutely every manufacturer has both successful HDD models, which very rarely fail in the first years of operation, and less successful ones, which often break even during the warranty period or shortly after it ends. Therefore, the company is not so important as the specific model. You need to read reviews for the specific model you are interested in, and if there are a lot of negative reviews, then it is better to consider another model. Nowadays, you should pay less attention to the number of positive reviews, because... many positive reviews are written for money. Negative reviews can also be false, paid for, but this happens much less often than false praise of your own product.

People have an established opinion that the highest quality hard drives are from Seagate and Western Digital (WD), but these companies also have models that often break down. For example, many models of the Blue series (not the entire series) from the manufacturer WD often fail in the first years of operation, but the Black series is considered very reliable (but it also costs more).

We tried to tell you as completely and clearly as possible how to choose a hard drive for a laptop. We hope that the article was clear and useful. If so, share the link to the article with your friends, let them know more too!

General recommendations

Having decided which HDD characteristics are the most important, proceed to choosing the appropriate model. To do this, use a simple algorithm.

1. Decide on the size of your hard drive. For comfortable work, it must be at least 500 GB.
2. Selecting a connection interface. Find out which SATA version your laptop supports. This can be done on the device manufacturer’s website in the technical specifications of the model. Modern PCs support the SATA III standard (data transfer speeds up to 6 Gb/s), older ones support SATA II (up to 3 Gb/s). The interfaces are compatible with each other, they differ only in the data transfer speed. But if your laptop does not support the SATA III interface, do not overpay for a more modern HDD model, because the data transfer speed will be no more than 3 Gb/s. If your laptop has an mSATA or M.2 interface, choose only those internal drives that connect using this interface.
3. Determine which hard drive manufacturer you want to buy. The best option is Western Digital (WD) Caviar Black series. You shouldn’t buy cheap models - they can break down at the wrong time (it’s useful to know “How to recover accidentally deleted files on a PC?”)
4. Determine the performance of the new HDD. Model with disc rotation speed 5900 rpm. and 16 MB cache memory - the minimum option for purchase.
5. Read reviews online. If users complain about the model you have chosen, write that it constantly breaks down, “lags”, select another hard drive (read the article “Checking the performance of the hard drive for errors and problems”).

You will find more information in the video.

And yet, how to choose a hard drive for a laptop

First of all, determine the size of the hard drive that is suitable for your laptop, and also determine which connector the motherboard supports. You can find out this information from your laptop's technical data sheet, on the motherboard manufacturer's website, or using a computer diagnostic program. The AIDA64 utility copes well with this task.

If you are replacing a hard drive with a higher performance one (with a higher spindle speed), make sure that the power supply and battery can handle the load.

Choose other characteristics based on your needs, financial capabilities and preferences.
1 721 Tags: hdd

Replacing HDD with SDD on a laptop

Let's say you have a different situation - you need to replace the HDD with an SDD in your laptop. This is a popular problem for modern users who want more speed and reliability from their notebook. Indeed, solid-state drives have a number of advantages over traditional hard drives:

• work several times faster;
• resistant to mechanical damage;
• low power consumption;
• low heat generation;
• improved ergonomics;
• no noise during operation;
• compact sizes.

At the same time, SSDs have a higher cost, but are often fully justified considering how many benefits the user receives in the long run.

But what if you want to use an SSD drive as a replacement?

Preparation

You will again need time, a Phillips screwdriver and a new SDD. When choosing the latter, you will have to sort out your priorities. What's more important: speed or capacity? Yes, in any case, you will receive a significant increase in the speed of launching the operating system and all applications, but every 500 MB is an additional and not the smallest cost. Decide for yourself what volume will be optimal, taking into account what you are usually used to storing on your laptop. If you're on a budget, pay attention to external hard drives (they're inexpensive these days) or cloud storage services.

Dismantling

If you have to replace the hard drive on a laptop with an SDD, then the dismantling procedure will look exactly the same as in the first case. All you have to do is carefully remove the old device from the device case.

Installing
an SDD
You still have an empty metal holder for the hard drive - use it by connecting the SSD via the SATA connector in the same way. Be careful when choosing a new drive - some models come in compact sizes and look more like a board than a full-fledged drive. Accordingly, different connectors will be used for connection. But in most cases, replacing the hard drive on a laptop with an SSD is not anything unique - it’s enough not to get confused and install the latter on the correct side.

Useful tips

• If the warranty period has not expired at the time of replacement, you act at your own peril and risk, since after intervention in the system, the warranty will not apply to the device.
• Carefully inspect the inside of the case for hidden latches. They are usually made of plastic and are easily damaged if handled carelessly.
• After replacing the drive, you will have to reinstall the operating system - Windows or another of your choice. Choose licensed or freely distributed software, contact specialists who will help you configure it correctly.
• Buy an adapter from a SATA connector to a USB - this way you can later connect the removed HDD drive via USB and copy the necessary information from it directly to the SSD.
• Use the program to test the speed of your new drive - this will ensure that you have made the right choice, and now the system and installed applications will work faster.
• An unnecessary HDD, if it is working, can be used as a backup drive, that is, as a “flash drive”.

How much does it cost to replace HDD with SSD

You can find out the cost of replacing a traditional disk drive with a fast and productive SSD drive from the table below. Prices are for devices of the most popular brands. Please check with our consultants for the possibility of replacement on laptops from other manufacturers.