REPLACING HARD DRIVE

Hi, i have the 120gb windows xp a150 .I want to change the harddrive to maybe 320gb problem is i've looked around the forum and a few people refer to the drive as a PATA drive and others a SATA drive .I'm a bit confused by this and would like to get a few suggestions as to what drive i should buy to replace the 120gb.


Thanks

 

HDD is SATA. The SSD is PATA with ZIF cable.
Enjoy, I have already replaced 2 AAO's with 320GB hard drives (7200.3 Seagates). If you want storage, the wd 500gb is a great drive, very fast and plenty of storage.

 

Thanks for the help

Was thinking of getting this in that case
http://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Scorpio-...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1229193776&sr=8-1

 

very nice drive, enjoy!

 

Was there any troubles installing bigger hd?Did you change any adapters or could you just throw the new hd in stead of the original one?

 

No, other than taking the AAO apart. No adapters, there is an HDD tray so that needs to be transferred as it is how the HDD is secured. Easy to do, typical of most laptops anyways.

 

Replacing the HDD, one problem appear:
Original HDD was replaced with 250GB HDD from one LACIE USB external HDD.
New HDD was same manufacturer and family with the original (LACIE= Seagate ST9250827AS, AAO=ST9120817AS).
Partitions: 32GB for C-system, 128GB D-storage, remaining was E-storage.
With 250GB HDD, the AAO was very-very slow (approx.4-5 min to copy of 700MB divx movie from internal HDD to ext.USB HDD).
The ext.USB HDD was tested on another computer and the time necessary for copy same file was under 1 minute.
The internal HDD access mode was UDMA 5.

Replacing back the original HDD, the AAO work as expected, without problems.
Using the 250GB HDD on USB ext. interface, no problems.

*Remark: On both HDD, Seagate wrote: "This drive is manufactured by Seagate for OEM distribution....."
Maybe the HDD from LACIE is customised???

 

That's a 7200RPM drive with a free-fall sensor. you can save some money by getting the version without the free-fall sensor (WD3200BEKT) or even more money by getting the 5400RPM version (Scorpio Blue, WD3200BEVT).

You should be able to pick up the WDC Scorpio Blue 320GB for less than 50 quid inc. delivery in the UK. Play.com has them but allegedly their packaging is somewhat poor considering that this is a sensitive hard disk.

 

Hi

Do you mean 7200.4.Seagates 500GB?Which 500GB model would be fastest and also moderate with power consumption ?

AAO150 1,5GB 160GB Vista Home Premium

 

Check this out for $129

http://www.compusa.com/applications/Sea ... CatId=2682

 

I added some additional memory and since doing so I seem to have a lot of vibration from the HDD which wasn't there before. You can feel the hard disk vibrate when you rest your hand on the mousepad/keyboard. Since you guys have replaced HDD I wondered if you'd experienced anything similar? Or whether you had any ideas about how I might "fix" this? I wondered if I needed to add some more dampners or something. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

Finally, found Seagate Momentus on ebay (model ST9320421ASG=SATA, 320GB, 7200RPM, 16MB Cache, G-Force sensor).
Work like a charm, no problem with heat or the power supply.
And huge storage space.

 

Not trying to hijack the thread, but how did you guys go about getting the OS on the new hard drive? I'm getting a new drive soon and I'm planning on using a external enclosure to mirror the current hard drive to. I guess I'm asking if any of you didn't do fresh installs? Thanks.

 

For roadlet_411:
Try Seagate Disk Wizard: http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/suppor ... discwizard
Connect the new HDD on USB (as external HDD) and using the program, your internal HDD will be
"cloned" to USB HDD.
You can choose the new HDD partitions sizes, etc.
After, just replace the internal HDD with new one and boot normally.
Good luck!

 

Just make sure one of the drives is a Seagate or Maxtor. If the Seagate Discwizard program does not detect one of their own HDDs, it will not allow the clone option to work (i.e. make sure the new drive you plan on installing is from Seagate and you will be fine).

Once you download Discwizard it comes with a decent manual which is easy to follow.

 

Guys, I appreciate the responses. I ended up grabbing a WD drive over the weekend and I'm waiting on my wireless-n card and external HDD enclosure to come in before I crack the AAO open. I guess I can try to follow those steps, but replace Disk Wizard with Data Lifeguard (I think that's WD's utility)?

 

Match the program to whatever Brand drive your stock HDD is. My external USB enclosure is noted as "Generic External Drive" or some such in the BIOS, and Disc Wizard would not even open on my GF's Acer 5720 (Toshiba Drive)(with my stock Seagate drive in the enclosure).

Just a head's up. You can always do the Acronis True Image 2009 trial. Just used it to do the drive in my Dad's Dell Studio. Worked fine, but only lasts for 15 days.

 

Have you done the memory upgrade yet? Do it, as well, while you have it open.

 

I like the way you think!

I've actually got 1gb of ram waiting to go in. I'm right with ya on that. Upgrade what you can while you can get at it.

Only other thing I'm not sure if I want to do or not is soldering in my little bluetooth adapter. I really don't use BT for anything, but it'd be nice to have it like it was factory installed.
Thanks for the input!

 

I use a USB bluetooth adapter that is so small I leave it plugged in all the time. I wouldn't dream of soldering stuff in my aspire but I am currently planning on upgrading the HD to 500GB.