Suggestion for a reliable laptop drive 500gb

Hi All,

So the day finally came when my Laptop Hard drive is going bad. Windows 7 is popping up messages about Hard Disk error please backup and replace your drive. Ran the SMART Test and found 303 which is Drive is either dead or will be dead soon. Please suggest a reliable laptop hard drive, 7200 rpm....if it really matters (the one going bad is samsung 7200 provided by HP when I got the laptop).

Thanks
NR

If you need that much storage for a laptop, I'd go for a hybrid drive. Otherwise, I'd go for a 256 SSD

Are Hybrid drives reliable (Seagate Momentus is the only one I know)? Could not find a single drive without a failure review on Amazon. @skh12 are you saying should go for SSD event if its 160gb.? Tiger direct have a intel ssd 160gb deal going on. I am inclining towards it. The only problem I see is I will not be able to restore my image, I have the recovery disc created as well as ordered from HP.

My Image is 260 Gig, sorry should have mentioned it. But point taken I can do fresh install and drivers using recovery disk.. Thank you.

Meh, I guess I was a bit ambitious in my price guess, looks like we're still close to $1 per GB, Newegg has a 120 for $95, and a 256 for $229

I've had a 500GB Seagate Momentus hybrid drive in my MSI notebook for 2years. I run the notebook continuously 16 hours/day. It's still running strong. Boot times are amazingly quick compared to my desktop PC loaded with essentially the same software and a 7200rpm drive. I recommend this drive to everyone.

Agree with skh12 regarding restoring the factory image. As long as your starting fresh, why not start with a perfectly clean system? Borrow or otherwise acquire a Windows 7 install disk (any disk can install any version of Windows Basic/Home Premium/Pro/Ultimate dictated only by your legal license key code). The key will install the appropriate version with your choice of 32-bit or 64-bit -- some disks are 32-bit only, some 64-bit only and some can install either version. These days, 64-bit is the best choice for almost everybody.

i disagree, i don't think quality has gone down, it's reliability that goes down as spacial density goes up, and that is just a matter of physics

flyingroach said:   Seems like all drive quality has gone down as density went up. That and now basically all drives are made by two companies. SSD is not really more reliable but are WAY faster. If you really need 500gb perhaps stick with normal spinning disks and just clone and replace each year.

I prefer Acronis and just keep imaged spare drive on a shelf and also crashplan for data even for sad but perhaps can keep non sad drive as a spare. I need laptop for business so prefer little downtime waiting for drive delivery. Most don't need this.