Laptop HDD

[Erus]

So I just turned on the old laptop, which I knew ahead of time had something wrong, but I never got down to the bottom of it. It's a bad HDD, its a pretty old laptop. So anyways, I was looking to replace it, but I have no idea what compatibility it is. And also, lets say I find out what type of HDD it is, do all laptop HDDs have the connector in the same place? I'm using a Dell Inspiron 8100, and it actually plugs in. I tried Googling the type of HDD, but no luck. I also tried taking the HDD out to look for the info, but nothing. So if anyone can help me out that would be great. Thanks.

[Greco101]

It's an IDE 2.5" drive.

Prices are dropping like crazy on them... you can pick them up on eBay for pretty cheap. I wouldn't invest much in that old of a laptop though so I wouldn't suggest spending any more than 50 bucks or so. (unless you're planning on keeping it for a long while. If you want to sell it, you won't get your money back)

[Luke122]

As above, 2.5" IDE hdd. Depending on the size (capacity) of the old drive, you may not be able to put in anything larger. The bios in the laptop will only recognize drives up to a certain size, so something bigger might not work. Your best bet may be to hit up Dell's Support site (http://support.dell.com) and punch in the service tag on the laptop to find out the original drive specs.

Also, consider finding another old laptop and possibly salvaging the hdd from that.

[Greco101]

Totally forgot about that. Good point Luke.

[alexanderH]

Dells are messy, check the dell service first as luke says. But your pretty well covered so long as you don't try to get the latest greatest technology to replace the old drive

[XcOM]

also check the drive size, some drives are different size's,

theress 7mm, 8mm and 9.2mm, so check the depth/height of the drive.