Recommend a notebook hard drive brand...

[mechmike0034]

I have a customer with a dead 40GB IBM (Hitachi) Travelstar 4200RPM ATA/IDE drive. It is out of warranty, according to both Hitachi and the notebook manufacturer.

These don't have a stellar reliability reputation anyway, so i'd rather replace it with another brand of drive.

What brand should I get? Then I can look for a deal.

TIA

Edit - I am quite certain this one is dead; it makes the "THWACK-THWACK" death sound and no utility that I've tried (both Ultimate Boot CDs) recognizes it...

[AlpineJay]

Toshibas are pretty solid. In my tech support job I have seen more Hitachis fail than the Toshiba, which is the other major brand. Of course, Hitachi stems from the IBM Deathstar line....

[mechmike0034]

Toshibas are pretty solid. In my tech support job I have seen more Hitachis fail than the Toshiba, which is the other major brand. Of course, Hitachi stems from the IBM Deathstar line....

OK, good to know. Real-world results and observations are what I am looking for.

Seagate's new notebook drives also look impressive - fast, power-conservative, quiet, and warranted for five years. My only reservation is their track record. I know they make pretty good desktop (3.5") drives, but they are relatively new to the notebook drive market.

Thanks for replying...

[brainsmile]

I had a fujitsu that was pretty quiet and solid

[look_ma]

OK, good to know. Real-world results and observations are what I am looking for.

Seagate's new notebook drives also look impressive - fast, power-conservative, quiet, and warranted for five years. My only reservation is their track record. I know they make pretty good desktop (3.5") drives, but they are relatively new to the notebook drive market.

Thanks for replying...

Seagate, 100 gig for 200 bucks bby. freakin neat, even cheaper online.

[AlpineJay]

Seagate's one brand that I almost blindly trust, although I have never dealt with laptops that had Seagate drives. This could be because I primarily deal with the two major brands (Dell and HP/Compaq) as they are the major brands used in my school, or that Seagate drives are just reliable that I have not had to pull them out!

Either way I'd go with Seagate or Toshiba, whichever you can get a better deal on.

[glagic]

anyone know of any 7200rpm ones that are good? i had my eye on the hitachi one, but if theyre made by ibm, i dont know how good that'll be...

[Jeffbx]

I'm going to go against the grain & say Hitachi is the way to go - they're pretty much the only ones I buy for laptops.

I've had great luck with them, and they really had nothing whatsoever to do with the crappy Deskstar desktop drives - different lines entirely. IBM has spun off their drive division altogether, and although their name still appears on some of them, IBM really has nothing to do with them anymore.

For desktop drives, I agree that Seagate or WD are better, but for portable drives Hitachi is my first choice. Have a look at Newegg for good prices.

I've been running my laptop on the Hitachi 60GB 7200RPM for about a year and a half, and it's been really solid and VERY fast.

[ramazank2]

Ive been trying to get a deal on a hitachi 60GB 7200RPM using the dellf promotion but havent seen a low stackable coupon yet.