( 35 reviews )
-
Posted: Aug 10 2009
I just recently installed this 160GB Western Digital drive in my old Dell Inspiron 6000 and so far it is running fine (knock on wood...). The old Fujitsu 80GB drive worked well for 5 years, then failed on a hot day, but actually worked again later after cooling down, so luckily I was able to do a current backup of all my files. Even though the new drive is 5400 rpm and the old drive was 7200 rpm, the new drive actually made the computer run faster, so I guess spin speed doesn't necessarily translate to read/write speed when you're talking 5 years of technological advancement in between. The new drive is also much, much quieter, only emmitting an occcasional "tic" that is very quiet. My old drive may actually still be OK and had just shut down automatically due to overheating (if it has this function), but it was already 5 years old and a bit on the small side, so it was a good excuse to upgrade. One thing I did which seemed to make a HUGE difference during the upgrade: I cleaned the dust out of the entire laptop with an air compressor. Not just one of those wimpy office duster cans, but an actual air compressor at 90 psi. A cloud of dust came out of the laptop, even though it appeared pretty clean from the outside, and now the fan runs much, MUCH slower than it had run in years, and the computer is generally cooler as well. I would actually venture to guess that this was the real cause of the drive failure. Of course this isn't going to solve the overheating problems of all laptops, but I'll bet most computer owners never blow out their laptops like this, but they really should, and frequently. From now on I'm going to do this regularly! Just a note that if you're going to blow out the dust with 90 psi, don't jam the blower nozzle right into the laptop or you might damage components with the strong pinpoint force of air. Hit it from at least several inches away or lower the pressure to, say 30 or 40 psi... Some people were having problems with their Dell Inspiron 6000 not recognizing more than 128GB on this drive, but I didn't have this problem. I did upgrade the BIOS firmware and installed Windows XP Service Pack 3 so that might have helped. Another tip for Inspiron 6000 users: this laptop has a crappy cooling system design and vents on the bottom left, so if you like to actually have the laptop in your lap (like me) you should buy a hard placemat and put the laptop on the mat. I know, this kind of sucks, but not only does it unblock the vent but it also insulates the laptop from heat from your legs. The hotter your machine runs, the shorter its life will be.
-
Posted: Aug 5 2009
BIG ATA drives are getting harder to find so when I found this 320mb 'Bad Boy', I was pleasantly surprised. I upgraded from a 160mb drive, which was always banging on FULL and I could not be happier with my purchase. Just as advertised - it is fast, quiet, & cool, so the extra space I was looking for is no longer an issue for me. This drive is an awesome value and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for additional 2.5" ATA digital real estate.
-
Posted: Aug 2 2009
Nothing bad to say about this drive. It worked great when it was installed. Haven't had a problem. I'd recommend this hard drive
