Going to buy new HDD need serious advice

[DeusEx]

ok guys i ordered a dell vostro 1500 but it only had th eoption of coming with a 160GB 5400RPM drive. While i find 160 gb more than enough, i hate slow drives so i would like to get a better one.

I need to know what Serial Ata HDD i need. I saw different types (serial ata-II and Serial ata 300 and so on) and i have no idea what to choose from.

So it comes down to this:

7200RPM
100GB or more
compatible with my dell vostro 1500.

Thanks !

[dicecca112]

Its either a 1.8 or 2.5 hard drive, just search newegg for those. Hitachi or Seagate are good. I believe the Vostro 1500 is the same as my 1520. So if that is the case, then this is the drive that I have. http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?l ... Page=Model

[dgood]

also to get your computer to recognize it with the vostros you might have to disable some stuff int eh bios. I forget what they do with the harddrives on new dells. You can't reformat with them in the configuration they come in stock. If I remember the name of it, I'll post it on this.

[kenc51]

also to get your computer to recognize it with the vostros you might have to disable some stuff int eh bios. I forget what they do with the harddrives on new dells. You can't reformat with them in the configuration they come in stock. If I remember the name of it, I'll post it on this.

You can use a new (non-Dell supplied) HDD. All you need to do is run their recovery (Blue) DVD before the (Orange) OS CD. This will re-create the hidden FAT32 diagnositics partition and also re-install the media direct partition.
The problem is, it will create 4 primary partitions in total. This then doesn't allow you to create a linux and swap partition without having to remove the media direct or diagnostics partition.

I just got rid of media direct as I have no use for it, but the diagnostics partition can be usefull, especially if you want Dell support to believe you that something is broken ;)