Notebook Upgrades: Storage Hard drives are all about storing and accessing data: You want to store as much of it as you can, and you want to access it as quickly as possible. Therefore, capacity is not the only important criterion; speed is also a consideration. Replacing a hard drive is normally not much more complicated than adding memory: Remove a bottom panel, remove the screw(s) holding the drive in place, carefully disconnect the power and data cables from the drive, and gently remove the drive from the drive caddy.
Hard drive sizes have jumped dramatically in order to accommodate the proliferation of enormous (and enormously powerful) applications and the gigantic video, audio, and image files we now use on a regular basis. These days, a 120GB or larger drive is standard in a notebook, and 250GB is not uncommon. In addition to size, drives are rated according to how fast the platters-the magnetic disks on which data is stored-spin. Today's drives typically spin at 7,200rpm or better, and many spin at 10,000rpm. The faster the drive spins, the more quickly data can be retrieved, assuming that the drive's head mechanisms can move to the correct place on the platter and find the appropriate data. That component of a drive's performance is known as "seek time," and it's measured in milliseconds; it's one of the specs you'll want to consider when looking at new drives. A drive with a 12ms or 13ms seek time is typical, and plenty fast enough for most of us. A faster drive requires more sophisticated head mechanisms and more efficient software, which helps explain why faster drives cost more than slower ones. David Ferrin www.jaws-users.com Life is what happens after you have already made other plans. For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/
