Laptop Hard Drive

[Kitsune]

I have a Dell c640 and it presently has a 60 Gig Hard Drive.
The Hard Drive is a ATA-6 connector not a SATA connector
I plan to use it for several more years but would like to get a new internal hard drive

New Egg has a 250 Gig Hard Drive which I am thinking about getting next Friday.
I have been looking at the Dell Support Web Site but cannot find the information on what the largest hard drive it will accept.

Curious if the Bios will accept the hard drive or if I will need to use a special utility?

[General Zod]

Hard drive limit is more dependent on the connector than anything else, afaik.

[DaveJB]

Some computers have issues using drives larger than 137GB, but that's mainly confined to older computers - and I do mean old, as in Pentium 1-era. You should be fine.

[Kitsune]

I am looking at the reviews on New Egg.....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136159
Some people have been running the drive for over a year without real problems while others have gone through like three or four drives. Do you think it is more or less likely that it is user error?

[Vertigo1]

Some computers have issues using drives larger than 137GB, but that's mainly confined to older computers - and I do mean old, as in Pentium 1-era. You should be fine.

You mean pentium 3 era. What you're referring to is 48-bit LBA support. Honestly, you were lucky to get a laptop with a 30 gig hard drive back then, so I doubt that is even an issue with that one. Especially considering it was reviewed in 2002. (link)

[phongn]

I am looking at the reviews on New Egg.....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136159
Some people have been running the drive for over a year without real problems while others have gone through like three or four drives. Do you think it is more or less likely that it is user error?

Not enough data. It could be a bad drive, bad shipping, bad installation, a dropped laptop, etc.

[Kitsune]

Do the bad rating concern you enough not to buy the drive if that is what you want to increase your storage?

[General Zod]

Do the bad rating concern you enough not to buy the drive if that is what you want to increase your storage?

I'd pay more attention to the text of the ratings than the numbers themselves. If they look like something written out in AOL speak or generally don't give more than one line of detail, then they're safe to ignore. Especially if the positive reviews give far more detail and information.