[Doublej]

The Seagate drive on my friend's Dell laptop croaked. Any recommendations of a replacement?

Was thinking about a Western Digital Scorpio Black or Blue.

[jqp]

Ideally, replace it with one of these SATA SSDs (120GB)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100008120%20600038484&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

It should be like upgrading from a 1986 4 cyl. Chevy Nova to a BMW M5...

If he wants to keep it low cost, get a 7200 RPM from Seagate, WD, Toshiba etc.

These are SATA laptop drives

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007605%20600030594%20600003340&IsNodeId=1&name=7200%20RPM

[John151]

Are the SSD drives stable and reliable yet?  I have been patiently waiting for these to extend run time on batteries! 

[jqp]

Yes they are IMO - there have been multiple generations now. The most extremely stable theoretically is the Intel 510 series, but most current model drives should be fine. There are some specific ones to avoid (see posts in this circle ore search online - just remember all drives can be defective)

Since there are no moving parts, aside from a firmware bug, almost all are reliable and stable compared to all mechanical drives.

I weigh the benefits against the small chance that something could go wrong. The biggest issue is that they are still fairly costly per GB compared to mechanical drives. But I want my laptop to be super fast when I do use it, more than I want to store lots of data on my laptop.

Still, warranties are your friend

[Noseyears]

The only problem with SSD drives is the price/size, For people wanting more storage space for their data.
I have used Hitachi drives most of the time and they have proven to be reliable. 

[pjchappy]

I do highly recommend an SSD drive.  Makes quite a nice improvement in overall PC speed.  Also, if battery life is a concern with your friend, SSDs draw much less power than traditional drives.

In my desktop system, I have a 60GB SSD (a Samsung) for the OS and several main programs.  Due to the size limitation of the SSD, I have games installed on a striped standard HD array (RAID 0); media files stored on another drive; and another drive is used for back-up.  Within a few months, I do plan on implementing a server with tons of storage, so this set-up will change.

I wrote all this non-SSD stuff to make a recommendation for a traditional HD, if your friend chooses that route.  I use WD Caviar Black drives for all of the other (non-SSD) storage mentioned.  I have always had good luck with WD drives and I plan on using many, many of their Green drives in the hard drive array for my server.


Paul