A31p - 320GB? Straight answers please.

[tbartold]

Simply put, is the 320GB (or 250 or 160) offered by Seagate (or WD or ...) going to work in an A31p? Comments about A30, A30p, A31, also welcome. I see discussion about T* (and error codes) but not A*.

Is the A series reliability limited to 120GB? Has anyone put a >137GB drive in an A3x series laptop and had no problems when they've stored more than 137GB on it?

I'd like one of the newer 'PMR' drives, but if the $99 320GB is just going to crap out in my A31p then I'm hoping others can tell me so and I can avoid making a fool of myself.

Thanks in advance...

[ajkula66]

Haven't tested the 320GB, but 250GB worked fine, and is fully accessible.

There is NO limit on A3x units when it comes to HD size.

[ElbertR]

I got a WD 250GB main hard drive and second WD 250GB hard drive in the right ultrabay.

Now that WD offers a 320GB drive, you can have up to 3 x 320Gb HD in this laptop. If you use the docking station which has an additional ultrabay you can have up to 4 x 320GB in hard drive space. All this without a USB external drive.

Actually you can have even more space, if you use the aftermarket SATA Hard drive tray for the ultrabay. Not sure what capacity the largest SATA laptop drives are right now, But I think they go up to at least 500GB.

That could give you 3 x 500GB SATA plus 320GB IDE with the docking station.

[docfxit]

I got a WD 250GB main hard drive and second WD 250GB hard drive in the right ultrabay.

Now that WD offers a 320GB drive, you can have up to 3 x 320Gb HD in this laptop. If you use the docking station which has an additional ultrabay you can have up to 4 x 320GB in hard drive space. All this without a USB external drive.

Actually you can have even more space, if you use the aftermarket SATA Hard drive tray for the ultrabay. Not sure what capacity the largest SATA laptop drives are right now, But I think they go up to at least 500GB.

That could give you 3 x 500GB SATA plus 320GB IDE with the docking station.

Is that a 7200rpm drive? Do you know the part #? Or where I could get one?

Thank you,

Docfxit

[ajkula66]

That's a 5400rpm drive.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... 0010105-OP

[ElbertR]

Is that a 7200rpm drive? Do you know the part #? Or where I could get one?

Thank you,

Docfxit

The WD IDE drives are 100 MB/s, 8 MB Cache, 5400 RPM. Look for a WD3200BEVE. The 500GB SATA is WD5000BEVT.

All of the high capacity laptop drives I have seen are 5400 RPM, but they are still very fast.

You can find the SATA ultrabay caddy on ebay for about $25.