Upgrading Laptop HDD

[AhmedRSi]

I have a dell vostro 1500. I'm planning to upgrade my external hard disk (currently western digital 320gb 2.5") to a big old style 3.5" 1.5tb or 2tb.

Now, I want to take apart my 2.5" hard disk and put the hard drive into my vostro laptop. How do i find out the specs of the hard drive before ripping the external housing out? I'm interested to see wether they have the same interface etc (sata/ide) and if the spin speeds/acess times are comparable/better/worse.

 

[Initiale]

When you plug in the external disk, does it show up the model number in Device Manager? Then google it.

 

[shadowsun]

The Vostro range is fairly recent so any it should be using a 2.5" SATA drive which means you can use most SATA 1 or 2 hard drives.

Warning though, I put a 7200rpm into my Dell Inspirion laptop and it makes a lot more heat - I'm talking up to 75 degrees which burns your lap!

 

[AhmedRSi]

Shadowsun, funny you should mention that.

My laptop has been getting VERY hot speeds since I can remember when watching movies (especially HD) or downloading large files. Never took any notice of it as its always on a desk etc but the underneath is impossible to touch its that hot!

Last night downloaded speedfan and temps were something like...

GPU - 65
HD0 - 50
TEMP1 - 90
CORE 0 - 87
CORE 1 - 87

Surely thats running too hot lmao.