There are a few type of notebook hard drives out there and picking the best is not always easy, at least without proper understanding of what they do and what types are there. This article tries to provide a quick checklist about what to look for when deciding to buy a new laptop HDD.

1. Is your notebook under warranty? Most of the notebooks out there hide the hard drive under a service door, making it really easy to change, but warranty conditions prohibit doing it for yourself. Read the manual and the warranty details, if unsure, call the brands help line to find out.

2. Have you backed up all the data from the hard drive? Most laptops with the very rare exception come with only one hard drive and there is no space for another. When you change it you’ll probably be unable to reach that data again, because some of these hard drives use a special connector found only in laptops rendering the backup process really complicated.

3. Find out if your notebook has SATA or PATA connector. This should be rather easy. On XP laptops My Computer, Device Manager shows the model number of the installed hard drive. It usually contains words describing the connection used. If you can’t find out, the latest free version of Everest diagnostics will tell you what type of connector is it you should be looking for.

4. Pick the right size hard disk. If you don’t use too much space, just want to have a new hard drive because your old one does funny noises, you should probably choose one of the smaller capacity but faster hard drives. Older notebooks use 4200 or 5400 rpm hard drives, you can easily make file operations snappy by picking a 7200 rpm unit.

5. Find out the physical size of the hard drive. Mini notebook computers have 1,8″ hard drives, some go with 2.5″, but always spin the manual before you order the wrong size for $100. Most 15 inch notebooks use 2.5″ hard drives, I probably wouldn’t even check twice.

6. Give a thought to SSD. SSD is a really fast memory chip based storage device some laptop manufacturers already use as a default. If you’re not after the capacity but uncompromising speed, SSD can be a great solution.

If you have all this information in your possession it becomes a breeze to go and buy a new hard drive, so before making up your mind about the model I suggest to take notes and decide accordingly. Reading a few topics and reviews about different models is also advisable, but don’t get too caught up, just pick one and go!