New laptop hard drive

[daveb]

The hard drive from my old Toshiba lap top has unfortunately died. The computer is about 5 years old. Can you suggest the best place to buy a replacement hard drive either new or reconditioned. I don't want to spend a fortune on replacing a hard drive on a old computer

 

[ClubMan]

Are you sure that you can't revive/recover the drive and maybe even your data if necessary? What make/model is the drive? if you don't know open the laptop up and check or download and run [broken link removed] (free, now discontinued but still available from various download sites) to check. I had an old 10GB drive that seemed to be dodgy but once I ran the manufacturer's low level testing/diagnostic/recovery tools (and a few other third party tools out of interest) on it it was fine. Zeroising the drive and masking out any dodgy sectors seemed to do the trick. If you need help with tackling this then post here and I'll give you the benefit of advice arusing from my recent experiences.

Presumably it's a 2.5" laptop drive? You could try eBay. For online supplier suggestions/recommendations see [broken link removed]. If you are in Dublin and want to buy from a retail premises then try [broken link removed] (40GB/€75, 60GB/€98, 80GB/€117), [broken link removed] or the like.

 

[tiger]

ebay route could be good. As well as hard-drives, look for old laptops. People sometimes sell old machines with broken screens, motherboards etc. for spare parts.

 

[runner]

Try Business Management Systems (BMS) in walkinstown.
Used them in the past for Tosh. Are competent and professional and were/are one of the tosh distributors. Should be able to quote you a repair price.

 

[ClubMan]

If it turns out that the hard drive is definitely the problem and is not retrievable then don't pay anybody to fix this unless you cannot source a replacement drive and install it yourself. Unless your laptop is particularly unusual (e.g. hard to open to access the drive) this should be a doddle as long as you can use a screwdriver and have a basic understanding of hardware/software. On the other hand if you want somebody to do it for your I'll supply and fit an 80GB drive for €200!