notebook drives

[WeirdClayJisKOO]

would i notice a difference between a 4200 and a 5400 hard drive preformance wise? I want to get a backup drive for my laptop, and was thinking it would be better to upgrade my current drive and just buy an enclosure for my old one. I currently have a 120GB 4200rpm PATA HDD, so I don't want to go with a 7200rpm drive because the highest capacity i could find them in is 100gb. the rest of my hardware stats are as follows:

OS Name	Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version	5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer	Microsoft Corporation
System Name	CJSLAPTOP
System Manufacturer	Acer
System Model	Aspire 5100
System Type	X86-based PC
Processor	x86 Family 15 Model 72 Stepping 2 AuthenticAMD ~1595 Mhz
Processor	x86 Family 15 Model 72 Stepping 2 AuthenticAMD ~1595 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date	Acer V1.80, 7/14/2006
SMBIOS Version	2.4
Windows Directory	C:\WINDOWS
System Directory	C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device	\Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale	United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer	Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
User Name	CJSLAPTOP\Clayton
Time Zone	Eastern Standard Time
Total Physical Memory	1,024.00 MB
Available Physical Memory	270.73 MB
Total Virtual Memory	2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory	1.96 GB
Page File Space	2.12 GB
Page File	C:\pagefile.sys


I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7	PCI bus
I/O Port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7	Direct memory access controller
	
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF	PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF	ATI Radeon Xpress 1100
	
IRQ 23	ENE PCI Memory Stick Card Reader Controller
IRQ 23	SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller
IRQ 23	ENE PCI SmartMedia / xD Card Reader Controller
IRQ 23	ENE PCI Secure Digital / MMC Card Reader Controller
	
I/O Port 0x00009000-0x00009FFF	PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
I/O Port 0x00009000-0x00009FFF	ATI Radeon Xpress 1100
	
Memory Address 0xC0100000-0xC01FFFFF	PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
Memory Address 0xC0100000-0xC01FFFFF	ATI Radeon Xpress 1100
	
Memory Address 0xC8000000-0xCFFFFFFF	PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
Memory Address 0xC8000000-0xCFFFFFFF	ATI Radeon Xpress 1100
	
Memory Address 0xE0000-0xE1FFF	PCI bus
Memory Address 0xE0000-0xE1FFF	System board
	
IRQ 19	Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
IRQ 19	Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
IRQ 19	Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
	
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF	PCI bus
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF	PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF	ATI Radeon Xpress 1100
	
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB	PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB	ATI Radeon Xpress 1100

would i notice any improvement in speed if i were to upgrade to a 5400 drive or should i just buy an external one?

also, i noticed that it says my processor is x86 family and my system type is x86-based pc. does this mean i could run a 86 bit os? when i bought the computer i thought i was just getting a 64 bit procesor which i wanted for vista...is there an 86 bit version of vista, and would i be able to run it?


thanks!

 

[turtile]

You should notice a pretty good dilfference with this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148073

Hitachi makes a simular one for cheaper but I've only seen a SATA one.

 

[WeirdClayJisKOO]

ok i'm going to sound like an idiot asking this, but what's the difference between pata and sata? i also have a few other questions i'm not sure if i should just ask here or make a new thread but i'll start asking here. my hard drive currently has two partitions (one for backup). when i upgrade to vista i want to unpartition my drive. it's currently formatted as a fat32 rather than ntfs. i heard somewhere that some of the functions of my bios (the acer empowering technology) wont work as an ntfs format. is this true, because i would rather have it formatted as ntfs.

 

[Jorsoft]

I believe that the partition you're referring to (if you're using an Acer) is your back up partition. The way Acer has rigged their software and restore process it will not work in NTFS.

 

[WeirdClayJisKOO]

ok thats what i thought. and i wasn't thinking when i asked if i had an 86 it procesor, thats just my procesor type...duhh.

anyways, would you guys recomend i get an upgraded hd, with only one partition formated as a fat32 ad my internal, and use my existing one with an enclosure formated as a ntfs for backup? than when i install vista what will that do to the acer stuff?

 

[saltynay]

Ive got an acer and I unpartitioned my back up and had no problems apart from for some strange reason Ive know got a 32mb free space which i cant seem to merge with my C: but mines a travelmate so maybe acer has rigged them up differently.

Matt

 

[WeirdClayJisKOO]

have you tried installing vista? i want to know what i will do with the acer empowering technology.

 

[saltynay]

nope sorry Ive tried linux lol but not vista my laptop only has 512mb of ram lol I have to Use a 2gb paging file when I'm playing games and I'm just using xp pro so I dont wanna chance with vista.

Matt