[pizzainthemorning]

I have an acer aspire 5570-2935 with 2 gigs of ram and some kind of dual core processor (maybe T2080?), and I had a 120 gb hard drive that just died on me. Cost is a factor and I'm thinking of just replacing the hard drive rather than buying a new laptop.

The hard drive in there was a Hitachi 120 GB SATA drive, model HTS541612J9SA00, something like this:
http://computers.pri.../m38000500.html

So...

1. Will any 2.5" SATA hard drive be compatible? Or are there different connection types or other formats/restrictions I should be aware of? I was thinking something in the 250-500 GB range, any recommendations (and again, price is a factor)?

2. There is no OS. Is booting windows to a clean hard drive a relatively simple procedure? I've read stuff about changing CD/DVD drive boot order in BIOS, but beyond that...? I'd hate to bring it into Futureshop for 175 bucks for something I might be able to do myself.

3. I had Vista home basic, but if I can get a copy of Windows 7 or XP, would it be better to go with one of those, or should I leave it as is with Vista? Would it require any kind of extra formatting or configuration to go with XP or 7, or is a blank drive a blank drive and it doesn't matter that I HAD Vista on my old drive?

Any advice would be appreciated,

Thanks,
Alex

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1. Will any 2.5" SATA hard drive be compatible? Or are there different connection types or other formats/restrictions I should be aware of? I was thinking something in the 250-500 GB range, any recommendations (and again, price is a factor)?

You want a 2.5" SATA 1.5Gb/s. Pick what capacity and speed (RPM) you want here:
http://www.newegg.co...amp;PageSize=20

2. There is no OS. Is booting windows to a clean hard drive a relatively simple procedure? I've read stuff about changing CD/DVD drive boot order in BIOS, but beyond that...? I'd hate to bring it into Futureshop for 175 bucks for something I might be able to do myself.

Boot from your Windows XP or Windows Vista CD and follow the on-screen instructions.

3. I had Vista home basic, but if I can get a copy of Windows 7 or XP, would it be better to go with one of those, or should I leave it as is with Vista? Would it require any kind of extra formatting or configuration to go with XP or 7, or is a blank drive a blank drive and it doesn't matter that I HAD Vista on my old drive?

The only drivers available from Acer, for your 5570, are for Windows XP or Vista:
http://support.acer....s_download.aspx

[SpywareDr]

1. Will any 2.5" SATA hard drive be compatible? Or are there different connection types or other formats/restrictions I should be aware of? I was thinking something in the 250-500 GB range, any recommendations (and again, price is a factor)?

You want a 2.5" SATA 1.5Gb/s. Pick what capacity and speed (RPM) you want here:
http://www.newegg.co...amp;PageSize=20

2. There is no OS. Is booting windows to a clean hard drive a relatively simple procedure? I've read stuff about changing CD/DVD drive boot order in BIOS, but beyond that...? I'd hate to bring it into Futureshop for 175 bucks for something I might be able to do myself.

Boot from your Windows XP or Windows Vista CD and follow the on-screen instructions.

3. I had Vista home basic, but if I can get a copy of Windows 7 or XP, would it be better to go with one of those, or should I leave it as is with Vista? Would it require any kind of extra formatting or configuration to go with XP or 7, or is a blank drive a blank drive and it doesn't matter that I HAD Vista on my old drive?

The only drivers available from Acer, for your 5570, are for Windows XP or Vista:
http://support.acer....s_download.aspx

[pizzainthemorning]

Excellent, thanks a lot. Just curious though, why a 1.5Gb/s drive? I'd kind of just assume that more is better, but I've seen drives ranging from 300Mb/s to 3Gb/s, and I'm wondering why 1.5Gb/s specifically.

Thanks for the link, but I'm in Canada and NewEgg only doesn't ship internationally. Based on what you mentioned though I was thinking either of these:

http://www.bestbuy.c...a232a6d6e06en02

http://www.futuresho...a40721ab0bfen02

There are also some real cheapo ones available made by Pine/Fujitsu or Hitachi with higher capacity but lower data transfer rates (300Mb/s). The prices is right but I'm skeptical, having had my hard drive die already.

Thanks again,

Alex

[Samm]

Just to add to what SpywareDr has already said...

Of the two drives you listed, I would go with the Seagate because it has a longer warranty.

As for the 1.5Gb transfer speed, I suspect SpywareDr said to go for that one because that's the fastest your system supports. That doesn't mean it won't work with a faster drive but it won't run at the faster speed. If the Hitachi you listed is the same as the drive you currently have, then the current one is 1.5Gb, so that's probably the fastest the system will support & it's best to stick with that.

As for the OS, I would recommend XP personally.

[SpywareDr]

I agree with Samm on all points.

Your current HTS541612J9SA00 is a 2.5" notebook hard drive, spinning at 5400 RPM and uses a SATA 1.5Gb/s interface.

• Your HTS541612J9SA00 is 70x9.5x100 (width, height, depth in mm [millimeter]). If you get one any larger than your HTS541612J9SA00 though, it may not fit inside your notebook.
  
  (Note: Height on 2.5" HDs vary from 7–15 mm).
  
  
• RPMs can be up to whatever is available and affordable. Faster RPMs, such as 7200, do add 'pep' but, they also tend to deplete the battery faster.
  
  
• Your laptop's SATA 1.5Gb/s interface is the maximum data transfer rate it can handle. You can hook up a hard drive with a 3.0Gb/s interface but, it'll be forced to fall back (slow down) to 1.5Gb/s.

I would also go with the Seagate, simply because of the 5-year (vs. 3-year) warranty.

And finally, XP vs. Vista? Let's just put it this way, if I can't have Windows 7, then XP please.

[pizzainthemorning]

So it works. I ended up going with the Western Digital drive. The 5 year warranty on Seagate was appealing (the HD on my old Acer aspire 1350 is a Seagate and still going strong), but the WD one was 3 years, and I doubt I'll still have this computer in that long, let alone 5. I also went with XP and after grabbing a few drivers, everything seems to run very smoothly now.

Thanks a lot for all your help guys,

Alex

[SpywareDr]

You're more than welcome.

Good to hear everything is up and running. Thanks for letting us know.