If you own a laptop, it might be beneficial for you to learn about the hard drive in the machine. The intuit is that many hard drives might need to be upgraded for increased speed or capacity, or they might fail at some point.

In this article, we will study 5 things you need to know about laptop hard drives so that you can upgrade or replace your hard drive if there is ever a need. Remember, laptop hard drives are more costly than desktop units so you need to consider considered before purchasing one.

Drives

1. Small bodily Size
Laptop hard drives are obviously smaller than their desktop counterparts. This is needed for mobility and you normally find laptop hard drives of thicknesses around 10 to 12 mm. That is highly thin and suits lightweight and transportable laptop models.
The smaller size reduces the capacity of laptop hard drives as well (see Point 3 below).

2. Lower Disk Speeds
Now, how does laptop hard drive speed quantum up? Well, compared to their desktop and firm counterparts, laptop hard drives tend to be slower. You will normally find that a movable hard drive spins at 5,400 rpm (although others spin with 7,200 rpm).

3. Hard Drive Capacity
Typical laptop hard drive capacities these days come at 100 to 200 Gb. That's a lot of warehouse space compared to the days when you could only squeeze maybe 20 Gb in laptop hard drive. Interestingly, Samsung has just released a 500 Gb hard disk drive for laptops. That is marvelous warehouse that you normally only get in desktops. Things are clearly progressing in the laptop world.

4. Solid State Drives
An important trend in laptop hard drives is the addition use of solid state drives. What is a solid state drive? Well, a solid state warehouse device is like the thing that stores the music in your iPod nano or pen drive. It has no tantalizing parts like a primary hard drive, and is hence not subjected to damage due to jumps and shocks. Technology has progressed to the point where solid state drives are increasingly more beloved and also more affordable. Some examples of laptops with solid state technology options are the Apple MacBook Air, the Asus Eee Pc and the Toshiba Portege R500.

5. Shock-Resistant Technology
One of the more up-to-date innovations in laptop hard drives is that of shock-resistant technology. If you own an Lenovo ThinkPad, you will observation that there is an icon on the lower right angle of your screen that changes when you suddenly move the laptop.

Now, there's an accelerometer inside the laptop which monitors any sudden changes in motion. If the laptop detects it, it will abruptly park the heads on the hard disk to forestall them from corrupting data. Ingenious idea, huh?

Conclusion
I hope the above has given you some good comprehension into laptop hard drives and their features. The next time you need to upgrade your laptop hard drive, keep the above points in mind - they will help you make a good purchase decision. So until next time, good luck and happy computing!