If you want to upgrade or replace your laptop hard drive, you want to make sure you get one that’s the best fit for your particular laptop, and if you’re not a pro at these sorts of things, make sure you know all the facts before investing in a new hard drive and start taking your laptop apart (we’re talking about an internal hard drive here – check out this post for external hard drives).

So what do you need to know? Here are the main points to consider (for once, we’re not concerned with whether they come in pink or not, since they won’t be visible anyway):

Capacity
Traditional rotating laptop hard drives come in sizes from 20GB to 1TB, and Solid State Drives (SSD) for laptops are available in 8GB to 1TB. Solid State Drives can handle being shaken and dropped, and do not spin, so rpm is not a factor here. Price is though – they are expensive. A 1TB SSD drive costs around $3,000-$4,000+ whereas a Western Digital 1TB hard drive (5400rpm) is around $180! Also, on newer laptops you should be fine installing an SSD, but if your laptop is older and runs on XP, the operating system is not optimized for an SSD and you may experience difficulties with it.

RPM
RPM stands for Revolutions Per Minute and tells you how fast your hard drive spins. 5400rpm is the most common speed in laptop hard drives, but they come in 4200, 7200, 10000 and 15000rpm as well (the two larger numbers are for hard drives you buy separately, there are no laptops on the market with that kind of HDD already installed, not even gaming laptops). The faster they spin, the faster your system operates. However, spinning fast also means consuming more energy (draining the battery) and generating more heat, so that’s something to consider.

Physical Size
This one is obviously very important. Laptop hard drives come in two standard sizes – 1.8″ and 2.5″, with the 2.5 hard drive being the most common. You’ll find the 1.8″ mostly in mini notebooks. However, they also come in different thicknesses. A 12.5mm hard drive will not fit in a laptop that has a 9.5mm slot. Check your manual or call the manufacturer to make sure you know what your laptop needs.

Interface/Connector
Interface means how your hard drive communicates with your laptop and there are two different kinds: SATA (serial ATA) and PATA (parallel ATA a.k.a IDE). You can tell which is which by looking at the hard drive pins – PATA extends out from the body of the hard drive whereas on SATA drives, the pins are more a solid part of the drive. There are also two types of connectors: IDE and ZIF. Check your documentation to see which one your laptop uses.

Cache
The cache is a space on the hard drive that stores data temporarily for fast retrieval. A larger cache can improve the speed of your system, but it’s not the most important factor (rpm is when it comes to speed). In fact, if you go to some of the major manufacturers’ websites and look at the specs for the laptops, the size of the hard drive cache is not even listed. It is though if you’re buying a separate hard drive to install yourself. 8, 16 or 32MB are standard cache sizes.

So is a 750GB 5400rpm hdd better than a 500GB 7200rpm hdd? Better is not the right word: the first drive will store more but be a bit slower and the second drive will store less but work faster. You have to decide what’s most important for you and base your choice on that.

Sooner or later, space starts getting tight on any computer, but there is an easy, affordable fix: external harddrives.

They’re great for backups too – I personally store all my photos and other large files on several external harddrives, and also have them all backed up on a separate one, which I keep off site, just in case something should happen at home (such as a fire, theft or lightning strike).

There are many different brands and sizes to choose from, and everyone has their favorite. I use Western Digital drives and have been very happy with them (knock on wood). Other big, well known names are LaCie, Seagate, SimpleTech, Iomega, Samsung, Transcend and Buffalo.

Prices have come down quite a bit since I got my first one, making it an affordable way to expand your laptop (and much easier than to install a larger internal hard drive) and easily back up your files. These days, you can get a good external hd for as little as $50. And many come in a variety of colors too.

Size – Both Physical and Storage
Do you want to be able to take it with you everywhere? If so, you want to look for a portable external harddrive that easily fits into laptop bags. There are lots to choose from, ranging in price from the mid $30s for a 3″x5″ 80GB Cirago to over $400 for Transcend’s 3″x2″ 128GB SSD18M solid state drive. While solid state is ideal for a drive that will be carried around, it is a lot of money. A great, more affordable (as well as colorful and rugged) option, is Transcend’s 3″x5″ 500GB StoreJet 25 Mobile at just under $100 (not a solid state). If you want a ton of storage space and don’t mind lugging around a larger drive, check out HP’s 8″x4.6″ 2TB Personal Media Drive, which sells for around $200.

If you plan on never taking your external hd with you, there are almost an infinite number of choices. One great option is a multi-disk harddrive with RAID technology. RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks and comes in several different configurations, the most common being RAID0, 1 and 5. RAID0 splits all the data between 2 harddrives (also called striping), which speeds up write and read times. RAID1 creates an exact copy of everything on the first disk on the second disk (“mirroring”), so that if one crashes, you still have all your data on the second one. RAID5 requires a minimum of 3 disks and does both striping and mirroring. Some will let you switch between different RAID configurations so you can set it to RAID0 if speed is most important or RAID1 if security is your top priority. These types of drives are available from all the major manufacturers (and some smaller ones too).

Having said all that, people have had issues where one disk crashed and they were unable to recover the data from the other(s). I personally feel safer having multiple smaller external harddrives and backing up my data to at least two of them on a very regular basis, even if it’s not as convenient as having one unit, and you have to remember to back up.

Speed
The rpm tells you how fast the disk spins. A 7200rpm harddrive is faster than one at 5400rpm, but the faster disks also consumes more energy and gets warmer.

The Mb/s tells you how many megabytes are transferred per second.

Transfer rates are also dependant to some extent on the type of connection you use. Every mainstream external harddrive on the market has a USB 2.0 connection, but some also have FireWire and/or eSATA. FireWire and eSATA are faster than USB, but not all laptops come with those types of ports (they also need to be supported by your laptop’s motherboard). The first external harddrives using USB 3.0 were recently announced (with super fast transfer speeds), but you won’t be able to use them unless you have a motherboard that supports USB 3.0. A few have already been announced, but Intel says they will not support USB 3.0 until 2011.

I obviously cannot write about any computer hardware without mentioning the pink ones. Here they are:

A-DATA
Classic CH91 (250, 320, 500 or 640GB) in a shiny, classic pink
Nobility NH92 (250, 320, 500 or 640GB) in Cherry Pink

Iomega
eGo Portable – 160 or 250GB in a shiny dark pink, or 320GB in Flamingo Pink

LaCie
Skwarim 60GB in bright pink

Samsung
S1 Mini (120, 160 or 250GB) in Sweet Pink
S2 Mini (160, 250, 320 or 500GB) in Sweet Pink

Seagate
FeeAgent Go 250 or 320GB in Think Pink

SimpleTech (Hitachi)
Signature Mini 250GB in Bubblegum Pink

Verbatim
Verbatim Portable 320GB in a nice muted pink

Western Digital
My Passport Essential 160 or 320GB in Vibrant Pink
WD also sells a pink skin for their My Book Home or Office Edition drives

Every year it’s the same: one moment you’re walking around in shorts and flip flops, basking in the warmth of the sun, and the next, Christmas is a few weeks away and gift buying-panic sets in. Here are 11 items that’ll give you a head start on your holiday shopping:

Noteworthy Notebooks

With the look of a chic evening bag, suitable for any dressy event, the yet-to-be-named Vivienne Tam-designed clutch notebook from HP is the cutest laptop I’ve seen in a long time (perhaps ever!). The outside is dark red with painterly pink and purple peonies, the national flower of China where it is considered a symbol of riches and honor, and inside, the return key sports the Chinese character for double happiness.

It comes with an embroidered sleeve (also designed by Vivienne Tam) and the only downside to this fabulous laptop is that it won’t be available until 2009. But why not ask for a homemade gift certificate for it for the holidays, and you’ll be all set once it hits the market. Newsflash! I just found out that this gorgeous little digital clutch will in fact be available in time for the holidays. It will be priced around $699, and you can reserve one by calling HP.

I’ve written about Ego’s laptops before, but it bears repeating. They are so ultra-fabulous I just can’t help myself. They currently offer 4 different pink designs, but they keep adding new, fresh looks continuously, so if you don’t like what you see now – just keep checking back with them. They were previously only available in the US from Avant Gallery in Miami Beach, but now, Saks Fifth Avenue in NYC also sells them.

Awesome Accessories
It somehow feels like a shame to put your Ego laptop in a bag, but I have to say that their pink leather “Enrichment Bag” is too cute to resist. It looks like your Ego but with pockets and a shoulder strap (which can also be detached from the bag and put on your laptop directly).

Abbi New York makes adorable laptop bags and keeps coming out with new fabulous collections. I absolutely adored the dusty pink Sienna messenger bag, but alas, it is no longer available (bring it back, Abbi!). However, Abbi’s new collection, Erin, is equally delightful with its retro styling. Erin is available as a briefcase, slim carrier or clutch and is made with water-resistant nylon and patent leather trim and adorned with Abbi’s four leaf clover logo. Note: This bag is no longer available, but check out my latest post on laptop bags for Abbi’s new designs.

Cool Gadgets For Kids
For the kids (and who enjoys Christmas more than they do?), I love the Tag Reading System from LeapFrog. Intended for 4-8-year olds, the specially printed storybooks (currently over 20 titles to choose from, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Olivia, and The Little Mermaid) come with a pink and white (or green & white) “Tag Reader”, a pen-looking device that when moved across text in the books, reads them out loud to your kids.

The Nintendo DS Light in Metallic Rose is super stylish, light, and features two bright screens, wi-fi, surround sound and touch-screen technology. It’s backwards compatible too, allowing you to use Game Boy Advanced games as well.

Sweet Stocking Stuffers
Mice
The pink leopard patterned G-Cube Lux Mouse (wired) is an inexpensive way to add some sass to your home office.

HP’s wireless mini mouse (in metallic dusty pink) is the perfect “travel mouse”. It’s tiny, works on almost any surface, is designed for both left- and right-handed users (great for situations when you can’t use it on your “regular” side), and the USB receiver fits into the bottom of the mouse when not in use, making it a bit harder to lose.

External Memory
Kingston’s 8GB Traveler flash drives are pocket sized, cute, affordable, and come with an attached cap. The accompanying software lets you create a “privacy zone” on the drive – a password protected area only you will be able to access. A great idea, since flash are one of those things that people inadvertently leave behind in various places.

To store a bit more data, consider iOmega’s eGo 250GB portable hard drive (it comes in several colors, metallic Flamingo pink being one of them). At 3.5×5.2″ and 7.7 oz, it can easily fit in a pocketbook or laptop bag, and it also has what they call “drop guard”, so it can handle being banged about a bit.

If you need a lot of external memory on the go, check out Western Digital’s My Passport Essential. It’s compatible with both Windows and Mac, has a 500GB capacity, and is actually even smaller and lighter than the iOmega above: 3.1×4.9″ and 0.4 lbs.