HDD replacement (Toshiba MK5065GSX) – where can I find out which drives I can replace it with?

[diamond_c]

The hard drive on my Vaio VPC-EB2X is failing ("SMART failure predicted on hard disk") only a few weeks out of warranty so I need to replace it.  I am going to do this myself.

The hard drive is a Toshiba MK5065gsx 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm).  Where can I find out which hard drives I can use?  Or can anyone suggest some options?

I know the have different physical sizes, have different plugs, etc so don't want to order one that doesn't fit.  I'm not looking for a major upgrade (the one I have is fast enough and has plenty of space) but would like the current version of the one I have, although probably a different brand this time.

[Blencogo]

Hi diamond_c and welcome.

Here is the datasheet for your existing drive.

http://storage.toshiba.eu/export/sites/toshiba-sdd/media/products/datasheets/mk5065gsx_datasheet.pdf

Physical size is important - you need to make sure the new 2.5 inch SATA drive is not thicker than 9.5mm.

The other important specification is the Bytes per Sector.  If you want your recovery discs/recovery partition to work, the drive must not have more than 512 Bytes/Sector as the Sony recovery software does not support Advanced Format drives with more bytes per sector.

Your existing hard drive is still available: -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-MK5076GSX-500GB-5400RPM-Internal/dp/B004UGWFZ8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qi...

Most of the major manufacturers are very good these days and if you are looking for an alternative then look at: -

Seagate Momentus ST9500325AS or ST9500325ASG

Samsung Spinpoint

Hitachi Travelstar

Western Digital WD5000BEVT or WD5000BEKT

[diamond_c]

Thanks!

Where can I find instructions or a link on how to replace the hard drive (both physical removal and configuration/setup)?

I have created recovery disks (onto DVD) and a system image (onto external hard drive).