2 TB HD don't work with older laptops?

[SkyNet_3000]

Tom's hardware community, was wondering if you can please help me. My samsung laptop's hard drive is dying and been frustrated with mixed information from intel and samsung customer service.

I was under the impression that after a reading an article from computershopper.com, that I can replace my hard drive with any one as long as it is SATA and has the same physical dimensions. Is this incorrect?

However, my 3rd conversation with a Samsung agent informed me that my laptop only supports up to 1 TB hard drive. Furthermore, only Samsung and Hitachi hard drives have been approved for the laptop, which means WD or Seagate may or may not work (funny, the Samsung hard drive that came with my laptop is manufactured from Seagate).

I don't necessarily trust the agent, so I turn to you smart people to please enlighten me on what my hard drive replacement options might be.

I was hoping to upgrade to a Samsung Spinpoint M9T ST2000LM003:
SATA, 2.5 inch, 9.5 mm thickness
2 TB, 5400 RPM 32 MB Cache. 6.0 gb/s,

My current hard drive has similar specifications:
SATA, 2.5 inch form factor, 9.5 mm Thickness.,
1 TB, 5400 RPM, 8 MB Cache, 3.0 gb/s.

article I read: http://www.computershopper.com/laptops/howto/replace-your-laptop-s-hard-drive

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[WebBeachBoy]

Hello,

I see no reason why a new hard disk of the same dimensions (so that it will fit into the same space) should not work perfectly in your laptop. The main thing usually is whether the operating system will recognise it. Windows XP for example was only able to recognise hard drives up to 2TB at one point. Of course if you are replacing the hard drive you will have to reinstall the operating system. This means that you will need to reactivate the operating system after reinstallation. I have never heard of any PC or laptop only working with hard drives from one particular manufacturer. It may just be possible that your BIOS does not recognise the new drive but most BIOS's made after 2000 should be able to. If that is a problem you can flash the BIOS with an upgrade from the manufacturer.

 

[SkyNet_3000]

Thank you for your detailed response WebBeachBoy. After live chatting with Samsung support some more, it seems like my laptop's BIOS only supports up to 1 TB and will apparently not run if a 2 TB hard drive is installed. The agent stated a 6.0 gps may or may not work as well as a non-Samsung or Hiatchi may not work, but they have no test data on either of these to say for sure.

What you say makes sense. My laptop is 2012, so definitely after 2000. No idea what flashing the BIOS means with an upgrade (I have latest drivers).

I think I will try to do further research into 1 TB hard drives ideally from Hitachi or samsung (don't see many of them out on the market on newegg, bestbuy, etc.)

 

[WebBeachBoy]

Hi SkyNet_3000

I replied to this but for some reason my reply is not shown so I'll do it again.....

I am surprised that your BIOS does not recognise HDDs over 1TB - it must be a very old BIOS chip in a newish computer. "Flashing the BIOS" means updating the BIOS chip iself [NOT the software on the computer](chips made after about 2000 allow for this) with specific updates from the manufacturers (of the chip) website, however your chip seems so old that the best solution is to replace it. The chips only cost a couple of dollars and you can take the computer in to any computer store and ask them to replace the old BIOS chip with a new one. This will probably only cost about $25 and is the best way to go. Make sure that you know exactly what make, model and serial number the chip has then you can go to the manufacturers website to read about flashing it !!