Question Does a hard drive have to be specific to a computer model/provider?

Apr 5, 2019
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I have a Sony Vaio desktop the computer is 7 years old and the hard drive is beginning to give me a lot of errors to the point where it doesn’t boot. If I go on amazon can I get any 1TB hard drive and it will work on my SONY VAIO or does the hard drive disk have to be specifically for SONY VAIO? Would any seagate 1TB hard drive work? Thanks
 
As long as the drive is the same form factor and uses the same interface, the drive will work. Judging by the age of the laptop, In this case as long as the drive is 2.5in and sata the hdd should work in that laptop.
Spindle speed should also be a factor when choosing a hard drive. A faster speed hdd can make the system a bit snappier. 5900rpm is a common speed but a 7200rpm drive can help speed up the system.
 
Apr 5, 2019
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Is there a difference if it says 16MB cache/32 mb cache? What it does it if it says 3.0 GB SATA vs 6.0 GB SATA? Also if it says it’s a hitachi or a dell 1000 GB hard drive will that work on my SONY VAIO?
 
Any brand of hdd will work in your sony vaio. More cache means more performance generally.
Sata has multiple generations. Sata 2 drives are older and limited to 3gb/s and sata 3 drives are newer and limited to 6gb/s. Your laptop will likely be limited to sata 2 3gb/s due to it age, but any sata hdd will work, even sata 3 drives. Faster drives are just are limited to sata 2 speeds. Most hard drives do not actually max out the limits of sata 2 so i wouldnt worry about that. Sata 3 drives should be faster than sata 2 drives even in that laptop since they are newer.