Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from 6-10 years ago when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. Even a Blue drive is better then the factory Toshiba drives (750+ drives die in 2.5 years nearly 100% of the time) since they’re still a lot faster and far more reliabile. While most professionals still refuse to use them unless the budget forces it due to the 3->2 year warranty reduction and past short lifetime issues, the current Fixed III ones are far better then the old ones like the BEVT series, which all burned through their spare sector reserve in 2-3 years with any meaningful use ON TOP OF the bad read/write speeds. They use binned Black drives more often then not now, so you’re getting a much better drive these days but they do run at 5400rpm vs. 7200rpm. If you buy one, I would do so with the expectation the drive needs to be evaluated for replacement in 2.5-3 years which is how we used to deal with them to be safe - especially in a primary system.
'''If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 2 years with the Blue series. I don’t recommend the Blue drives if you have the budget for a Black drive - even today.'''
'''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket and screws - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into paying factory service pricing), and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :( - this was released after the bogus takedown.
What I would do is get a 256GB class SSD, put that in Bay 1 and jam it good with something to keep it secure (removable!) and use the HD bracket in Bay 2 if you can’t find the part.
-
'''If this is a Windows 8 machine, get a copy of the ISO from Microsoft, extract it with 7Zip and load the files into NTLite. Go into Unattended and add OEM SetupComplete to force it to find the key - Windows 8 has SERIOUS issues detecting the BIOS key on Non-OEM media on certain machines. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE. You’ll need to generate a new ISO file once you make the changes needed to fix the problem. While it doesn’t always happen, it’s common enough it’s better to have it as a backup plan.'''
+
'''If this is a Windows 8 machine and you cannot make recovery media or the images needed are lost, get a copy of the ISO from Microsoft, extract it with 7Zip and load the files into NTLite. Go into Unattended and add OEM SetupComplete to force it to find the key - Windows 8 has SERIOUS issues detecting the BIOS key on Non-OEM media on certain machines. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE. You’ll need to generate a new ISO file once you make the changes needed to fix the problem. While it doesn’t always happen, it’s common enough it’s better to have it as a backup plan.'''
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from 6-10 years ago when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. Even a Blue drive is better then the factory Toshiba drives (750+ drives die in 2.5 years nearly 100% of the time) since they’re still a lot faster and far more reliabile. While most professionals still refuse to use them unless the budget forces it due to the 3->2 year warranty reduction and past short lifetime issues, the current Fixed III ones are far better then the old ones like the BEVT series, which all burned through their spare sector reserve in 2-3 years with any meaningful use ON TOP OF the bad read/write speeds. They use binned Black drives more often then not now, so you’re getting a much better drive these days but they do run at 5400rpm vs. 7200rpm. If you buy one, I would do so with the expectation the drive needs to be evaluated for replacement in 2.5-3 years which is how we used to deal with them to be safe - especially in a primary system.
'''If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 2 years with the Blue series. I don’t recommend the Blue drives if you have the budget for a Black drive - even today.'''
'''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket and screws - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into paying factory service pricing), and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :( - this was released after the bogus takedown.
What I would do is get a 256GB class SSD, put that in Bay 1 and jam it good with something to keep it secure (removable!) and use the HD bracket in Bay 2 if you can’t find the part.
-
[br]
-
-
-
'''If this is a Windows 8 machine, get a copy of the ISO from Microsoft, extract it with 7Zip to and NTLite. Go into Unattended and add OEM SetupComplete to force it to find the key - Windows 8 has SERIOUS issues detecting the BIOS key on Non-OEM media on certain machines. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE. Probably wouldn’t hurt to have a backup, but having that OEM SetupComplete image available will bail you out if it has an issue with detection.'''
+
'''If this is a Windows 8 machine, get a copy of the ISO from Microsoft, extract it with 7Zip and load the files into NTLite. Go into Unattended and add OEM SetupComplete to force it to find the key - Windows 8 has SERIOUS issues detecting the BIOS key on Non-OEM media on certain machines. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE. You’ll need to generate a new ISO file once you make the changes needed to fix the problem. While it doesn’t always happen, it’s common enough it’s better to have it as a backup plan.'''
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
-
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from 6-10 years ago when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. While even a Blue drive is better then the factory Toshiba drives (750+ drives die in 2.5 years nearly 100% of the time) they’re still a lot faster and far more reliabile. While most professionals still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one due to the 3->2 year warranty reduction and past short lifetime issues, the current Fixed III ones are far better then the old ones like the BEVT series, which all burned through their sector reserve in 2-3 years with any meaningful use ON TOP OF the bad read/write speeds. They use binned Black drives more often then not now, so you’re getting a much better drive these days but run at 5400rpm vs. 7200rpm. If you buy one, I would do so with the expectation the drive needs to be evaluated for replacement in 2.5-3 years which is how we used to deal with them to be safe.
+
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from 6-10 years ago when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. Even a Blue drive is better then the factory Toshiba drives (750+ drives die in 2.5 years nearly 100% of the time) since they’re still a lot faster and far more reliabile. While most professionals still refuse to use them unless the budget forces it due to the 3->2 year warranty reduction and past short lifetime issues, the current Fixed III ones are far better then the old ones like the BEVT series, which all burned through their spare sector reserve in 2-3 years with any meaningful use ON TOP OF the bad read/write speeds. They use binned Black drives more often then not now, so you’re getting a much better drive these days but they do run at 5400rpm vs. 7200rpm. If you buy one, I would do so with the expectation the drive needs to be evaluated for replacement in 2.5-3 years which is how we used to deal with them to be safe - especially in a primary system.
'''If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 2 years with the Blue series. I don’t recommend the Blue drives if you have the budget for a Black drive - even today.'''
'''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket and screws - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into paying factory service pricing), and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :( - this was released after the bogus takedown.
What I would do is get a 256GB class SSD, put that in Bay 1 and jam it good with something to keep it secure (removable!) and use the HD bracket in Bay 2 if you can’t find the part.
[br]
'''If this is a Windows 8 machine, get a copy of the ISO from Microsoft, extract it with 7Zip to and NTLite. Go into Unattended and add OEM SetupComplete to force it to find the key - Windows 8 has SERIOUS issues detecting the BIOS key on Non-OEM media on certain machines. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE. Probably wouldn’t hurt to have a backup, but having that OEM SetupComplete image available will bail you out if it has an issue with detection.'''
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from 6-10 years ago when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. While even a Blue drive is better then the factory Toshiba drives (750+ drives die in 2.5 years nearly 100% of the time) they’re still a lot faster and far more reliabile. While most professionals still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one due to the 3->2 year warranty reduction and past short lifetime issues, the current Fixed III ones are far better then the old ones like the BEVT series, which all burned through their sector reserve in 2-3 years with any meaningful use ON TOP OF the bad read/write speeds. They use binned Black drives more often then not now, so you’re getting a much better drive these days but run at 5400rpm vs. 7200rpm. If you buy one, I would do so with the expectation the drive needs to be evaluated for replacement in 2.5-3 years which is how we used to deal with them to be safe.
'''If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 2 years with the Blue series. I don’t recommend the Blue drives if you have the budget for a Black drive - even today.'''
'''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
-
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :( - this was released after the bogus takedown.
+
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket and screws - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into paying factory service pricing), and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :( - this was released after the bogus takedown.
What I would do is get a 256GB class SSD, put that in Bay 1 and jam it good with something to keep it secure (removable!) and use the HD bracket in Bay 2 if you can’t find the part.
[br]
'''If this is a Windows 8 machine, get a copy of the ISO from Microsoft, extract it with 7Zip to and NTLite. Go into Unattended and add OEM SetupComplete to force it to find the key - Windows 8 has SERIOUS issues detecting the BIOS key on Non-OEM media on certain machines. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE. Probably wouldn’t hurt to have a backup, but having that OEM SetupComplete image available will bail you out if it has an issue with detection.'''
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from 6-10 years ago when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. While even a Blue drive is better then the factory Toshiba drives (750+ drives die in 2.5 years nearly 100% of the time) they’re still a lot faster and far more reliabile. While most professionals still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one due to the 3->2 year warranty reduction and past short lifetime issues, the current Fixed III ones are far better then the old ones like the BEVT series, which all burned through their sector reserve in 2-3 years with any meaningful use ON TOP OF the bad read/write speeds. They use binned Black drives more often then not now, so you’re getting a much better drive these days but run at 5400rpm vs. 7200rpm. If you buy one, I would do so with the expectation the drive needs to be evaluated for replacement in 2.5-3 years which is how we used to deal with them to be safe.
'''If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 2 years with the Blue series. I don’t recommend the Blue drives if you have the budget for a Black drive - even today.'''
'''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :( - this was released after the bogus takedown.
What I would do is get a 256GB class SSD, put that in Bay 1 and jam it good with something to keep it secure (removable!) and use the HD bracket in Bay 2 if you can’t find the part.
[br]
-
'''If this is a Windows 8 machine, get a copy of the ISO from Microsoft, extract it with 7Zip to and NTLite. Go into Unattended and add OEM SetupComplete to force it to find the key - Windows 8 has SERIOUS issues detecting the BIOS key on Non-OEM media on certain machines. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE.'''
+
'''If this is a Windows 8 machine, get a copy of the ISO from Microsoft, extract it with 7Zip to and NTLite. Go into Unattended and add OEM SetupComplete to force it to find the key - Windows 8 has SERIOUS issues detecting the BIOS key on Non-OEM media on certain machines. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE. Probably wouldn’t hurt to have a backup, but having that OEM SetupComplete image available will bail you out if it has an issue with detection.'''
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from 6-10 years ago when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. While even a Blue drive is better then the factory Toshiba drives (750+ drives die in 2.5 years nearly 100% of the time) they’re still a lot faster and far more reliabile. While most professionals still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one due to the 3->2 year warranty reduction and past short lifetime issues, the current Fixed III ones are far better then the old ones like the BEVT series, which all burned through their sector reserve in 2-3 years with any meaningful use ON TOP OF the bad read/write speeds. They use binned Black drives more often then not now, so you’re getting a much better drive these days but run at 5400rpm vs. 7200rpm. If you buy one, I would do so with the expectation the drive needs to be evaluated for replacement in 2.5-3 years which is how we used to deal with them to be safe.
'''If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 2 years with the Blue series. I don’t recommend the Blue drives if you have the budget for a Black drive - even today.'''
'''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :( - this was released after the bogus takedown.
What I would do is get a 256GB class SSD, put that in Bay 1 and jam it good with something to keep it secure (removable!) and use the HD bracket in Bay 2 if you can’t find the part.
[br]
-
'''If this is a Windows 8 machine, get a copy of the ISO from Microsoft and NTLite. Go into Unattended and add OEM SetupComplete to force it to find the key - Windows 8 has SERIOUS issues detecting the BIOS key on Non-OEM media on certain machines. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE.'''
+
'''If this is a Windows 8 machine, get a copy of the ISO from Microsoft, extract it with 7Zip to and NTLite. Go into Unattended and add OEM SetupComplete to force it to find the key - Windows 8 has SERIOUS issues detecting the BIOS key on Non-OEM media on certain machines. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE.'''
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
-
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from 6-10 years ago when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. While even a Blue drive is better then the factory Toshiba drives (750+ drives die in 2.5 years nearly 100% of the time) they’re still a lot faster and far more reliabile. While most professionals still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one due to the 3->2 year warranty reduction and past short lifetime issues, the current Fixed III ones are far better then the old ones like the BEVT series, which all burned through their sector reserve in 2-3 years with any meaningful use ON TOP OF the bad read/write speeds. They use binned Black drives more often then not now, so you’re getting a much better drive these days but run at 5400rpm vs. 7200rpm. If you buy one, I would do so with the expectation the drive needs to be evaluated for replacement in 2.5-3 years which is how we used to deal with them.
+
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from 6-10 years ago when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. While even a Blue drive is better then the factory Toshiba drives (750+ drives die in 2.5 years nearly 100% of the time) they’re still a lot faster and far more reliabile. While most professionals still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one due to the 3->2 year warranty reduction and past short lifetime issues, the current Fixed III ones are far better then the old ones like the BEVT series, which all burned through their sector reserve in 2-3 years with any meaningful use ON TOP OF the bad read/write speeds. They use binned Black drives more often then not now, so you’re getting a much better drive these days but run at 5400rpm vs. 7200rpm. If you buy one, I would do so with the expectation the drive needs to be evaluated for replacement in 2.5-3 years which is how we used to deal with them to be safe.
'''If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 2 years with the Blue series. I don’t recommend the Blue drives if you have the budget for a Black drive - even today.'''
'''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :( - this was released after the bogus takedown.
What I would do is get a 256GB class SSD, put that in Bay 1 and jam it good with something to keep it secure (removable!) and use the HD bracket in Bay 2 if you can’t find the part.
[br]
+
+
'''If this is a Windows 8 machine, get a copy of the ISO from Microsoft and NTLite. Go into Unattended and add OEM SetupComplete to force it to find the key - Windows 8 has SERIOUS issues detecting the BIOS key on Non-OEM media on certain machines. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE.'''
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from 6-10 years ago when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. While even a Blue drive is better then the factory Toshiba drives (750+ drives die in 2.5 years nearly 100% of the time) they’re still a lot faster and far more reliabile . While most professionals still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one due to the 3->2 year warranty reduction and past short lifetime issues, the current Fixed III ones are far better then the old ones like the BEVT series, which all burned through their sector reserve in 2-3 years with any meaningful use ON TOP OF the bad read/write speeds. They use binned Black drives more often then not now, so you’re getting a much better drive these days but run at 5400rpm vs. 7200rpm. If you buy one, I would do so with the expectation the drive needs to be evaluated for replacement in 2.5-3 years which is how we used to deal with them.
'''If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 2 years with the Blue series. I don’t recommend the Blue drives if you have the budget for a Black drive - even today.'''
'''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :( - this was released after the bogus takedown.
What I would do is get a 256GB class SSD, put that in Bay 1 and jam it good with something to keep it secure (removable!) and use the HD bracket in Bay 2 if you can’t find the part.
+
+
[br]
+
'''If this is a Windows 8 machine, get a copy of the ISO from Microsoft and NTLite. Go into Unattended and add OEM SetupComplete to force it to find the key - Windows 8 has SERIOUS issues detecting the BIOS key on Non-OEM media on certain machines. DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE.'''
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
-
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from years past when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. They’re still a lot faster and reliabile compared to the clunker Toshiba drives.
+
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from 6-10 years ago when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. While even a Blue drive is better then the factory Toshiba drives (750+ drives die in 2.5 years nearly 100% of the time) they’re still a lot faster and far more reliabile . While most professionals still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one due to the 3->2 year warranty reduction and past short lifetime issues, the current Fixed III ones are far better then the old ones like the BEVT series, which all burned through their sector reserve in 2-3 years with any meaningful use ON TOP OF the bad read/write speeds. They use binned Black drives more often then not now, so you’re getting a much better drive these days but run at 5400rpm vs. 7200rpm. If you buy one, I would do so with the expectation the drive needs to be evaluated for replacement in 2.5-3 years which is how we used to deal with them.
-
I still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one or I need to do a budget drive replacement like my XPS 8500 the owner wanted the original drive back on and I needed a cheap drive that’s reasonably large (1-2TB). The old drives like the infamous BEVT series were so bad, that they were a no go and it wasn’t worth the savings you got since they were so slow - they were garbage drives in terms of speed and reliability for so many years.
+
'''If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 2 years with the Blue series. I don’t recommend the Blue drives if you have the budget for a Black drive - even today.'''
-
However, while the damage is done for many of us, the current Fixed III generation is a lot better since they’re usually binned Black drives with performance or motor speed issues (5400rpm) with a shorter warranty - I would still go in with the expectation they likely follow the old rule of 2.5-3 years where you need to start looking for a new one/replace at 3-4 years. I was shocked with how good the one I put in the XPS is compared to the Blue drives I got to know from 6-10 years ago.
-
-
If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 3 years with the Blue. Even if you can go either way, I still do not recommend the Blue drives when you have a choice within budget - even today. '''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
+
'''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :( - this was released after the bogus takedown.
What I would do is get a 256GB class SSD, put that in Bay 1 and jam it good with something to keep it secure (removable!) and use the HD bracket in Bay 2 if you can’t find the part.
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from years past when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. They’re still a lot faster and reliabile compared to the clunker Toshiba drives.
I still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one or I need to do a budget drive replacement like my XPS 8500 the owner wanted the original drive back on and I needed a cheap drive that’s reasonably large (1-2TB). The old drives like the infamous BEVT series were so bad, that they were a no go and it wasn’t worth the savings you got since they were so slow - they were garbage drives in terms of speed and reliability for so many years.
However, while the damage is done for many of us, the current Fixed III generation is a lot better since they’re usually binned Black drives with performance or motor speed issues (5400rpm) with a shorter warranty - I would still go in with the expectation they likely follow the old rule of 2.5-3 years where you need to start looking for a new one/replace at 3-4 years. I was shocked with how good the one I put in the XPS is compared to the Blue drives I got to know from 6-10 years ago.
If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 3 years with the Blue. Even if you can go either way, I still do not recommend the Blue drives when you have a choice within budget - even today. '''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :( - this was released after the bogus takedown.
+
+
What I would do is get a 256GB class SSD, put that in Bay 1 and jam it good with something to keep it secure (removable!) and use the HD bracket in Bay 2 if you can’t find the part.
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from years past when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. They’re still a lot faster and reliabile compared to the clunker Toshiba drives.
I still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one or I need to do a budget drive replacement like my XPS 8500 the owner wanted the original drive back on and I needed a cheap drive that’s reasonably large (1-2TB). The old drives like the infamous BEVT series were so bad, that they were a no go and it wasn’t worth the savings you got since they were so slow - they were garbage drives in terms of speed and reliability for so many years.
However, while the damage is done for many of us, the current Fixed III generation is a lot better since they’re usually binned Black drives with performance or motor speed issues (5400rpm) with a shorter warranty - I would still go in with the expectation they likely follow the old rule of 2.5-3 years where you need to start looking for a new one/replace at 3-4 years. I was shocked with how good the one I put in the XPS is compared to the Blue drives I got to know from 6-10 years ago.
If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 3 years with the Blue. Even if you can go either way, I still do not recommend the Blue drives when you have a choice within budget - even today. '''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
-
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :(.
+
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :( - this was released after the bogus takedown.
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from years past when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. They’re still a lot faster and reliabile compared to the clunker Toshiba drives.
I still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one or I need to do a budget drive replacement like my XPS 8500 the owner wanted the original drive back on and I needed a cheap drive that’s reasonably large (1-2TB). The old drives like the infamous BEVT series were so bad, that they were a no go and it wasn’t worth the savings you got since they were so slow - they were garbage drives in terms of speed and reliability for so many years.
However, while the damage is done for many of us, the current Fixed III generation is a lot better since they’re usually binned Black drives with performance or motor speed issues (5400rpm) with a shorter warranty - I would still go in with the expectation they likely follow the old rule of 2.5-3 years where you need to start looking for a new one/replace at 3-4 years. I was shocked with how good the one I put in the XPS is compared to the Blue drives I got to know from 6-10 years ago.
If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 3 years with the Blue. Even if you can go either way, I still do not recommend the Blue drives when you have a choice within budget - even today. '''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
-
Follow [https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Toshiba+Satellite+P75-A7100+Fan+Replacement/103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay.
+
Follow [guide|103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay. I tried to get the Toshiba P/N from a source I am not [https://www.ifixit.com/News/3743/operation-fix-toshiba-help-us-write-repair-manuals|revealing (hopefully understandably so)] :(.
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from years past when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. They’re still a lot faster and reliabile compared to the clunker Toshiba drives.
I still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one or I need to do a budget drive replacement like my XPS 8500 the owner wanted the original drive back on and I needed a cheap drive that’s reasonably large (1-2TB). The old drives like the infamous BEVT series were so bad, that they were a no go and it wasn’t worth the savings you got since they were so slow - they were garbage drives in terms of speed and reliability for so many years.
However, while the damage is done for many of us, the current Fixed III generation is a lot better since they’re usually binned Black drives with performance or motor speed issues (5400rpm) with a shorter warranty - I would still go in with the expectation they likely follow the old rule of 2.5-3 years where you need to start looking for a new one/replace at 3-4 years. I was shocked with how good the one I put in the XPS is compared to the Blue drives I got to know from 6-10 years ago.
If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 3 years with the Blue. Even if you can go either way, I still do not recommend the Blue drives when you have a choice within budget - even today. '''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
-
Follow [guide|103658]|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay.
+
Follow [https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Toshiba+Satellite+P75-A7100+Fan+Replacement/103658|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay.
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from years past when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. They’re still a lot faster and reliabile compared to the clunker Toshiba drives.
I still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one or I need to do a budget drive replacement like my XPS 8500 the owner wanted the original drive back on and I needed a cheap drive that’s reasonably large (1-2TB). The old drives like the infamous BEVT series were so bad, that they were a no go and it wasn’t worth the savings you got since they were so slow - they were garbage drives in terms of speed and reliability for so many years.
However, while the damage is done for many of us, the current Fixed III generation is a lot better since they’re usually binned Black drives with performance or motor speed issues (5400rpm) with a shorter warranty - I would still go in with the expectation they likely follow the old rule of 2.5-3 years where you need to start looking for a new one/replace at 3-4 years. I was shocked with how good the one I put in the XPS is compared to the Blue drives I got to know from 6-10 years ago.
If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 3 years with the Blue. Even if you can go either way, I still do not recommend the Blue drives when you have a choice within budget - even today. '''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
-
Follow [[guide|103658]|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay.
+
Follow [guide|103658]|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay.
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from years past when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. They’re still a lot faster and reliabile compared to the clunker Toshiba drives.
I still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one or I need to do a budget drive replacement like my XPS 8500 the owner wanted the original drive back on and I needed a cheap drive that’s reasonably large (1-2TB). The old drives like the infamous BEVT series were so bad, that they were a no go and it wasn’t worth the savings you got since they were so slow - they were garbage drives in terms of speed and reliability for so many years.
However, while the damage is done for many of us, the current Fixed III generation is a lot better since they’re usually binned Black drives with performance or motor speed issues (5400rpm) with a shorter warranty - I would still go in with the expectation they likely follow the old rule of 2.5-3 years where you need to start looking for a new one/replace at 3-4 years. I was shocked with how good the one I put in the XPS is compared to the Blue drives I got to know from 6-10 years ago.
If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 3 years with the Blue. Even if you can go either way, I still do not recommend the Blue drives when you have a choice within budget - even today. '''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
-
Follow [https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Toshiba+Satellite+P75-A7100+Fan+Replacement/103658|this guide up to Step 3) and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay.
+
Follow [[guide|103658]|this guide up to Step 3] and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay.
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from years past when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. They’re still a lot faster and reliabile compared to the clunker Toshiba drives.
I still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one or I need to do a budget drive replacement like my XPS 8500 the owner wanted the original drive back on and I needed a cheap drive that’s reasonably large (1-2TB). The old drives like the infamous BEVT series were so bad, that they were a no go and it wasn’t worth the savings you got since they were so slow - they were garbage drives in terms of speed and reliability for so many years.
However, while the damage is done for many of us, the current Fixed III generation is a lot better since they’re usually binned Black drives with performance or motor speed issues (5400rpm) with a shorter warranty - I would still go in with the expectation they likely follow the old rule of 2.5-3 years where you need to start looking for a new one/replace at 3-4 years. I was shocked with how good the one I put in the XPS is compared to the Blue drives I got to know from 6-10 years ago.
If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 3 years with the Blue. Even if you can go either way, I still do not recommend the Blue drives when you have a choice within budget - even today. '''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
+
+
Follow [https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Toshiba+Satellite+P75-A7100+Fan+Replacement/103658|this guide up to Step 3) and move towards the hard drives. You’ll need to purchase the required drive bracket - which will likely need to come from eBay since Toshiba is stingy and doesn’t provision the machine (likely to *ahem* push you into their factory service pricing) with the majority of the hardware, and purchase a bag of 2.5” drive screws on eBay.
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
-
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I remember when I was younger, but I still refuse to use them unless I need to do a budget drive replacement like my XPS 8500 the owner wanted the original drive back on and I needed a cheap drive that’s reasonably large (1-2TB). The reason is those old drives like the BEVT series were so bad, that they were a no go and it wasn’t worth the price savings since you saved relatively nothing and got a dog slow drive. It’ll still be way faster then the OEM Toshiba drives - and more reliable.
+
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I’m famililar with from years past when they were unusable outside of fringe cases and had a significantly shorter lifespan. They’re still a lot faster and reliabile compared to the clunker Toshiba drives.
-
My change in tone on them these days is because the current and few previous generation drives are more closely related to lower binned Black drives with platter limits and a spindle motor that can’t handle 7200rpm. Would I recommend one if you can spend the cash on a Black? No - not even today. However, if you need a cheap drive that’s built to a good standard, the current generation Blue drives are more viable these days. '''''HOWEVER, you still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is still not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
+
I still refuse to use them unless the budget forces the use of one or I need to do a budget drive replacement like my XPS 8500 the owner wanted the original drive back on and I needed a cheap drive that’s reasonably large (1-2TB). The old drives like the infamous BEVT series were so bad, that they were a no go and it wasn’t worth the savings you got since they were so slow - they were garbage drives in terms of speed and reliability for so many years.
+
+
However, while the damage is done for many of us, the current Fixed III generation is a lot better since they’re usually binned Black drives with performance or motor speed issues (5400rpm) with a shorter warranty - I would still go in with the expectation they likely follow the old rule of 2.5-3 years where you need to start looking for a new one/replace at 3-4 years. I was shocked with how good the one I put in the XPS is compared to the Blue drives I got to know from 6-10 years ago.
+
+
If you can spend the money on a WD Black, do it. The speed is much better and you get a 5 year warranty vs 3 years with the Blue. Even if you can go either way, I still do not recommend the Blue drives when you have a choice within budget - even today. '''''NOTE: You still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''
Any SATA III hard drive will work. Ideally, you want to look into a WD Black if you can afford it. The HGST drives are good too but they tend to be more expensive then the WD product and harder to find.
That said, the Fixed III WD Blue drives aren’t as bad as the ones I remember when I was younger, but I still refuse to use them unless I need to do a budget drive replacement like my XPS 8500 the owner wanted the original drive back on and I needed a cheap drive that’s reasonably large (1-2TB). The reason is those old drives like the BEVT series were so bad, that they were a no go and it wasn’t worth the price savings since you saved relatively nothing and got a dog slow drive. It’ll still be way faster then the OEM Toshiba drives - and more reliable.
My change in tone on them these days is because the current and few previous generation drives are more closely related to lower binned Black drives with platter limits and a spindle motor that can’t handle 7200rpm. Would I recommend one if you can spend the cash on a Black? No - not even today. However, if you need a cheap drive that’s built to a good standard, the current generation Blue drives are more viable these days. '''''HOWEVER, you still want to avoid them in XP/Vista/7 systems as the OS/kernel optimization is still not there and you run into the same performance issues as the old ones. They work fine in 8/10 systems, but that’s about it since those OSes are actually well optimized. You will still know it’s a 5400rpm drive, though.'''''