hi dcc,
well i was told by Dell support that i could only replace by a hdd max 60GB + 5400 rpm.
Since i was looking to replace with a higher capacity and speedy hdd.. i posted this message.
any suggestion are welcome
Checking the parts list there are 4200 and 5400 RPM drives for the Inspiron 500m from Dell. I believe the 7200 RPM drive option was not avail from Dell because of the additional power required for the faster spinning drive. The 500m is aimed at people that want portability over power. With a slower spindle speed the hard drive would consume less power, thus reducing the needed battery requirements.
If you purchased a 9.5mm 7200 RPM IDE notebook drive it would, in theory, work in the Inspiron 500m (as far as I know nothing in the BIOS would prevent it from working) but it would reduce the amount of time the battery would last.
There is also a chance that the additial heat from the faster drive might cause system problems as the chassis was not designed for that level of heat disipation. I do not know for sure if it would be a problem, however, it is not something I personally would want to risk.
The parts list shows the largest drive we shipped for the 500m was a 60Gb drive. Some motherboards are not able to read more than 128Gb of hard drive space due to how the BIOS is configured, however, I do not know if this applies to the 500m or not. I checked the BIOS updates on the Dell support website and none of them mention anything to do with hard drive size limitations.
The latest update is one I would recommend, however, based on the number of battery, USB and other "fixes" listed. If you do not already have it, the A08 BIOS update can be downloaded from the Dell support site (
http://ftp.dell.com/bios/500m_A08.exe).
I have found over the last 15 years of working computer support that for the most part hard drives are all the same. There are minor variations in options and capabilities, just as different models of cars are slightly different, but for the most part they are the same. The list of drive options I have shows primarily IBM and Hitachi drives (unfortunatley I do not have the manufacturers model numbers for which drives), with an occasional Fujitsu for a few of the sizes. Any 9.5mm 2.5" IDE drive at either 4200 or 5400 RPM should work just fine. If you were not going to get the drive from Dell then make sure it is listed as being compatible with the Inspiron 500m.
I hope this post helps you out. If you have other questions about the drive or the 500m I am more than happy to answer them.
Larry
Dell Customer Advocate
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