Member Avatar for josbro79

Hi Guys,

I have a toshiba L300D laptop, and a couple of days ago the harddrive just gave up, i knew it had a large amount of bad sectors so luckily had all the necessary data backed up.

However, i have decided that having to replace the harddrive gives me an excuse to upgrade to Windows 7. With this in mind I want to upgrade the harddrive to probably between 250GB and 500GB. Im slightly concerned however that my laptop wont support a harddrive that large.

Basically, does anyone know where i can find out what the largest harddrive i can put in this machine? I know for a fact that the sata controller is an ATI SB700/SB800 if that is of any help.

Can i also just point out, that laptop doesn't have a working harddrive at the moment and therefore has no OS, so i cannot do anything with the laptop.

Thanks in advance guys, I really apreciate peoples suggestions.

Edited by josbro79 because: Extra Information
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A few practical checks and steps to make this replacement painless and avoid surprises — building on 's helpful experience but adding the things people often miss.

First, confirm the mechanical and firmware limits before buying. Look up the exact service/spec sheet for the L300D or remove the current drive and note its physical size (2.5" and thickness: commonly 7mm or 9.5mm). Also check the laptop BIOS version and, if available, the vendor support pages for drive compatibility notes. If you plan to try a very large drive (multi‑TB) be aware that booting from anything above the MBR limit requires GPT + UEFI; for typical 250–500GB drives that is not needed.

Two practical replacement paths:

  • Fresh install: create Windows 7 install media (USB/DVD), enter BIOS to set boot order and set SATA mode to AHCI if present, run the installer, delete/format partitions and install. After install, add chipset/storage drivers from Toshiba.
  • Clone the old image: attach the new drive externally with a USB‑to‑SATA adapter, use a reliable cloning tool (image/clone, then swap drives), then boot and expand the partition. Always verify the clone by booting before sealing the drive bay.

Quick checks and post‑swap tasks: secure the drive with the correct screws/caddy (avoid 12.5mm drives if the bay is shallower), run SMART/diagnostic utility on the new disk before trusting it, install chipset and storage drivers, and verify Windows activation. If the laptop does not boot after swapping, confirm boot order and SATA mode in BIOS and try updating the BIOS.

Final note: consider an SSD if speed and responsiveness matter — lower capacity SSDs can be paired with an external backup drive. Keep a verified backup until the new drive is proven reliable.

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Member Avatar for Rik_

Seeing as it's sata, any sata hard drive will be ok! I'd recommend that you not exceed 500gig as drives bigger than that seem to less reliable! I put a 500 in my lappy some time back and am very happy with it!

Member Avatar for josbro79

Thats brilliant! Excellent news!

Thanks very much for your help.

Member Avatar for Rik_

No problem at all! :)

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