upgrading hard drive plus memory

i want to upgrade my hard drrive to a 1tb in size and wonder what is the best one to buy for my system. also to increase the memory size as well. any help would be grateful looked at.
my specs are:

Operating System System Model
Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United Kingdom)
Installed: 08/06/2012 18:18:01 TOSHIBA Satellite A500 PSAR3E-00N005EN
System Serial Number:
Enclosure Type: Notebook
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
2.13 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
3072 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded Board: TOSHIBA KSKAA 1.00
BIOS: TOSHIBA V1.90 05/26/2010
Drives Memory Modules c,d
499.69 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
388.69 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-L633C [Optical drive]

FUJITSU MJA2500BH G2 [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 0, s/n K937T99262JR, rev 00400018, SMART Status: Healthy 4062 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'M1' has 2048 MB (serial number
Slot 'M2' has 2048 MB (serial number

i can make a clone of my hard drive and transfer via image to bigger size hard drive. just want some extra space and memory to do this and and recomdations would help me.

system specs:

Operating System System Model
Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United Kingdom)
Installed: 08/06/2012 18:18:01 TOSHIBA Satellite A500 PSAR3E-00N005EN
System Serial Number:
Enclosure Type: Notebook
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
2.13 gigahertz Intel Core2 Duo
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
3072 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded Board: TOSHIBA KSKAA 1.00
BIOS: TOSHIBA V1.90 05/26/2010
Drives Memory Modules c,d
499.69 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
388.69 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

TSSTcorp CDDVDW TS-L633C [Optical drive]

FUJITSU MJA2500BH G2 [Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 0, s/n K937T99262JR, rev 00400018, SMART Status: Healthy 4062 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'M1' has 2048 MB (serial number
Slot 'M2' has 2048 MB (serial number

any help would be appreciated.

what are approx prices and make and model to order would grateful be helpful...

have a look at this site.
Ebuyer
they are cheap and good.

reply to post by buddha


do you think crucial memory is worth a go and do you think my laptop could take a bigger hard drive plus double memory going with the specs?

reply to post by scotsdavy1


Id go for something like a Seagate 1TB 2.5 inch Laptop Solid State Hybrid Drive.

It has a lot of the advantages of an SSD but nowhere near as costly. Ive been using one in my main rig for a few months now and its works great.

reply to post by PhoenixOD


thanks, will have a look

Have ordered 2X4gb memory modules to double the memory and will get a 1tb hard drive later...

Every Seagate drive I have ever owned has had problems. Western Digital drives have always been rock solid for me. If you would like to save some bucks, might I suggest geeks.com? I have saved a lot of bucks by getting factory refurbs that, so far (fingers crossed) I have had no problems with. Best of luck

reply to post by madmac5150


am going to get an external encloser for the 500gb HD once i get the 1tb hard drive to use for movies etc....not much else i can do to upgrade my trusty laptop though.....
will my laptop handle a 1tb hard drive and what is the best one to buy?

reply to post by scotsdavy1


It absolutely should. As far as which brand is best, well... computers are weird... I prefer W.D., but I know many folks that have never had a problem with their Seagate drives. Seagate drives crash for me. Weird. There are quite a few reliable brands. I would suggest reading a few product reviews on sites such as TigerDirect to see what others have said about drives they have purchased.

Again, best of luck

reply to post by scotsdavy1


With a hybrid SSD you get some of the speed of a Solid State Drive and the larger storage capacity for a reasonable price.

Basically anything you use a lot will be moved to the NAND memory which is the SSD part of the drive. This will then load up at lightening fast speeds (comparable to a full solid state drive). So the operating system will load quicker and any games you play a lot will run smoother. I highly recommend them.

As for segate v WD i really dont think there is a lot to compare. They are both budget drives. They are both pretty reliable.

With lots of ram you can create a poor mans ssd and use ram drive software. No disrespects. However, I don't see the justification of upgrading a duo laptop beyond 4g's of ram. Increasing more ram doesn't increase performance. Unless you are actually using that ram it's pointless. There is a difference between 4g's of ram with timings 2-2-2-1 and 8g's of ram at 9-9-9-32. Yes a Solid state drive will increase the performance of any system, but the cost of one of those going into a laptop that has outlived it's usefulness?? It would be better to sell the laptop for 400 bucks and put it towards a laptop with a AMD 4/6/8 core or a i5 i7 Intel. With a new laptop you gain better cpu, ram, hd, 10/100/1000 nic, USB 3.0, better video card etc. lots more new stuff. You know what I mean?

reply to post by sean


Well mine cost me over £700 a few years ago but I have today fitted a 1tb hard drive and memory is on order for next week. Im using the pare 500gb for backups, movies etc and I got a small enclosure for it.
Salesman wanted £45 to fit it but i did fit it myself and it works brilliant now.


To make the 1tb as it was brand new to work, I used a repair disc that went into the part where you can install an image if you want to. I made an image of the old drive and booted from it once it had started then imcan get rid of the rubbish I don't want. If you install a new HD not a lot comes up because there is no OS installed at the time.


Meantbtomadd I had to,buy a new mouse as mine,gave up,the ghost ages ago and I,prefer to use a mouse on the laptop all the time...

I bought 2 4gb modules to replace the 2 2gb modules that were in my laptop but they don't seem to be recognised at all. I have tried one at a time but still no luck.
I fitted a 1tb hard drive to replace the 500gb one and it works 100%.
Is there any way I can adjust settings in the bios to make the extra memory work in any way?

reply to post by scotsdavy1


All done and dusted and all are working now.....