ATA Hard Drives for Laptops

I'm on the prowl to find replacement PATA HDs for three laptops.
All are in the range of 3 plus years old.
All use ATA HDs
One Dell Inspiron 8200, one Toshiba M45, one HP nx9010

At newegg, the seagate options include the 80gb unit linked here $54
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx…N82E16822148128

and this one with double the capacity 160gb:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx…N82E16822148073

The end-user of the Toshiba does quite a bit of CAD/SolidWorks graphic intense and large file work.
He'd like to store most of his work on the laptop HD, though he has recently become persuaded (by me) that it is prudent to back-up his work to external HD.

Therefore, I'd like to get the larger drive especially since it is only $10 more.

But, what the heck is "perpendicular recording"???

Appears to be a proprietary development of SeaGate.
And I've long since accepted that I will not be able to understand all of the "magic" involved.

My own version of "bench marks" are more to the effect of:

• does it work?
• is it reliable?
• does it last at least as long as conventional hardware?
• are there downsides and/or compatibility issues?

The few reviews give testimonial to satisfactory performance.
And I do favor SeaGate, the company.
So I'm leaning toward getting this 160Gb unit.

Thoughts?

Depending on just how much detail you want here are two pages on Perpendicular Recording:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/articl…rticleId=112516

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/347

Simply put it is a technology that allows storage of data both in longitude and latitude or 3D if you will.

It allows for a more dense disk so more bits will fit in a smaller physical space. In other words it allows for a smaller physical drive to hold more GBs.

Also performance and speed are apparently increased.

Perpendicular Recording Boosts Reliability, Performance – Seagate.

Seagate Reiterates Commitment to Transit HDDs to Perpendicular Tech by 2007

“Perpendicular recording technology increases areal density, allowing more data pass under the drive head, which in turn increases the data transfer rate. Keep in mind that any increase in the areal density of the disc impacts both key hard drive performance factors: positioning speed and data transfer rate. We have also found that perpendicular recording improves reliability,”

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/storage/displ…0404201515.html

Thanks Jephree, My googling got the same. Interesting reads, providing basic information. As I mentioned to you elsewhere, it's time to get out the plastic card and put this in motion. I'll post back here if/when I have any observations of the HD's in action. Doug