Notebook Drives

Notebooks usually come with two notebook drives - namely the hard disk and optical drive. Floppies are usually considered redundant as notebook drives in today's notebook world. The notebook drives are often referred to as spindles. Thus a system with 3 notebook drives - a floppy, hard drive and CD-Rom drive - is said to consist of 3 spindles.

Speed is the most important criteria of a good hard drive. Usually, these notebook drives have a speed of 4200-rpm. However certain higher performance systems and desktop replacements will feature 5400-rpm hard drives.

Seagate's Momentum was the first among notebook drives to hit 5400-rpm. But now there is Hitachi's TravelStar 7K60 notebook with 7200- rpm hard drive - something quite phenomenal in the world of notebook drives! The high spin rate of these notebook drives ensures better performance but at the same time consumes more battery life when not plugged into an outlet.

Notebook drives are typically 2.5 inches in size and can range from 20 up to 160 GB in size. Most systems will have between 40 and 80 GB of data size which is usually sufficient for a standard notebook system.

Drive accessibility is one of the most important factors in cases of upgrading of hard drive or replacement of a damaged hard drive. Many of notebooks available in the retail channels have the notebook drives - especially the hard drives - installed internally. This means that only an authorized technician will be able to open up the computer to either repair or replace a damaged hard drive. Again, the notebooks that have drive bays - that are accessible or swappable notebook drives - have the advantage of easy and quick access for upgrade or replacements.

The optical drives are notebook drives that are key components to carefully consider when purchasing a notebook system. Without an optical drive it will not be possible to install new software onto the system. The CD-RW drives are useful for some people who require high capacity removable storage for backing up applications and data. However customers should aim at buying notebooks that are compatible with DVD notebook drives - as such notebooks can also be used as portable DVD players.

External notebook drives can be connected to the notebook through cables or attached to the base via docking stations.