I'm looking to upgrade my laptop's hard drive from an 80 gig 5400 rpm to something a little bit bigger, at least a 200, if not a 250 gb. Are there specific port types for laptop hard drives (I have a HP dv6000)? Are there any brands that you would recommend?

It only depends on what type of connection the drive uses. ATA, SATA, SATAII. You'll need to look up the model number of your laptop and find out what kind of hard drive it has. After that, you can consult Newegg.

The connectors on laptop hard drives are essentially identical to desktop hard drives, but the drive is phisically smaller, at 2.5 inches, so you will need to pick up a hard drive made specifically for laptops. As far as connectors go, laptop hard drives use either a standard PATA (ribbon cable) or SATA 150 cable (small red one). In your case, the hard drive is SATA. As far as brands go, any large one like Hitachi, Samsung, Western digital or Seagate is good. If you live in the US, this drive would be exactly what you are looking for:

 

 

 

250GB, Western Digital hard drive running at 5400 RPM

 

 

 

The 200GB drives running at 5400 RPM are not really much cheaper then the 250GB ones, so its not really worth buying. If your looking for performance, This Hard drive runs at 7200 RPM which means faster windows load up times, program load times ETC but it's more expensive. What it comes down to is your choice.

check out Newegg.com

 

 

 

I've bought from there before...and their pretty reliable and have good customer service.