Hello everyone! For starters I am not looking to recover anything from the dead drive. Its shot and there isn't anything I need from it. However, I am a total newbie when it comes to hardware and rather than outlay $$ for a new laptop I would rather just replace the HDD and be on my way. First off the the HDD is no longer registering in my BIOS and it makes horrible clicking noises. It also died out right on a factory reset which leads me to believe it is shot. So I am looking for options on what I should replace the drive with:

The laptop came with the following:
Toshiba MK5075GSX HDD2L03 B UL01 S, 500 GB Drive with 8455 MB. I am looking to replace it with something comparable (No SDD) and preferable under $90.00, but there are soooo many choices that as a newbie it can be overwhelming to know if I am purchasing the correct item and not something that isn't compatible. Will any standard 500 GB HDD (I pretty sure it is a 2.5 in) do or am I over simplifying it?

Thanks in advance!
Tong7

I only recommend WD Black drives when I re-install Windows on a laptop. They are fast and reliable. I would avoid Seagate drives, based on their recent unreliability. A 750GB WD Black drive is around $80 CAD here ($60 USD).

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Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

Thanks Larry. I will be installing Ubuntu instead. Will this drive do?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA67S2190240&cm_re=500GB_SATA_2.5_Hard_Drive_8MB_Cache-_-22-136-567-_-Product

Or any of these?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152289
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA67S2667328&cm_re=500GB_SATA_2.5_Hard_Drive_8MB_Cache-_-22-149-202-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152289