SOLVED: Recommend a hard drive?

[watermint]

My hard drive was scavenged from an old DELL laptop that stopped working for non-hard drive reasons, and I think it'll keep going a bit longer, but I want to have a plan in mind when it starts to fail. I was looking at fancier hard drive options, such as hybrid drives like firecuda (not that I'm likely to actually get one with that price tag when the rest of my hardware won't measure up, but sometimes it's nice to dream) and noticed people having a lot of trouble getting Linux distros to work with them. Since I am a garbage monster who preys on broken electronics other people are going to throw out rather than buying things new most of the time, I tend to just try things and not get too disappointed if they don't work. However, if I'm going to actually buy a new hard drive I want to make sure it'll be compatible, and this just isn't a subject I'm well versed in. Does anybody have one they'd recommend in particular for general daily use, occasional gaming, and digital art?

EDIT
Maybe better questions:
1. What hard drives are known to be incompatible or not ideally compatible with Linux Mint, if any?
2. What hard drives do you personally recommend for reasonable speed, durability, and longevity?

[deepakdeshp]

For your HDD , to know it's health please use SMART tool.[url https://sourceforge.net/projects/smartmontools/ ] [/url]
Your laptop should be having a SATA HDD. Hence you can get a HDD with SATA interface

[watermint]

For your HDD , to know it's health please use SMART tool.[url https://sourceforge.net/projects/smartmontools/ ] [/url]
Your laptop should be having a SATA HDD. Hence you can get a HDD with SATA interface

Oh no, I'm not THAT clueless.

Though it's probably better to assume someone doesn't know something and tell them what they already know than to assume they do know something and be incomprehensible, especially if they say they don't know much, so thank you anyway.

[mr_raider]

How much storage space do you need?

I would get an SSD if it's in your budget. Night and day.

[watermint]

How much storage space do you need?

I would get an SSD if it's in your budget. Night and day.

250GB is too small, 500GB is okay, 1TB would be ideal, can't see myself needing more than that. And yeah, half the reason I'm looking at new hard drives *before* my current one starts failing is I'd like to save up for an SSD, which will take a little time... It's really worth it, in your opinion?

[mr_raider]

How much storage space do you need?

I would get an SSD if it's in your budget. Night and day.

250GB is too small, 500GB is okay, 1TB would be ideal, can't see myself needing more than that. And yeah, half the reason I'm looking at new hard drives *before* my current one starts failing is I'd like to save up for an SSD, which will take a little time... It's really worth it, in your opinion?

I've seen 500gb SSD for less than 180$.

1tb for a hair below 300$.

What's your budget?

You need 3.5 or 2.5 inches?

[jimallyn]

No need to install anything to check the drive. Mint's "Disks" utility in the Accessories menu has SMART in it. As far as whether it's worth it, I haven't got one yet, but I have installed Mint for friends on computers with SSDs. They are indeed fast!

[watermint]

...yeah, my budget is more $100-ish at the far upper limit. And that's saving up for a while. $50-$70 is more where I need to be.

*sigh* Sometimes newegg has pretty decent sales...

EDIT: Completely forgot to mention, I need 2.5. Sorry about that!

[Lanser]

If your Laptop can take a 9mm thick drive, I would suggest a WD Black 1Tb. Good price, 7200rpm with better throughput.
If you can only take a 7mm drive, then look at a SSD.

cheers
Lanser

[watermint]

If your Laptop can take a 9mm thick drive, I would suggest a WD Black 1Tb. Good price, 7200rpm with better throughput.
If you can only take a 7mm drive, then look at a SSD.

cheers
Lanser

WD Black seems to be what I need, and I found a 1TB in my price range. I've heard from others that WD Blues last forever, so here's hoping that's also true of these. I think for now I just need to accept a true SSD is not something I can afford. Thanks!