Windows 7 - Shopping for a hard drive, have a few questions

So i finally took off the thin cover on my laptop to completely clean out the main fan (and took out a pair of dust bunnies in the process), and decided to take a peek at the HDD0 and HDD1, but noticed all there was in the HDD1 case was a cushion, so I went to Newegg to start shopping for something to fill the spot. Then I realized: I know nothing about hard drives, especially about multiple ones in a single machine. So I came back here to ask a few questions:

1. Do both hard drives have to be by the same manufacturer? The one I have is a Western Digital WD3200BEKT, so I was wondering if I could get a different brand or not.
2. Would the new hard drive "blend" with the original, adding to my hard drive space, or would it show up as a separate disk in My Computer?
3. Again, not knowing anything about hard drives, what would you guys suggest I buy, keeping in mind I do have a bit of a budget.
4. (Probably pulling this one out of my butt) Are there any solid state drives that are compatible with my laptop, or are they mostly desktop drives for the moment?
5. Would there be an installation process (software-wise) or would it be plug it in and play?
6. Would having two hard drives slow down my speed at all, or improve it, or have no effect?

Well that's all the questions I can think of for now. I'm gonna hold off on making a purchase until I know what I'm doing, and until I can afford something worth putting into my laptop.

1- they dont have to be of the same mfr.

2-they could be blended but is easier and safer not too. After formatting and assigning a drive letter it would show up as a separate device/volume in my computer

3-depends on budget. You obviously want to buy something to fit (2.5 ") and as much space as you can afford. Most people have a HD mfr they love and hate. In my case I love western digital, and hate seagate and maxtor.


4-Yes there are SSD drives but they are much more expensive, so have to decide given your budget.

5-May just plug and play or may come with an install cd. either is easy.

6- Having 2 drives will not speed the system up and there is a slight chance it might slow it down. Very slight.

Reliaze that there will be double the heat and if y ours is a laptop that is a consideration.

Things to look for

Size (budget constraint)
speed (5400 slow 7200 faster, SSD fastest.
Cache. The bigger the better.

let us know if you have more questions.

Ken

An SSD will make a noticeable change in performance if you put your operating system on it. You can likely get by with a 60 GB SSD for the operating system, maybe even less depending on the size of your installed applications.

If you are considering another drive purely to gain more storage space, a standard spinning laptop drive is the likely candidate. BUT you could consider buying an SSD and using it solely for the operating system and then convert your current spinning drive to a storage drive to hold your personal data.

Installation of either is pretty much plug and play---more specifially--connect, partition, and format.

Any new drive will show up as another single drive letter unless you make multiple partitions on it, in which case it would show us as D and E or E and F, etc.

As the majority of SSDs are actually in 2.5" format despite being popular in desktop PCs, they could be considered laptop drives. There just isn't any need for them to be bigger than that.

I envy you - a laptop with 2 disks bays is rare. I definitely would install an SSD in the second bay and transfer the OS. Here is how: SSD - Install and transfer the Operating System

Before you go out to buy a second HDD/SSD, make sure your second bay has a connector to connect the HDD to the system.

Recently lots of laptops are coming in the market with a second bay but no connector to connect the HDD. Please see my laptop's specs. I bought a Toshiba Satellite 17.3" i5 based laptop and found that it has a second bay indeed but no connector. Upon checking on internet, I came to know that it is Toshiba's policy to not put a connector for this model and many other models. Connector is given only for a high end Toshiba Qosmio brand.

Don't buy a mechanical drive now though..
Prices have tripled in the last few weeks due to the flooding in Thailand. SSD's aren't affected currently though