I decided to install Linux Mint on my trusty "old" Fujitsu Siemens V5535 laptop (it's about 2 yrs old). I bought a new 2.5" 250GB SATA drive to replace the old 80GB (Windows) drive, and set off on the install.
However, I got all sorts of disk errors, so (assuming the disk to be faulty) I got another (different brand) 250GB SATA drive and started again - same results. I'm also seeing issues at the POST stage (eg sometimes the BIOS doesn't report a disk being present, sometimes there's no drive to boot from, etc).
Is it reasonable to conclude that the problem is that the laptop doesn't like the new disks? If so, how would I find out what the maximum disk is that the laptop will support? I can't seem to find much from a Google search. I did find a BIOS update and installed that but it changed nothing.