Hard Drive on a Compaq Presario 1920 laptop...
 

Are the third party 2.5 inch hard drives that I've found on the internet
that say they are suitable replacements for the 6.4 GB hard drive that died
in my 1920 laptop telling me the truth?

Looking in old, dead laptops, I've found, gone through, and rejected three
or four spare 2.5 inch hard drives already. Each of them had a different
connector, and I fear that the $79 20-40 GB hard drives I've found from
searching the net will have a different connector on them than the 6.4 GB
IBM Travelstar hard drive that came in my Presario 1920.



--
bill evans

Hartselle, AL

Freeman Dyson: "It's best not to limit our thinking. We can always
air-condition the Earth."

"Bill Evans" wrote in
message ...
Are the third party 2.5 inch hard drives that I've found on the
internet that say they are suitable replacements for the 6.4 GB
hard drive that died in my 1920 laptop telling me the truth?

Looking in old, dead laptops, I've found, gone through, and
rejected three or four spare 2.5 inch hard drives already. Each
of them had a different connector, and I fear that the $79 20-40
GB hard drives I've found from searching the net will have a
different connector on them than the 6.4 GB IBM Travelstar hard
drive that came in my Presario 1920.



--
bill evans

Hartselle, AL

Did you take the original drive out of caddy to see what the
connector looked like? Most 2.5 inch hard drives use a 44-pin
connector. Some drives are installed upside down in the caddy and
some are installed right side up. Do not confuse the jumper pins
for the drive interface connector pins.


--
Earl F. Parrish

"Earl F. Parrish" wrote in message
news:2ISke.2209$5T2.764@trnddc01...

"Bill Evans" wrote in message
...
Are the third party 2.5 inch hard drives that I've found on the internet
that say they are suitable replacements for the 6.4 GB hard drive that
died in my 1920 laptop telling me the truth?

Looking in old, dead laptops, I've found, gone through, and rejected
three or four spare 2.5 inch hard drives already. Each of them had a
different connector, and I fear that the $79 20-40 GB hard drives I've
found from searching the net will have a different connector on them than
the 6.4 GB IBM Travelstar hard drive that came in my Presario 1920.



Did you take the original drive out of caddy to see what the connector
looked like?


No.

I had noticed the IBM Travelstar drive was ensheathed in a dark plastic
piece of whatever the material Presario 1920 laptops are made out of. Rails
on each side to form a precision join for the connector to the laptop when
slid into place.


Most 2.5 inch hard drives use a 44-pin connector.


I had noticed the common 44 pins arranged in two rows on all the other hard
drives I was looking at, but what confused me was the caddy you're bringing
to my attention. It turned the array of 44 pins into an edge connector.

Or is that another, separate piece of plastic beneath the caddy that I'm
seeing? Whatever it is, it mates with those 44 pins on one side, and has a
female edge connector on the other that looks roughly like one of the
sockets where you would plug in an old ISA card.


Some drives are installed upside down in the caddy and some are installed
right side up. Do not confuse the jumper pins for the drive interface
connector pins.



Not going to happen, I speak master/slave/cable select.

I'd just never owned a laptop before, and had one given to me that promptly
had it's hard drive die. This Compaq Presario 1920 is so old it's almost
not worth saving, but I could use it to test my wifi network installs if I
can get it to boot again with a new Winchester rif^H^Hdrive.



--
bill evans

Hartselle, AL

Freeman Dyson: "It's best not to limit our thinking. We can always
air-condition the Earth."

"Bill Evans" wrote in message
...
"Earl F. Parrish" wrote in message
news:2ISke.2209$5T2.764@trnddc01...

Most 2.5 inch hard drives use a 44-pin connector.

I had noticed the common 44 pins arranged in two rows on all the other
hard drives I was looking at, but what confused me was the caddy you're
bringing to my attention. It turned the array of 44 pins into an edge
connector.

Or is that another, separate piece of plastic beneath the caddy that I'm
seeing? Whatever it is, it mates with those 44 pins on one side, and has
a female edge connector on the other that looks roughly like one of the
sockets where you would plug in an old ISA card.



Alright, the caddy has an adapter underneath it that converts the array of
44 male pins into a female edge connector with 44 contact points.

I assume you're telling me most all 2.5 inch hard drives have that array of
44 male pins that gets converted by various different methods into something
that'll snap into the laptop in question? No wonder I've avoided fixing old
notebooks over the years.....



--
bill evans

Hartselle, AL

Freeman Dyson: "It's best not to limit our thinking. We can always
air-condition the Earth."

"Bill Evans" wrote in
message ...

"Bill Evans" wrote in
message ...
"Earl F. Parrish" wrote in message
news:2ISke.2209$5T2.764@trnddc01...

Most 2.5 inch hard drives use a 44-pin connector.

I had noticed the common 44 pins arranged in two rows on all the
other hard drives I was looking at, but what confused me was the
caddy you're bringing to my attention. It turned the array of 44
pins into an edge connector.

Or is that another, separate piece of plastic beneath the caddy
that I'm seeing? Whatever it is, it mates with those 44 pins on
one side, and has a female edge connector on the other that looks
roughly like one of the sockets where you would plug in an old
ISA card.



Alright, the caddy has an adapter underneath it that converts the
array of 44 male pins into a female edge connector with 44 contact
points.

I assume you're telling me most all 2.5 inch hard drives have that
array of 44 male pins that gets converted by various different
methods into something that'll snap into the laptop in question?
No wonder I've avoided fixing old notebooks over the years.....

Some laptops use caddies simply to hold the drives in place and do
not have a gender reverser as many Compaq laptops do. I just put a
larger drive in an Armada 3500 which had an aluminum caddy with a
cloth pull strap which was glued to the drive. It had Torx screws
holding the drive to the caddy. I bought an external laptop hard
drive case hoping to use the included software to mirror my old
drive to the new drive. Unfortunately, neither my laptop nor my
desktop computer would recognize the new drive except momentarily.
I had to install the blank drive in the laptop and restore a drive
image I had made earlier. Because certain files were in use when I
ran the backup, I had to reinstall my firewall and antivirus
software from new downloads. I did it from my desktop computer
which was protected and copied the files over my workgroup network
to the laptop.


--
Earl F. Parrish

Modern 2.5" drives are generic. Same form factor, screw holes, and 44 pins in
the same place, no matter which brand. Notebook manufacturers take the generic
drives and customize them by adding drive caddies, mounting brackets, and
special drive adapters. The latter are intended to prevent wear and tear on the
44 pins from repeated insertion and removal of drives. The drive adapters
usually remove easily with a gentle tug or a nudge from a small screwdriver.

.... Ben Myers

On , "Bill Evans" wrote:


NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 05:08:51 MST
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 07:09:07 -0500
Xref: Hurricane-Charley alt.sys.pc-clone.compaq:5874
X-Received-Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 05:08:51 MST (be05.lga)


"Bill Evans" wrote in message
...
"Earl F. Parrish" wrote in message
news:2ISke.2209$5T2.764@trnddc01...

Most 2.5 inch hard drives use a 44-pin connector.

I had noticed the common 44 pins arranged in two rows on all the other
hard drives I was looking at, but what confused me was the caddy you're
bringing to my attention. It turned the array of 44 pins into an edge
connector.

Or is that another, separate piece of plastic beneath the caddy that I'm
seeing? Whatever it is, it mates with those 44 pins on one side, and has
a female edge connector on the other that looks roughly like one of the
sockets where you would plug in an old ISA card.



Alright, the caddy has an adapter underneath it that converts the array of
44 male pins into a female edge connector with 44 contact points.

I assume you're telling me most all 2.5 inch hard drives have that array of
44 male pins that gets converted by various different methods into something
that'll snap into the laptop in question? No wonder I've avoided fixing old
notebooks over the years.....



--
bill evans

Hartselle, AL

Freeman Dyson: "It's best not to limit our thinking. We can always
air-condition the Earth."