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Standardize Laptop Hard Drives - banish these connectors

660 points posted to Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Laptops by georgecoffey May 20

I wanted to upgrade my hard drive as it had a second Hard Drive Bay. When I purchased a new hard drive from a local PC Store, it wouldn't go into my new laptop. I had previously checked that it was a SATA HDD and Laptop. However, when I took out my system Drive(the one that came originally), I did notice a little connector was on it.

I went to my local PC store again to see if they could provide me with the connector, but they said go to the PC Manufacturer. So I contacted Dell, and they said you should have bought it off Dell meaning I would have to spend €300 at least on a very expensive hard drive. Whereas in a PC Store you'd get them, for far less. However, I don't understand how PC Stores can sell Laptop Hard Drives without this connector. My idea is to standardize Laptop Hard Drives without this connector cause if a newbie to PCs, wanted to upgrade their hard drives and found that they couldn't it would be a complete waste of money.

I'm beginning to wonder are Dell the only company that have these connectors the fact that the PC Store didn't have any knowledge on them.

aikiwolfie
May 20		 Sounds a bit odd. Do you have a picture?
undead999
May 20		 that should be an adapter connected to the hard drive, can be moved to new hard drive
paperpilot
May 20		 I don't understand this idea. Did the DELL HDD have a unique connector without a cable? Maybe it was a terminator for a SCSI interface?
kenjennings
May 20		 I swapped out the HD in my Precision M90 laptop and nothing special was required. What models are we talking about here?
binarygrind
May 20		 I have no idea what system your using but none of the current shipping portables have a proprietary connector. they are all sata. if you ask me I think you just bought the wrong hard drive. and got either an IDE drive or Sata drive and your sys is opposite from it.
undead999
May 21		 here are some screen shots showing the adapter used on an PATA hard drive, sata drives have a similar adapter. ...
..
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5160538.html
aaron_h
May 21		 They are standard connectors. This is standard practice on portable hard drives, the same type of adapter has been used on every portable I have seen in the last eight years at least. If you look at the end of the hard drive (without the adapter), you will notice it has a large number of pins, the adapter converts that to a slot type connector to connect to the notebook system board. The slot connector is much more sturdy and much less prone to damage than several individual pins. If you were to design a portable that used a pin connector, one or more of those pins could eventually get bent and the hard drive would not operate.
aikiwolfie
May 21		 Why would the pins get bent? I only see that happening when people are changing the drives. Which is actually pretty easy to fix. Otherwise any other event where the pins may get bent is likely to kill the drive anyway.
kenjennings
May 23		 My oooold HP 5295 has a "converter" that turns the IDE pins 90 degrees, to plug vertically down into an IDE socket. This socket/port contraption is *bleeping* flimsy and I've broken it twice during hard drive upgrades. It seems to have a life cycle of one insertion/removal event. I'd figure (or I hope) by now no manufacturer is still using crud like this in any laptop.
rhino
May 26		 This may not be a suitable soluion for you but I find that keeping a cheap desktop connected using a peer-peer network (pref. wireless) allows me to off-load files and programs I dont regularly use and keep my laptop nice and clear. I optioned the smaller but faster 7200rpm option on my 1330 and so far this has been a great arrangement, The disk for desktop PCs is very cheap and easy to upgrade.
aikiwolfie
May 26		 Actually HP are now offering laptop style thin clients that road warriors can use on the move. There desktops are served to them wirelessly.
bobwalt
Jun 6		 Perhaps he mean the caddy the hard drive uses in some laptops. If that is the case he can just buy one from Dell parts.
aikiwolfie
Jun 6		 I think we need a picture to clear this up.
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