Travelmate 2414WLMi largest HD side ?

Hello people .

About TravelMate 2414WLMi is there any limitation for the max HD size ,
that the BIOS supports ?

Some one in Germany had install 120GB on it.

What is the biggest drive that you have install to it ?

 

according to the ACER SERVICE GUIDE, 80 Gigabytes is as large as they sold it with... thus that is all they officially support.

there is a KNOWN limitation in most OLDER laptops that probably limits you to only accessing the first 137 GB (or 128 ACTUAL GIGABYTES) of any HDD no matter what size ya buy....

so buying a 160 GiB HDD results in about 22 GigaBytes that are un-usable.

((there are possibilities of using the other 22G, some people have reported ability to access a second partition created out of the remaining space (such as a D: drive).... the other possibility i won't even suggest since it only takes up system resources to convert data from one format into another format that allows the PC to access all 160GB))

make sure to BUY the correct type... i believe your drive is an IDE (also called PATA).... but you need to double check if you are unsure

i'd buy a 160gb drive and buy it SOON, before the PATA drives get harder to find and more expensive due to the fact that they are no longer the MAIN-STREAM style installed in most laptops...

 

Hello bigozone .

Well yes its PATA controller , from another point of view the latest BIOS for it,
are made at 26/6/2006 (1.13 Ver ) .

And the int13h issue had to do with with very old HD controllers 2000-2002.

Thanks for the info , i will add here anything new that i will discover.

 

I visited today two laptops specialists in my town,
and they told me , that even 200GB it will work .

I am also computers specialist , but i have experience only in desktops and servers.

I found at my location 160GB and 250GB 2.5" ATA .
1) WD1600BEVE 160GB 2.5'' ATA
2) WD2500BEVE 250GB 2.5'' ATA

The only issue with large HDs are that above 130 GB partition you must use NTFS , and not FAT32 .

The WD 250GB looks as good option , but its double value of the 160 GB.
But it would be a sweet option if used with two partitions 120GB its one & FAT32 .

The next that i need to find are if there is any 7200rpm 2.5" ATA drives !!

The large platers brings performance MB/s , but the rotation speed too.

 

for info on 7200 RPM drives check the HARDWARE & UPGRADE FORUM

i'm not sure but i'm thinking you may be a bit limited by the PATA interface,,
but i'm pretty sure Hitachi has released a 7200RPM 2.5" IDE

i know everyone is waiting on the 320g 7200rpm SATA II from Hitachi, while WD and maybe samsung have already released 320gb 7200 RPM drives..

heck WD released a 10,000 rpm 2.5... but it's meant for DESKTOPS since it's mounted in a 3.5" aluminum heat sink! (i bet it would suck a battery dry too)

 

From my current informations , looks like that the rpm ... on the 2.5" , are not that effective , as in the desktops.

So i am narrowing my search at options as 5400 rpm at 160GB as minimum.

I have ancient love with WD + i own two 75GB Raptors .

And the 250GB are more than enough for my needs.

I am heading to seek info about the hardware of my laptop , at Intel's site.
If the HD controller has any limitations , i will find it out, there.

 

good luck finding what you are searching for at INTEL... although it is old enough it should be on the site by now...

i understand the brand loyalty.... i personally like hitachi thru over 10 yrs of tech work i've only had to replace 1 hitachi HDD under warranty... while i've seen more than my share of seagates & wds go back w/ the post man... but in fairness i've not seen many 2.5" WD hard drives.

 

You can take back now the "Old enough " comment .

Read this ....

http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/06/hitachis-prius-one-type-s-all-in-one-pc/

910GML Up to 350GB hehehehe ..

 

i think ya got me there

BTW there is a reason i've never seen that PC.... americans are just now catching up w/ Japan in the area of asthetics... and i'm too OLD to like it!

my ACER ASPIER 5315 ($348) is a great little laptop... it can take upto a T9500 CPU, CHIPSET supports 4gig of RAM (bios only supports 3gigs *for now), and i'm about to mod it some more.... (already have USB HUB installed internally, w/ $6 broadcom BlueTooth "thin dongle"),, adding $9 card reader and replacing WiFi G with Atheros 5008 and doing an External Antenna MOD ...

that should keep me broke for a few months.... man i hate paying bills... but i need DSL and electricity for my PC addiction,, then ther is my TV addiction,, and i have 2 music concerts to attend this weekend!!!

i try not to let my age slow me too much!

 

Talking about Mods ... i will try the pinmod too .

Even if at some 910 boards failed to work .

I expecting the BT module soon , so i will try to fix them both .

The new hard drive are still in my plans , as soon i make one successful image of the hidden recovery partition.