The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    M7700 Hard Drive Upgrade Issues

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by NateX, Feb 23, 2009.

  1. NateX

    NateX Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Could someone PLEASE help me! I am trying to upgrade my M7700 to a WD 320GB 7200RPM hard drive with no success. The BIOS will not see the drive and when it scan on startup the pc doesn't see it either. What is the largest drive I can install? DO I need a BIOS update? Calling Alienware was worthless.

    PLEASE HELP!
     
    NateX, Feb 23, 2009
    #1
  2. whizzo

    whizzo Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    769
    Messages:
    5,851
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    206
    hmm. the only WDs with those specs i could find on newegg were all SATA 3.0Gb/s - i wonder if the m7700 will only work with drives up to 1.5Gb/s?
     
    whizzo, Feb 23, 2009
    #2
  3. NateX

    NateX Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    It is a 3.0 GB SATA Ver 2. Is this an issue? Also where can I find the most recent BIOS?
     
    NateX, Feb 23, 2009
    #3
  4. Gophn

    Gophn NBR Resident Assistant

    Reputations:
    4,843
    Messages:
    15,707
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    456
    which M7700 do you have?

    Clevo D900T = Area-51 M7700 is Intel Penitum 4 based (LGA775)
    Clevo D900K = Aurora M7700 is AMD Athlon X2/FX based (Socket 939)

    Me and other D900T/D900K owners know that the best SATA HDD compatibility for these series of notebooks are:
    - Seagate Momentus .... with jumper to switch to SATA-I (150MB/s) or SATA-II (300MB/s) mode
    - Hitachi TravelStar .... with utility to switch SATA modes

    WD's are not that great for these systems since its not backwards compatible.
     
    Gophn, Feb 23, 2009
    #4
  5. NateX

    NateX Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I have the Clevo D900K = Aurora M7700 is AMD Athlon X2/FX based (Socket 939).

    I will look for the Seagate Momentus drives then. DO you happen to have the latest BIOS?
     
    NateX, Feb 23, 2009
    #5
  6. Gophn

    Gophn NBR Resident Assistant

    Reputations:
    4,843
    Messages:
    15,707
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    456
    Gophn, Feb 23, 2009
    #6
  7. NateX

    NateX Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Sorry to bother again. Which Seagates did you use? I found WD 250GB 1.5GB SATA drives, these should work right since there 1.5 and not 3.0?
     
    NateX, Feb 23, 2009
    #7
  8. Gophn

    Gophn NBR Resident Assistant

    Reputations:
    4,843
    Messages:
    15,707
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    456
    Love my Seagates. :D
     
    Gophn, Feb 23, 2009
    #8
  9. Gophn

    Gophn NBR Resident Assistant

    Reputations:
    4,843
    Messages:
    15,707
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    456
    If the HDD specifically says its 1.5Gb/s SATA-I, then it should work.

    I am using ST9250320AS drives..... planning to changing it up to dual 500GB ones later.
     
    Gophn, Feb 23, 2009
    #9
  10. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

    Reputations:
    4,412
    Messages:
    8,077
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    205
    Please read my guide:

    http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=347779

    Basically you can make the drive work, you just need to install them in a system which can read SATA 300 drives, and than change the firmware so that it limits the drive to SATA 150 mode

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Feb 23, 2009
    #10
  11. Gophn

    Gophn NBR Resident Assistant

    Reputations:
    4,843
    Messages:
    15,707
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    456
    ^^ thats a good read.

    but the person with Hitachi and WDs will need another system that support SATA-II in order to use the utility to switch the SATA modes.
     
    Gophn, Feb 23, 2009
    #11
  12. zero_velocity

    zero_velocity Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    6
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Great info on making the hard drives compatible K, thanks also for the insight Gophin.
     
    zero_velocity, Sep 1, 2009
    #12
  13. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

    Reputations:
    4,412
    Messages:
    8,077
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    205
    Great to hear I was able to help

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Sep 2, 2009
    #13