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    Help Indentifying Harddrive type.

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by citric, Jul 9, 2007.

  1. citric

    citric Notebook Consultant

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    I'm trying to fix my friends laptop. We bought a new hard drive for it, it's a 120GB 5400 RPM Seagate. The original is a 60GB 7200 RPM Hitachi Travelstar

    The current one has a normal looking connector type like this:
    :: :::::::::.::::::::::::

    The Original however has an on connector that i like this:
    --------------------- with metal pins up against the middle part on each side, numbering 22 pins per side.

    This is a picture of the female connector inside the laptop.
    http://citricacid.110mb.com/dump/Connector.jpg

    I cannot find any hard drives with the same type connector as the original. Also, I've heard with the Dell BIOS you can only upgrade so much with a hard drive since it might not be support. His comp is an Inspiron 9300 with A05 BIOS.

    Please help.
     
    citric, Jul 9, 2007
    #1
  2. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    The Inspiron 9300 supports SATA drives, which use a different connector than the older IDE drives.

    If I am reading your post correctly...you are trying to put an IDE drive :): :::::::::.:::::::::::: ) into a SATA (---------------------) slot.
     
    Greg, Jul 9, 2007
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  3. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    Can you exchange your Seagate HDD for the same model except for having an "S" at the end of the model number? That S indicates the SATA connector.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Jul 9, 2007
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  4. citric

    citric Notebook Consultant

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    Im assuming that the problem with his laptop is the harddrive, but either way if we find the right one we'll keep it cause it'll be an upgrade.

    This is the problem with his laptop. The DELL BIOS screen has a weird cross section of lines going both vertically and horizontally across the screen. Also, when loading in Safe Mode, and when trying to run the Windows XP Boot disc, the text is all weird, like certain characters are replacing others. It might appear like this:

    Windows has detected no installed hard drive.
    Wjngows has fetested no jnctallef harf frive.
     
    citric, Jul 9, 2007
    #4