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    laptop HD questions

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by lesliesp, Oct 28, 2009.

  1. lesliesp

    lesliesp Notebook Geek

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    I have a working Inspiron 4100 and a maybe working 1200. I wanted to pull the hard drive from the 4100 to test the 1200 which may have a dead hard drive. I found that it wouldn't fit. The drive from the 4100 has a set of three extra pins making it different than the 1200 hard drive. Is this normal? Why the extra pins for the 4100? If I had to buy a new HD for the 4100, would I have to buy it from Dell only?
     
    lesliesp, Oct 28, 2009
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  2. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

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    Sure there's not a proprietary IDE adapter on the end on one or both HDDs? A plain IDE HDD should look like this:

    [​IMG]
     
    Lithus, Oct 28, 2009
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  3. lesliesp

    lesliesp Notebook Geek

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    I don't recognize any type of adapter with the 1200's hard drive. I hoped I have attached the photo correctly. It is the separate end pins which seem to be the problem. Is this not an IDE drive?
     

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    lesliesp, Oct 28, 2009
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  4. Lithus

    Lithus NBR Janitor

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    The big black thing is a proprietary IDE adapter. Pull it off.
     
    Lithus, Oct 29, 2009
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  5. lesliesp

    lesliesp Notebook Geek

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    THANK YOU! I can see differences in brands but find it strange that Dell would change their basic hardware between lines.
     
    lesliesp, Oct 29, 2009
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