N6210 HDD Size Limitations? ATA HDDs

hey all,

I have been looking to upgrade the HDDs in my Fuji N6210 to the SAMSUNG Spinpoint M5 HM160HC, which are 160gb, and apparently are incredibly quick. I would go for the 250gb from Western Digital, but not if the Samsung is this much quicker.

I just wanted to check and see if anyone else had any experience with upgrading these machines to an HD size past 137gb, as I know that there could possibly be an issue with the max possible size for ATA HDDs in some notebooks.

thanks in advance.

 

I can't imagine there'd be a limit.

 

well basically why I ask is due to a thread about the Samsung HDD I mentioned, the guy that did the review mentioned there could be issues due to lack of 48-bit Address?

looking at the info of my HDtune results, the 48-bit Adress box is not checked, but this is a feature of the HDD in the system not the system itself correct?

It is a 1.86ghz Pentium M machine. The main reason I ask is I was looking to get 2 and swap them in so I figured I would just double check this before possibly having an issue, although it really could just be more related to a particular Dell BIOS issue as well I suppose.

checking with HD tune

 

Interesting. I've not heard of this or run across it. It's not a Windows issue as long as SP2 is installed. It must be related to either the drive or notebook itself. I've installed drives larger than 137GB on PIII machines with no issues. You just need SP2 to see over 137GB. In theory, 32 bit XP SP2 should be able to see drives up to 2TB in size.

 

that is what I was thinking, if you have put that size of drives in a PIII machine i probably don't have any worries, the 48-bit Address is likely an issue with the particular systems that were mentioned, not all in general.

I am running SP3 on the N6210 so I think I will definitely give it a go. here is the review of it by the way, this is what convinced me to go for it instead of 2 250gb drives.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=264209&highlight=Samsung+SpinPoint+M5+HM160HC

thanks for the response.

 

I've just checked on a Fujitsu S6120 that will soon be 5 years old (1.6GHz PM) and HDtune shows that 48 bit addressing is enabled although the HDD is a slow Fujitsu MHR2040AT. The N6210, I deduce, is slightly newer so it should also have the 48-bit addressing.

The S6120 is a notebook I have almost forgotten we had in the house. It's a good solid machine apart from floppy hinges, an almost dead battery and it being on its third keyboard.

John

 

thanks for checking. Yeah, I love my N6210 still, such a strong little machine (little being completely wrong in this situation though) I just remote control it from my MacBook Pro, as does my roomate, and we use it for a lot of different things.

I will run HDTune again to check for the 48bit adress, it has an 80gb 4200rpm hitachi in it now, so the current HDD could definitely use an upgrade.

here is the screenshot:



this is what worries me, but I still think this is a feature of the HDD not the computer itself, especially with people saying even older machines have HDDs that are capable of it. I think I will go ahead and order a pair and give it a try, and hopefully I will be able to rip that anemic 4200rpm drive apart.

 

I just thought I would look in the BIOS to see if there is an option to set the LBA.

I attach what I found. Pressing the space bar lets me step through the options, but the LBA seems to be fixed.

John