need a new IDE HD for an ancient ultra-compact notebook

I am upgrading my girlfriend's compact Fujitsu P2110. I've maxed out on RAM already, also bought a new battery. Now I am about to install a new hard drive. I've looked at her supplied disks. She bought the P2110 in Hong Kong. There is a Fujitsu recovery disk but no Windows XP disk. It looks like XP was preinstalled. There is the original Windows sticker on the laptop.

How would I get the OS moved over on to a new hard drive?
Will that be on the Recovery disk?
I really just want to do a clean reinstall of XP. There is precious little data on the laptop that I want.

 

You could just download an app that tells you your xp license key, then d/l a boot disk from a torrent and reinstall w/ that?

 

thanks for the reply, but hey, I am over 45 years old!
d/l from bit torrents? Uh, I am over 45 years old - LOL.
I used to pirate stuff off of Limewire but stopped when most of what I downloaded was infused with viruses.

I might have a XP bootdisk for a desktop system that I have. Can I use that?
Now the XP license key....doesn't that info that appear on the Windows sticker on the bottom of her PC? Or is that info inside the OP program and only obtained using a program that I must download?

 

^ It very well might be written underneath, but I tried this before and there was no sticker, so I just assumed it'd be the same for you. If you have a hard copy of the license key go with that.
The bootdisk you have probably won't work if it's an OEM disk.

Quick guide to using torrents (yes, it's really this easy!):

• Download uTorrent. Take the latest stable version.
• When it's downloaded, open it and run through the quick config (don't even need to install)
• Go to a torrent search site; http://www.torrentz.com/ should be ok, but there are others.
• Search for what you want.
• Select a torrent. The best ones have high numbers of seeders and lower numbers of leechers. Click download.
• If you are offered the option of opening it direct from your browser window with uTorrent, do so.
  Otherwise, when it's downloaded (should take only a few seconds), double click it with uTorrent open.
• Make sure all files are selected and proceed.
• Leave it to download. Don't worry if it's slow to start, they can take a few minutes to pick up speed but they generally do.

Pros/cons to torrents:
+ Relatively easy to find practically anything
+ Usually virus free
+ Usually quite fast
- Slightly more difficult to use than Limewire - but not much so, and way worth the hassle




I'm 90% sure this will work, I've done it before, but get someone else to make 100% sure.




EDIT Just read back over: the Fujitsu disk might have easier methods - try it

 

I am sure the sticker is underneath the laptop but it is quite possible that the info had been slowly eroded away.

 

I won't try the Recovery isk on a new HD unless I am sure it would work. I'd rather have a notebook with a slow HD and a functioning OS over a notebook with a new HD but no OS.

 

Get your new HDD (make sure you get a compatible model- probably PATA in which case the Samsung HM160HC or the WD 2500BEVE are your best options) plus a USB enclosure.

Check if there is a recovery partition on the HDD. This may contain an image which you can then burn to CD. Or maybe the recovery disc contains a complete pre-configured XP installation. The easiest way to find out is to install boot from the recover disc and see what happens. You can kill the installation before it over-writes your HDD. The Fujitsu OEM key may not work with another XP installation.

If using the recovery disc doesn't work then you can clone the existing HDD. See this thread for guidance.

John

 

From the Fujitsu webite info on the P2110:

1.5GB of the drive is partitioned and the original factory image is stored there. Power Quest® Drive Image™ Special Edition, a system recovery utility, can be used to restore the computer to its original state at any time.

I doubt I'll get 1.5 GB on to a CD and there is no DVD or CDROM drive

 

When I called the local PC shop here to inquire about a HD they asked me if my laptop's mobo would accept a HD of that size. how do I find out what is the maximum size HD the P2110 can accept?
And what's a USB enclosure? The P2110 has a couple USB (but not USB 2.0) ports.

 

ok - I read the link you provided. I now know what an enclosure is, I think. But how long will it take to clone my HD through an old USB port?
Also - I'd really like to do a complete new install of XP, if possible.

 

Good point about cloning through USB 1.1. That could take a little time depending on the HDD size. The transfer rate might be around 2GB / hour.

I would first try the recovery CD in the computer as it is now and then kill the installation once you see what happens. I suspect it will try to install Windows. If it doesn't then you will need to clone the HDD including the recovery partition which you can then use to reinstall Windows.

John

 

How do I find out what is the maximum size HD the P2110 can accept? I called Fujitsu support and they couldn't help me. I understand that it takes IDE HD and that the BIOS/IDE controller/chipset do have a maximum size they will support.

 

You might hit the 137GB limit described by WDC here. This depends on BIOS support for LBA. It may be possible to get round it - read the details. However, you wouldn't lose much of the space of a 160GB HDD (true capacity ~149GB).

John

 

ok - I read the link you provided. I now know what an enclosure is, I think. But seriously, how long will it take to clone my HD through an old USB port?

 

USB is about 30Mbs,so about 34secs/GB.

 

This guy has USB1.1...so you are looking at 12Mbps (1.5MBps). Given that is best case, I'd wager 3-4GB/hour at MOST.

 

I can't see where you indicated the size of the existing HDD. Take that (or, more accurately the used capacity) and divide by 2 and you have my upper estimate of the time, in hours.

I was also thinking to suggest one of these but there's a small chance that the cloning software wouldn't have the necessary driver in its library.

John

 

Thanks - I think the 137 GB limit is my limit. I have a 20 GB drive currently. I think I'll try a clean reinstall as I really don't have anything on it that I really need or can't download off the web (freeware). I was going to get a cardbus USB/firewire when I buy my HD as it will speed up the downloading of my digital camera files through my USB card reader. Wouldn't the cardbus USB adapter come with drivers, like my wireless G cardbus did?
So when I use the recovery disk to attempt a reinstall on the new HD, does it format the HD first? Doesn't it need to be formated?

 

I am upgrading my girlfriend's ancient super-compact Fujitsu P2110. I've maxed out on RAM already, also bought a new battery. Now I am about to install a new hard drive.

I want to buy the best 80GB - 120 GB IDE hard drive. Am limited by some 137 IDE controller/BIOS limit. Any links to IDE drive performance charts?
Is there a database that addresses this question?
Failing that I have heard that Hitachi and Seagate make the best IDE 2.5 inch notebook drives. Is that true? Should I avoid Hitachi as they do run a little hotter than Seagate and the Fujitsu P2110 is a very small lappy where temperature may be more important?
Any help or recommendations?

 

I am merging your other thread into this one.

John

 

EXCELLENT - it was moved in to the HD forum. I figured my new questions would garner a better response in that forum (though you guys were super helpful in the Fujitsu forum with my Fujitsu-specific questions).

Thanks John.

 

seriouly don't worry about the bios limit, all you have to do is create two partitions both lower than 137gb. As stated above the hm160hc is the fastest pata hd, with reads/writes of about 51mb/s. if you want you can check charts at -
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/hard-disks/workstation-i-o-benchmark-pattern,693.html

 

thanks for your suggestion.
The fastest non-SATA drive for read speeds seems to be Hitachi Travelstar 7K100 @ 41.2
Then it seems to be the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 @ 36.3
I don't see the Samsung hm160hc on the list. The hm160JC is there @35.40
I guess I never considered Samsung before, are they now making great reliable HDs?
I am wondering if i should be more concerned with Maximum Drive temperature since this is an ultra-compact?
John, why did you recommend the Western Digital?

 

Actually youre wrong there, the Samsung Hm 160HC is the fastest ATA harddrive. I just got mine in today and it flys. 52mb/sec average.

Eat your hearts out guys, same performance as 320gb 5400rpm.
I will post a thread tomorrow with more details



K-TRON

 

Congrats K-T and to others my 160GB ATA 5400 Hitachi gets 39MB/s so 41MB/s from a 7200 well does not impress me.

 

The WD2500BEVE has the highest capacity for PATA 2.5", provided you can use it. However, if 160GB is enough capacity then the HM160JC would be my recommendation. I would expect it to run slightly cooler than the WD. As K-TRON has shown us, the performance is up with the 320GB HDDs (very slightly faster than my Fujitsu 320GB).

John

 

I am not wrong - the Tom's Hardware list is incomplete/obsolete/dated.

I am not going to buy a HD larger than 120 GB. Everyone is recommending drives too big for my needs. I only use this laptop as a digital photo storage device while on vacation one month out of the year. 40 GB is sufficient but I might as well go as high as 120 GBs since the price ratio is better. Anything higher is a waste of money and work as I won't need to partition.
If there is a HD <121 GB that is fast then I am all ears!!

THANKS!!

 

to be honest ata hds are getting sooooooo cheap now, that you won't end up spending more than £10 ($20) more for a 160gb hd relative to a 120gb one. The high speed of the hm160hc means that in your case photos/videos etc... will transfer much faster- probably around 2x faster when compared to general 120gb hds. Partioning hds are super easy, and anyway if you don't want to do that, you can just remain at the 137gb limit since as you said you probably won't need that much storage.

 

f anyone can find where I can buy a 7200 IDE drive, then I'll consider it.

I live in Canada. I've looked online for a Canadian vendor and can't find anything. Even looked on Newegg - nothing. Newegg doesn't ship to Canada so even if they did it wouldn't matter.

So if you know of any vendors of 7200 RPM IDE notebook drives that ship to Canada, then please tell me . And no, I am not interested in a used one from eBay.

 

So then let me see if I am getting this right....A 160 GB drive by Samsung or WD is faster than a 120 GB drive of the same brand?

Are SAMSUNG 120GB HM121HC still very fast? faster than a 120 GB WD? faster than a Seagate Momentus 7200.1 ST910021A 100 GB?

So if I do nothing (no patition) with a 160 GB drive then I'll still get to use 137 GBs of the 160GB? And I don't have to download any drivers for IDE controller, don't have to go in to the BIOS to switch from PIO to DMA mode?

Is it me or are there next to no 7200K IDE drives out there? Are they discontinued?

 

The 7200 drives seem to have been all bought out. I was having a very hard time getting my hands on one back in November, so I doubt their are any out now.
philmar, sorry fo being a little rude before.

The drive I replaced with my samsung drive above was a 40gb 5400rpm hitachi drive. It was a great drive, the fastest thing out about 6.5yrs ago when I bought it.
Well here is the hdtune of the old drive:


As you can see the speed of the new ata drives is outstanding. It is nearly 3x the speed with the same amount of rpms. This drive is currently teh fastest ata harddrive.

However what you should do, is run hdtune on your system. Go into the info tab, and in the lower right, see what UDMA/ATA your system supports. It will say supported and Active:
Tell us what the supported is. If your system can only do ata33 or 66, than you can get a older generation drive since the bottleneck will be the motherboard and not the harddrive.

Tell us what UDMA/ATA your system supports.

K-TRON

 

PHEEEEW! What a search! I finally found a Seagate Momentus 7200.1 ATA 100GB at CDW Canada for CA$129 http://www.cdw.ca/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=797663.

How does that compare to the Samsung Spinpoint M 120GB HM121HC or HM160JC ?

 

Rude? Naaah. I didn't find you rude, just boastful.
It would take me a while to install and run the program on the PC. The HD is painfully slow. But I do believe it is ultra dma 4.

But if I am understanding you right (and I probably aren't) are you suggesting that buying the best and fastest HD may be useless if it will end up runnning at a slower speed due to chipset limitations? After all, this, IS a 7 year old laptop.

 

The HM121HC specs show the same performance as the HM160HC, so it must use less than two sides of a 160GB platter. I would prefer it to the 7200.1, which is quite power-hungry (=hot) by current standards.

John

 

Thanks John. Loads of help and good information from this forum!! The Samsung looks good.
Just curious, should any regard be made to the fact that this is a 7 year old laptop? Wouldn't the chipset/BIOS/IDE controllers have an influence on the HD's performance? I guess that still would tip the scales in favor of the cooler running Samsung. But wouldn't it run at about the same speed on my laptop as the WD hard drive. Won't they all default at UDMA4 speeds?

 

The drive will default back to udma 4, which is ata 66, so the speed of your drive will top out with any drive, at about 40mb/sec.
My laptop is 6.5 years old which I replaced the drive in, but it was the first desktop replacement laptop, so it had all of the high end parts at that time, so I had no problem with upgrading the drive.
AS you mentioned, stick with a drive less than 137Gb. The 120gb will be fine for your needs and it should be able to get similar speeds as the 160gb ata drive I just bought.
No matter the case, the new harddrive will greatly outperform your current drive. The only real limiting factor is the motherboard.

Are you in Canada?
cause the link you posted was from a canadian store.
I hope you are able to find the samsung drive for much less. I got mine from lagoom for $75.14 after shipping.

K-TRON

 

I decided to go with the Samsung HM160HC. It was only a few dollars more than the 120 GB version. $60 plus exhorbitant eBay shipping. I'll partition it at 135 gb and write off the remaining 25 GBs, which are the slowest part of the drive anyway.

Once again thanks to everyone here that was of help. Great forum! I'll let ya know if the drive fails...LOL.

 

Its a great drive philmar. It is very quiet and really fast.
After installing the operating system, run a hdtune test and tell us how it performs for you. Most likely it will be the motherboard limiting the speed of the laptop, not the harddrive. AKA, the harddrive is really fast

K-TRON

 

now, is there any guide on how to replace a HD...one with step by step photos?

 

Western digital Scorpio`s are very good drives, they run quiet and cool.

 

I'll have my Samsung drive shortly and I have one question for everyone.

Is there any benefit to having a separate partion for the OS and apps? I am more familiar with the desktop world where multiple drives are possible but what about the notebook world? Years ago when drives were expensive and multiple drives were a rarity many people partioned off a separate section for the apps. Is there any reason to do this on a notebook?

 

nope no point. there's a thread that deals with this question already- just search

 

there is a current thread in the OS forum.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=260587

The consensus there is overwhelmingly in favor of partitioning the OS. I'll look for dissenting threads.

I guess it would be foolish to include the apps on the OS partition. Better to keep it with the data lest you have to reinstall the apps after an XP re-install.

 

Does anyone have a compelling argument AGAINST partitioning the drive for the OS?

 

OK - I have the new Samsung and this weekend I plan to do the HD install. i have a recovery disk. Remember, I have the 137gb limit so I need a 135 GB partition.
Do I need to partition the drive BEFORE I install the OS? And if so, how would I do that?

 

No, you can set up partitions on the drive with the windows operating system disk.
You can partition the drive beforehand, but either way it will work.
Its probably easier doing it from a desktop, cause the operating system can be a little harder to make a partition in.

I hope you have as good performance as I have, I love that drive.

K-TRON

 

I've partitioned my HDDs for as long as I remember. I try to avoid keeping anything important in the OS partition in case I ever need to wipe it because Windows got badly corrupted. Or, if your computer comes with a restoration image then it will automatically wipe the whole of C: if you restore the image.

Partitioning in order to keep the master file tables smaller used to be a benefit. I don't know whether that still is the case.

John

 

Thanks for everyone's help - the mini-rig is up and running quitely and cooler than before.

I was able to make a 120 GB partition using my Recovery disk (I wrote off the remaining 40 gb as I am certain I will never need it).
Never having opened up a laptop or switched a HD I was a little nervous. Luckily I had small screwdriver to help pry the old HD from the fragile delicate ribbon. If I had attempted to do it with my hands it would have been disastrous.
I didn't want to bite off more than I could chew (baby steps! baby steps!) so i didn't create a separate partition for the OS (I wasn't sure how big of one to use). I do kinda regret it now that I see how much time it takes to reload the OS, programs, drivers ect.
So I am wondering now if there is any software that I can use to further partition the drive and put the OS in? Or is this now impossible/too risky?
Or should I start an separate thread in a different forum?

 

Well I am very glad that you took my advice and got the Samsung HM160HC, it really is a wonderful drive. It is very quiet, fast and runs cool.

I have personally never tried partitioning while in the operating system, but I hear of Gpart and partitionmagic.

K-TRON