hp dv9000 second hard drive question

hello. i just got my dv9000t about 3 weeks ago and my hard drive is already full (80gb). i want to add an additional hard drive, maybe a 100gb or if i could find one a 120gb. does anyone know any sites to buy them from? i was talking to one of the hp techs on their online chat support and he told me that i could only put the same hard drive in (another 80gb). i've never heard anything like that before. i guess he didn't know what he was talking about or he wanted me to buy the $295 80gb he was offering me.

 

I'll tell you what I know about the dv8000. I don't know how well it will correspond to the dv9000. AS far as I can see, they're very similar models.

I bought a Hitachi HTS721060G9SA00, which is a 7200 rpm 60GB model. It's exactly the same model (but different size) as the one I originally got on my laptop, which is a Hitachi 7200rpm 100GB.

If you're gonna somehow make use of RAID, and I don't know if a non-RAID config can make use of it somehow, you'll need another disk of the same size. I have no idea whether you can even get RAID if you only got one drive to begin with and HP didn't preinstall the RAID configuration.

If you don't care about RAID, it doesn't matter what size you use as the second hard drive.

Regardless, for the dv8000, you need a hard drive mounting bracket, which can be purchased from HP for $38. Make sure you tell them you need the screws along with the mounting kit. But don't purchase the screw set. It should just come with the drive mounting kit. But they probably won't send you the screw kit. They didn't send me the screws, and if I hadn't told them I needed the screws before I ordered, they might have made me purchase the screw kit as well. However, I told them this, and they sent me the screw kit for free.

So now I have a 60GB drive to act as backup for my primary hard drive.

 

I thought the dv9000 doesn't support RAID.

 

I didn't see any raid config option in cmos, so I'm assuming DV9000t does not support raid. Anyone bought one with dual hard drive config who can confirm no raid option?

As for second hard drive bracket, it seems to be a standard bracket that may be able to be purchased from any hard drive vendor who advertises selling hd for HP laptops. Can't believe HP would sell these at $38 and additional amount for screw kit. Glancing at it, it doesn't even seem necessary for a bracket. What it does, however, need is a sata connector adapter since the HD will have to be dropped down rather than slid in to make the connection. Another thing that seems to be lacking is vents on the second hd cover. Not sure how heat will dissipate from the second hd, considering my 100gb 7200 runs pretty darn hot. Drain on battery is another thing to consider with 2nd hd. Best option seems to be to replace hd with biggest hd available on the market or use an external drive.

 

I have 2 drives on my dv9000 and i dont see any raid option so i am assuming there is none or if there is native support then it has not been enabled.

 

Thanks for the confirmation. So your dual hd are showing as 2 separate drives? c: and d: drive? If that's the case, attaching another any size sata drive shouldn't be a problem. Looks like HP was trying to hose the first poster in this thread.

 

well first drive has 3 partitions, 1 hidden, 1 Os and 1 for the recovery. the second is simply a data drive so yeah theyre two seperate drives and are shown as such. in fact i once removed my 2nd drive and the system ran fine, so theyre definitely not raided.

so yeah shudnt be a problem installing any size hard drive as long as its sata and perhaps as long as the motherboard supports the speed (mines are 5400 but im sure 7200 will be fine too). considering theyre not connected in anyway the HP rep was clearly wrong on this one.

 

I was running out of space. My hard drive is 100GB. I purchased an exturnal hard drive, 320GB one.

I cant seem to fill the 320gig one... I have 420GB of space now, which is, for me, enough for now.

Rob

 

lol i got heaps of 3.5" drives and space just keeps filling up, had lots of dvds too. i guess im just that kinda person who doesnt like throwing things away.

 

I am not sure if you all have already found out this, but you can install a RAID driver and use raid in these notebooks. It also has native support. You can access all of this in the setup by hitting f10 when the notebook is starting up. I have this notebook and am using raid. Hope this helps.
Dave

 

Could you tell me what exact model you are using and what BIOS version?