CF-29 and 160GB Hard Drive

The original 60GB hard drive crashedin my CF-29 and now it has the clank of death. I purchased a new 2.5inch 160GB IDE drive to replace the old one. I have read of many people using drives larger than this. When I turn on the toughbook it goes just past the panasonic splash screen and freezes. The bios sees the drive as it should and identifies it correctly in the boot order screen. If I place an old 6gb drive in it boots up to the windows XP disk as it should. Using a USB enclosure the 160GB drive works correctly, formats and reads/writes data successfully. What am I missing and is there something I am doing wrong. I purchased a Samsung Spinpoint 2.5inch HM160HC 160GB/5400rpm/8M/PATA drive. Thanks in advance for any and all constructive suggestions.

 

Old and forgetful these days but doesn't xp have a 128g limited partition size?
I just used my new recovery discs in my 29 and forgot to remove the MoGo bluetooth mouse first. Doh.

 

There should be no problem with a 160gb drive if you are using xpsp1 and newer

 

This toughbook just doesn't like this particular drive. It will work with all of the small and old drives I have but as soon as i try the brand new drive..... The toughbook hangs at a black screen just after the Panasonic splash screen disappears. No error messages or attempts to boot anything else!!

 

Check to make sure there is no shut across any of the 4 pins next to the IDE connector.

 

The jumper block is completely open!

 

connector cable issue maybe? never had any problems with the samsung drive on any of my cf-29 or cf-51's...Driller

 

Interesting that this is the 2nd person in 2 weeks to get a dead 160 Samsung.

I would boot to a Linux live cd and see if Linux recognizes the drive. I have had several drives lately that I had to partition and format in Linux before windoze would see them.

 

This is weird... I got a text message a few hours ago from a buddy who said he had the same thing happen on a few of the Samsung drives in the last batch that he bought. He's never had the issue before.... Perhaps it is a bad batch?

 

I have installed 100's of the Samsung 160 GB drives in CF-29's and
CF-18's without any problems , I always bought from the same place .

Last week I found a better deal and orderd 20pcs , When they showed up
I had nothing but problems. I was on my 5th drive still no luck so I sent them back thinking I got a bad batch . Fri I went back to my org vendor
they came today , Same problem .

I can hook the drives to a IDE to USB adapter and partition the drive and
store data on the drive with no problem.

Tonight I orderd some WD Blues I will have them in a couple days , for now I give up because I dont have the time to deal with this problem and
trying to speak to samsung about a hard drive is a nightmare

If I had to guess I would say Samsung did a FW change and for some reason the bios on the toughbook does not like that FW

Has anyone tried the drive in a CF-18 or if somone has a older 160GB drive before this problem Id like to compare the FW ver

 

Reset the unit into factory setting and save then go back to boot menu and set the cd as the priority.

This is the term I always said to those unit that you'll never know where it came from. Some people are to excited to power up their new acquired unit when arrived or received. I am one of those, Lol, but the first thing i do is to enter right away on the bios and set it to deafault setting before to proceed to anything. Also as Driller mentioned. The ide connector for the harddrive sometime get cracked due to in and out of the hdd or a people who took off the harddrive for security reason & pull hard into it. Other one to check is the clearance of cable on the soldered area coz a hair line piece of copper may interconnect to each other like a dust will coz some trouble to hdd but still recognized by the bios( those dust of copper coz of rubbing to either on the metal or plastic when the Caddy was in and out of the unit. Check also for multiple scratches on the ide ribbon near the solder spot of the connector that interconnec to the mbo. Use a used toothbrush for cleaning those area but not the one you are still using, J/K.


ohlip

 

Lets make this simple , if any other hard drive is used other than the 160GB Samsung there is no issue , also I am sure its not a set to default issue atleast not on my end Like I said I purchsed 100's these 160GB drives never an issue somthing changed with the drive or they sent out a huge bad batch but one would think alot of people would be posting on the web , I would guess somthing changed that the toughbook dont like

 

So, You mean to say that this is not the regular HM160C that we are always using? Its dirrerent model. Maybe your right though.

Edit: Ops I've mis.. the "H" my bad.


ohlip

 

HM160HC is the drive we are having problems with

 

Ok! then, its a batch of deffective hdd. I hope I can not get one of those coz I already ordered three of this model from my suplier.

ohlip

 

Interesting HM160HC or HM160C I will check when I get to the shop if all the drives I bought up to this point are HM160C then we need to figure out the diffrence between the 2 models since the HC seems to be the issue

 

All the Samsung drivers I use are HM160HC and have never had a bad drive and have used them in CF-18 , 29, 30 and 51's . I checked Samsung.com and got nothing on the HM160C so I did some more searching and found this

Samsung PATA 2.5` 160GB Hard Drive, 5400rpm (PN: HM160C ) Repacked, No Warr Auction (0016-2007029) | GraysOnline Australia
Repacked...wonder what that means?? It got me thinking but maybe these were factory seconds or factory refurbished or even a china knockoff . I have spent a couple hours looking and have found nothing else on this HM160"C" drive.

 

There is a -JC version btw , the same capacity 160GB
I have bought those by mistake ,it uses a double platter, not like the Single platter of the HC.

 

HM160HC:

Manufactured: 2011-01

Firmware Revision: LQ100-10

NO issues.

o.g.

 

Beginning to wonder if this drive is bad. In the external enclosure the drive is starting to lock up my Windows 7 desktop. Didn't notice this at first but when I unplug the USB card the PC stops hanging up. Also randomly asks me if I want to format the drive which has already been formatted.

 

Sounds like a faulty drive. Had the same issue on my replacement drive in my (ugh) Elitebook. Faulty pcb on the bugger. RMA it.

 

I have this same exact drive, same exact problem. What MK toughbook do you have? I have an MK5, and have the problem. That same drive in a MK3 we have at work works fine. There was another post about a CF-51 that described the same problems, bios sees drive, blinking cursor and wont boot. My drive works properly in a USB enclosure, so I don't think it is the drive. I also tried a different drive that we had ordered a few months ago. It does not work in the MK5, but also works fine in the MK3.

Please check which version laptop you have. I need to replace my drive, but at these prices I need to find one that works. I think I will go with a WD next.

 

You may want to read this thread.

Drive issues

 

I didn't find any answers in that thread that helped. I did try to format the drive in an external case, and it formatted, but still will not boot. Also, I took a 160 drive with windows already up an running, from a MK3, and still does not boot. We have used about 10 of these exact drives in the MK3s, so I hate to call them defective, but there is something about them that the MK5 does not like.

 

GAH! I've determined that those crappy Samsung drives do NOT work in 1.6GHz CF-29's FWIW: http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/633612-im-ready-whip-laptop-against-wall-soooo-hard.html

Good freaking luck!

 

Sorry, that was sort of my point. You may not find an answer as Rob has been dere done dat. He could not find a solution either.

 

Well, I KINDA found a solution... work around: Pay buku bux for a WD drive instead of the crappy samsung drive.

 

It's strange that the earlier ones I purchased worked like a champ in the mk 4's and 5's cf-29" and cf-51 core duo models from about a year ago and now there are ISSUES! WD's as of late have had no problems. maybe there is a reason why samsung sold their hard drive division, if I remember someone said recently. Am looking now at a hitachi 500gb sata for a cf-74 that I now know is a sata..Driller

 

I feel your pain Rob! I had wanted to use this drive because I was worried about issues with using a SATA adapter. I don't need a huge drive, I just wanted something faster. I have been working on computers for over 15 years, and very rarely have I seen hard drives that just wouldn't work. It really is a weird and frustrating problem.

*** Stay away from samsung 160GB PATA drives for MK5 CF-29s ***

 

*BlinkBlink*

*Looks at the CF-29 in his Sig*


mnem
Now with 40% less background noise!

 

Never had any issues with the WD 250GB IDE drives.

 

Mee Tooo!
HM160HC
Recognized in BIOS but will not load OS completely.
MK 4

 

I figured it was time to update this sticky The CF-29 F.A.Q. - Read me before posting We don't need others buying this drive and having this same problem untill we figure out what is going on with them.

 

used to be a good deal and had purchased a number of them with absolutely no issues with them. As of late samsung sold out this part of the company and suddenly there seemed to be a rash of big time problems with them. Makes no sense but WD does have a good product and have been using them with no issues. the IDE's are a bit pricey for the replacement on cf-29's but still are workhorses. Of course there is the ide to sata adapter available from techtuff to consider..Driller

 

I came across with this new samsung harddrive a year ago. It was recognized on th bios of cf-29MK5 but you won't load the OS even with recovery disk. As mnem.... pointed out it got to do with its firmware.

But when I installed the Hdd(samsung) to a CF-29MK3. It works perfectly fine without any issue.

For your info.

ohlip