Doing a CF-29 without a HD caddy.

For all of you buying these old 29's off of the bay without HD caddies here's what I did, I just pulled the bottom off and packed a little foam weather stripping around my new HD the whole process took about 1/2hr.

I bought a cable off of ebay for $18 shipped, the seller was from Hong Kong but it shipped from California and I had it in a few days, worked good.

Tim

 

Well it did save you $60.00 but dont rock it hard . This has been done before back a few years ago...had some sellers on fleabay selling 29's as complete toughbooks ..they don't sell anymore

 

I'm sure this has been attempted and someone will remind me that there should be a similar dimension "plastic" box that could be adapted to be as easily swapped out to compete with the overtly high prices as the oem panasonic cf-29 caddy are on fleabay. have seen the hong king kong cables going for 20.00 and the generic metal knock-offs of this caddy. of course probably no heater capability for the HD but it's rediculous to pick up the laptop cheap and pay an arm and wooden leg for the caddy. just bloviating here..Driller

 

The gang connector fits tight at both ends and the drive is really well secured. I have a combination of denser narrow foam and softer wider foam so the drive has pressure on it from all directions it's not going anywhere. This is for my own use not for resale and what a great laptop. I've been using laptops since 1995 and have own a number of them this one makes all the others look like JUNK, I'm hooked!

And yeah if I could have found a caddy for less then an arm and leg....................

 

Just watch your temps!

 

I did the same thing using a cable from a cf-50 caddy before i got my caddy for my cf-18 but it was sketchy at best... it was getting really hot...

Like Toughbook said "Watch your temps"

 

As far as the metal part of the caddy goes if you have a friend that has one you could draw it out on paper flat, then go buy some thin shim stock and just bend your own. Make sure you have enough on the over lapping tabs then just use a screw to hold it together.

 

I only have (3) 3/8" wide foam strips across the top so most of the HD top case is exposed, the bottom is about 55% exposed, no heat issues and I've been running it and have it at my construction job site now.

 

Actually, that was a lot of work and effort in order to save just Thirty-One U.S. Dollars ($31).

 

Just in case someone says something about the sellers feedback I have bought from him and 2 weeks from Hong Kong is very good...some times faster than some USA sellers and also his auctions do state "not OEM" ... he had a few buyers that did not want to pay and left him bad feedback and lied about it

 

Fuzzy math ? $39 + $10 to ship to much for a knock off IMO

 

and this

 

"I bought a cable off of ebay for $18 shipped, the seller was from Hong Kong..."
-- tmessenger

$39 + $10 - $18 = $31

Nothing "fuzzy" about it.

Moreover:

NEW HARD DRIVE CADDY + CONNECTOR FOR TOUGHBOOK CF-29

This caddy includes hard drive connector, metal case, copper flashing and foam padding.

 

Jeez I'm the dummy good call.

 

Wow... that one sure looks a lot better than the plastic-fantastic we saw from that-ebay-seller-who-must-not-be-named... :laugh:

mnem
Metal is good.