Replacing Toughbook Harddrive

Has anybody replaced a harddrive for the CF-18 or CF-29? Am struggling to work out how to get the existing drive out of the shock proof enclosure. It seems like it should be simple - but would be good do it with some instructions.

So far I've removed the top of the enclosure - can anybody talk me through what to do afterwards?

 

Is there some kind of service manual on Panasonic's website?

 

I've pulled the one out of my -28.

Four small Phillips screws to remove the top and shake, pry, whatever to get the drive out of the silicone buffer. It's almost sticky.

Mine has a copper sheet that isolates the ide cable.

I have a magnifying lamp to eyeball that sort of stuff.

 

Interesting. Will try and spot the four screws. Are they on the top of the drive? As for service manuals - Panasonic do indeed sell one - it's just that they're $250 which seems ridiculous.

 

Unfortunately I can't locate the four screws. When I took the top of the enclosure off I just exposed a circuit board, what looks like a heatsink and a folded IDE cable. All this is covered by a thin plastic sheet with foam attached to the underside. The plastic can be lifted easily exposing the rest beneath. Whereabouts are the screws located?

Thanks in advance!

 

Finally got it. Just as an FYI to anyone who wants to do this, at least on mine there were no more screws. Once you get the top of the enclosure, all you need to do is shake the unit and it should come loose.

Hope this helps. Thanks to everyone who responded. Oh, and re. service manuals. I picked one up at service-manuals.net. Wondered if the site was legit, but at least (so far) it appears to be. They charged 11.99 for a download of the manual in PDF.

 

They have CDs on ebay that have complete drivers and manuals. I bought one for $17.99 (I think) and love the info. It covered my model and all variants.

 

I have a cf-28 that doesn't have the hard drive cable to connect the hard drive to the motherboard or hard drive. Anyone got any pictures of the cable used for that? Also, I need to know the pin out from the computer motherboard to the hard drive connector. I'm going to try to build my own cable. Any information would be appreciated.

Steve

 

Steve... The hard drive is enclosed in a caddy. Inside the caddy there is a part that snaps on the end of the hard drive. This leads to a black sort of push/pull connector that snaps onto the mobo... Is this what you are talking about?

 

Yep, that's the one. I need to know which pins on the part that snap into the hard drive connect to which pins at the push/pull connector.

 

You'll need to buy the caddy on ebay (or elsewhere) as I doubt you can solder the tiny little pins in there. PM me your email address and I'll send you the exploded diagram.

 

I just bought a caddy online, but I need to figure out if I can use one of my desktop ide drives or if i need to buy another type of drive to put in it? just would like to order the appropriate drive so I'll have everything i need at once

 

Uhhh... A desktop drive in a laptop???? Not! Desktop drives are 3.5"... Laptop drives are 2.5"... You could make an external hard drive with one of your desktop drives... I have 5 external hard drives made up from all the old drives I had lying around...

 

yar, as do I. I had an old vaio a while back that they built with a desktop drive for some damned reason, and I couldn't tell from looking at any pictures of the caddy i could find online what size the plug was on the machine. Thanks for the help!

 

A laptop with a desktop drive??? I've never seen one. It must be heavy and have a car battery... or a short battery life.

 

LOL!!!!!,

i did have a desktop pc like that (media station) and mind you it gave me alot of problems so after keeping it a month i returned it and got my money back and built my own.............

 

yeah, it was kind of a piece of garbage, turned me off to the brand forever. Thinking back on it though, i think it may have been a normal laptop drive and a desktop processor, rather than a mobile one, and I might have confused that. Yar, that was it, it was before the mobile version of whatever processor it was came on the market. Mea culpa. That laptop and sony support were a nightmare, though. the motherboard and hd needed to be replaced due to flux damage, and the company wanted to charge me almost the full price of the laptop to repair it, even though it was still under warranty. last New laptop I ever bought

 

ur always better of building them urself desktop pc,
also you save half the money of buying a brand new one.........

 

What's the largest hard drive you can put in a CF28? I see some 250GB 2.5 inch IDE drives on the market now

 

The problem you run into is, they don't seem to be releasing the newest drives in PATA anymore, only SATA. and the 28 uses a PATA drive. I've got a 160GB in mine.. you MIGHT find something a little bigger if you're lucky. I would doubt that you would have much luck finding anything much bigger than 200 though.

Which begs the question.. what is the point in having a drive that big anyway?

 

I'm in the automotive industry and have alot of standard and modified ECU files I like to keep on my laptop, I'd also be running multiple boot just in case!

 

Two words: llama porn.

mnem
Just ask Stef at UserFriendly.

 

Wow.. are they that big now? I used to play around with the ECM in my camaro.. the ROM images were 16KB

 

My flashes for Megatune are all under 500KB... I'm trying to imagine a 1GB ECU file...

 

Mmmmhmmm... I have an old IBM 380XD I use for OBDII diagnostics. Depending on the dashboard software I'm using, the config files can be as big as 30k... I think my entire OBDII folder is what... 2MB?

mnem
*Trying to make 100KB + 100KB = 200GB*

 

I second the Llama porn answer.

(For the record, I keep all of my porn on my desktop at home. My toughbook is strictly used for tools)

 

Heh... I have a USB HD dedicated to this single purpose... storing an 18-year-old collection of internet porn, going all the way back to the days of 8-bit .tiff & ASCII porn... :laugh:

mnem
Okay... I'll stop when I just need glasses...

 

Don't forget the Midget's - always good