Toughbook CF-51 hard drive location?

Greetings all --

I have a CF-51 with a 40GB Toshiba hard drive that started going bad. I am pretty sure it is the main bearing. I was able to copy the files I wanted off by repeatedly booting it, copying files onto the network, and when the drive would time out, letting it cool for several hours.

The laptop is no longer under warrantee (I bought it in November of 2004), and the while the drive would have a 3-year warrantee from Toshiba if sold apart from the laptop, its warrantee expired with the rest of the unit.

Now it's time to replace the drive. I bought a 100GB Hitachi TravelStar 7K100 and am now trying to get it installed.

The problem is: I can't find the old drive!

I managed to disassemble it to the point that the keyboard was out of the way and I had taken the screws out of the plate beneath it. However, the edge of that plate is held down by a coppery foil that is stuck to the plate and a bit of metal next to it, immediately above the PCMCIA slots. I suspect that the foil acts as a heat-sink, so I do not want to damage it if I don't have to.

From listening to it running, I believe that the hard drive is just below the PCMCIA slots. I just don't know the best way to reach it.

So, three questions:

1) Is this the proper way to get at the drive?
2) If I damage the sticky foil, is there any way to repair or replace it?
3) Once I get this drive installed, is it likely to work? If I need a proprietary drive instead, it would be good to know while the new one is still sealed in its packaging.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

The hard drive is in a caddy/sled that pops out the front left of the laptop. There is a spring loded release the one with the arrow pointing to the right. Just slide the release over and pop out the caddy.

 

Oops. That was pretty obvious. Sorry!

I had convinced myself that the caddy was a place-holder for something else, like a spare battery. It never occurred to me to open it up.

Now to see if the Hitachi drive is recognized...

Thanks!