Upgrading a CF-18 D

All a bit over my head - I could do with some advice from someone who knows their stuff.

I could do with some more storage on my CF-18 D.

I got a 120gb hard drive but could not get it to work.

I rang the Panasonic tech support line (not toughbook support) and was told that the 18 D will only handle a 60gb drive (which would be an improvement to my standard 40gb) anyone know if this is true and/or if there is a way of getting a bigger HD running?

Appears strange to me as I've had bigger HDs running in laptops that were older, lower spec.and not as 'prestigious' as a toughbook

Also interested to see if I can get any more memory than the 760mb I have fitted (see my other post - http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=228828)

 

60 is a weird number for a drive size limit. I think the maximum size is 129GB (Give or take a few) for most basic IDE controllers, unless the BIOS has something to do with it. But seeing that the 18 is similar to the 29, I can't see that being the issue.

What was going on when you tried hooking up that 120?

 

Its really weird, I have an old m34 but it accept 120gig harddrive without upgrading the bios or anything.


I say, check your harddrive cable attachment may be you install that in a wrong way that why it can't recognized by the system since you didn't mention a full detail. I am just quessing here.

ohlip

 

I am currently posting from my CF28B with a fresh 120 Gig drive. The trick that worked for me was to either:

A. Format the drive NTFS prior to trying to restore windows to it from the recovery disks, or
B. Use the HDD erase utility on the recovery disks first then when thats done, use the recovery disks to create 2 partitions, and restore winows as normal to one partition..

Hope this helps, if not feel free to contact ,me and I will do what I can..

Bill

 

i just added a 160GB to my cf-18 with no problems, it reconized the whoe 160 gigs

 

Dazzer,

I think that we will need more info to resolve this issue.

When you install the drive in the caddy start the laptop to boot up press F2
Look in the bios , under information tab, look for Primary Master, it has to show up and read 120GB.
If the bios will not read the drive it is probably defective.

If the bios reads it you should be good to go.
That is depending on what o/s you are installing.
Are you using the original xp pro restore disks, or oem xp pro disk or some other o/s?
Are you installing the o/s with a usb cd rom?
You do have to select the usb cd rom as boot first in the bios.
Out of the 2 usb ports ,sometimes to boot from the cd it favours’ either the forward one or the rearward usb port.

As bill said you do have the option of partioning the drive in 2.

But I don’t think that is necessary as the ntfs bios limitation if there, is at 133GB.

Panasonic only had the 40GB and 60GB as options so it is safe for the Panasonic rep to say that only those sizes work.

If have various cf-18s,the mk-2 that I have like yours has the standard 40GB drive, the ram is maxed out at 256mb built-in with 512mb pc2100 ddr added.

Alex

 

I bought the drive almost 2 years ago now !!!!

Started by attaching it to my toughbook with a USB-drive ribbon connector my brother had and cloning the drive inside my Toughbook. Fitted the drive and it would not boot up.

Gave up for a bit then I was led to believe it was too big for the toughbook so I bought a external USB caddy for it and it would not work in the caddy. Other smaller drives would work in the caddy. Got fed up again and put it on a shelf for a bit.

After I made the posts above I have been trying again.

Tried installing a few different versions of XP onto it (I've not got recovery disks) using an external DVD drive via USB. It will boot up from the DVD and start installing XP. When it gets to the point where it shuts down and reboots from the hard drive I get an error message about the drive (can't remember exactly) and a DOS prompt "BOOT\>"

Tried drive in an external USB caddy my brother has - nothing.

Put it into the "accessory bay" second hardrive caddy in my brothers old Compaq laptop and it sees the drive and it's contents?

Put it into the main hard drive caddy in the Compaq and try to install XP same problem as when trying to do the install in the Toughbook.

Also I mixed up my drives and put my working 40gb hard drive into the Compaq and try to do a fresh install of XP over the top. My toughbook won't boot from this drive now...... I think I've damaged/overwritten the boot record segment tried fixing it using XP disks and a few different unerase/partition tools but nothing.

Very fed up with it all. Spent far to many hours on this drive

Put my 120gb drive in my brothers laptop for his second hard drive (the only place we have managed to get it to work) and I've got his old 30gb drive in exchange. Although I may try to send the 120gb back if it has a 3 year warranty.

At the moment I have my drive in my caddy and am using a friends laptop and the caddy to access my files.

Thinking of buying a nice Samsung 160gb drive and I'm fairly sure I'll be doing a fresh install on it and using my 40gb drive in the caddy.

Also like the idea of being able to add a gb memory stick (even though the Toughbook info says 512mb is the max )

Best

Dazzer

 

When installing new hard drives I select full format, when given the choice, at the beginning of the windows installation.
I takes longer to format that way, but I have found the occasional defective drives by doing it that way.
If you have the drive working in another laptop, you could try running a hard drive diagnostic utility on it.



Alex

 

I've got the samsung 160gb drive in and running. Finally got a bit more space to play with!!! I kept on filling up the 40gb drive.

I'll have to check what the deal is with the 120gb. I'll try some hard drive diagnostics.

 

I know this thread is old now but I am wanting to uggrade the drive in my CF-18D (Mk 2). Exactly what spec.'s do I need to make it wok. I was looking at a 160gb and have a choice between Seagate, WD, and hitachi. They all have the ATA-6 interface. Will this work.

ALso, I had planned to use Acronis to image the drive to the new one. I have used it before but never on a Panasonic. Just wondering if there were Panasonic specific issues I should look for.


Thanks,

Steve

 

you will Just need a IDE drive. Any size seems to work. I have a 160gb hard drive by Hitachi and it works perfect.

Acronis seems to work good there are a lot of other HD copying programs out there but a straight copy should be Just perfect.

 

I have been reading posts on here about the SAMSUNG HM160HC. I can get it from provantage for $48. Anyone have input on their longevity?? They are supposed to be a single platter drive and very fast.

Steve

 

The most reliable hard drive for laptops is a solid state drive
That would be my first choice but the only drives that work well are sata
The only downside on these drives is that they don’t like a power disruption
In a laptop with a working battery that’s not an issue
I have a Samsung 32gb ssd in my cf-30 for xp
I have a Seagate 7200.3 320GB SATA Hard Drive with G-FORCE PROTECTION for vista in a separate caddy for the cf-30
G-force is a new technology that senses a drop a takes the head away from the platter to protect the hard drive and data

Laptop hard drives are typically 2 platter
That Samsung is a single platter, so the reliability should be very high


Alex