hard drive replacement cf-29

i have a cf29 mk1 40gb hd i am trying to find out what is the largest hard drive i can replace it with that the mother board can handle and any recomendations on a manufacturer. thanks Mike

 

Well Mike, I tried
CAP

 

Cap

At least he posted in the right section this time lol
Hint Hint read the sticky's ,and search the Panasonic section for the posts on the popular CF-29

Btw
Here is a link to my very first post
The last paragraph mentioned that I read 6 months back before I even made my first post
Its a good idea to read back a few months as we talk about hard drives all the time
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=279779

Alex

 

Yeah.... But there are the types that are THINKING about buying a Toughbook and read a lot... Then there are the impulse buyers who buy one and need answers NOW.... I have been in both places....

 

Well the pros are little flustered that you have failed to take advantage of the many resources here so let me spoon feed this for you.

The biggest one that I know that is still made and available is the Western Digital Scorpio Blue 320GB PATA HDD normally priced around $120. I got mine on close out at Best Buy for $87.

Make sure you get a 2.5" PATA drive, or it will not work.

 

I was talking to a knowledgeable fellow about Toughbooks earlier today and told him that I was getting ready to put the WD Scorpio 320GB HDD in my CF-29N. He ended out conversation with an ominous. "Well put in in there and see if the system recognizes it..." And I though, "Well why wouldn't the system recognize it?"

Well I did put in in there, and the HDD light never even flashes. It is of course unformatted, but the BIOs should still see it.

Any advice before I tear into it again?

 

Did you plug the HDD upside down? Sometimes this happens to me when I'm not paying attention.
Oh btw, how did the bottom cover work out for you?

 

No, I do not know what the problem was. I used the "pull it an inch back and slam in home method" and it worked. It did not seem to be making good contact with the motherboard HDD connector. I was just coming back to this thread to delete my post and hide my shame, but you caught me!

I have just finished installing Windows 7 Pro on the new HDD, but if I keep it I will have to have XP as well. I am trying to figure it out right now. Having never used Vista and I pretty lost! I am used to knowing where everything is and all the shortcuts!

The only think that it did not find in updates is my sound card and 1 "Unknown Device" which I am too sleepy to know what is at the moment. Once I figuer that out I will start looking for drivers that will run on Win7.

I have not gotten to try to install the back plate install yet, but it is a nice one! I went to Wally-World looking for 100% silicon grease, and just realized that I bought 100% silicon caulking. I do not think that they are the same thing.

Once I get that I will put on the backplate and my new keyboard. I also have a new DVD-RAM/DVD/RW-CD/RW that I want to mod and install out of a dead IBM Thinkpad.

So, I have plenty of Toughbook Modding to do! Wish me luck!

 

Good info anyways on remembering to get a good firm connection on the hard drive caddy
It applies to the optical drive caddy as well

Alex