FAQs: How many types of hard drives are there? How can I tell if I have a SATA or an IDE hard driv e? Why is my new hard drive’s formatted capacity less than 500GB/320 GB? How can I remove my laptop hard drive to replace it ? I have installed my new hard drive but my laptop ca nnot recognize it. How can I fix this? My computer has come up with a message saying that there us ‘No Bootable Device Available’ - What Does This Mean and How can I fix this? My laptop keeps restarting and goes off on the wind ows logo screen. Do I need a new hard drive? Are some laptop hard drives compatible with other b rands of laptops? I ordered a Samsung hard drive but I was sent anoth er manufacturer? I can’t find my laptop model number on your listing s? My hard drive seems to be clicking, do I need a rep lacement? My current hard drive is working fine but I would l ike to upgrade it so that I have more space. How can I do so? How many types of hard drives are there? There are two types of hard drives; the first type is IDE (also known as PATA or ATA or E-IDE) and the second type is SATA (also known as Serial-ATA)

How can I tell if I have a SATA or an IDE hard driv e? An IDE hard drives has a connector with two rows of small gold coloured pins.

A SATA hard drive has two black coloured cartridge slot type connector. To illustrate this better, here’s a picture of the two types of connectors:

If you are unsure about what type of interface your laptop uses, here are some tips to help you choose the correct one: -If you know the make and model number of your laptop then type that into Google along with one of these keywords ‘2.5" hard drive’ , ‘ 2.5" HDD’ , ‘IDE’ or ‘SATA’. For example if you have a Sony VAIO PCG-Z1RMP laptop, you can type in ‘Sony VAIOPCG-ZIRMP hard drive’ or ‘Sony VAIO PCG-Z1RMP 2.5" hard drive’ or ‘Sony VAIO PCG-Z1RMP 2.5” IDE HDD’ into a search engine and you will find out whether it uses an IDE or a SATA laptop hard drive. You can usually find the model number and make from the bottom of your laptop. -You can also locate your hard drive slot on your laptop and examine the connectors. Compare these to the pictures shown above you’ll be able to match it up. -Check your current laptop hard drive brand and model number and type it into a

search engine to see what type of interface you need. You will first need to locate your hard drive and then remove it to check for the number after ‘S/N’ (serial number), "Model'" or "Model Number". The model number usually varies between different hard drive manufacturers but usually begins with HT/IC/DK (Hitachi & IBM), WD (Western Digital), ST (Seagate), MH (Fujitsu), MK (Toshiba) or MP (Samsung). All laptop hard drive brands and model numbers that we have known and have dealt with are interchangeable and compatible as long as it uses the correct type of interface. -If you know the brand and model of your laptop then you can check the hard drive specification on the manufactures website or you can also refer to any system specification documentation that you may have received with your laptop. Why is my new hard drive’s formatted capacity less than 500GB/320 GB? The capacities listed are the absolute number of bytes available on a drive. For instance, a 4GB drive would have 4,000,000,000 bytes of space available on the disk. The problem is that PCs use factors of 2 for everything. As it turns out, the computer does not use groups of 1000 to store data, it uses groups of 1024 (2^10). Take 4,000,000,000 and divide it by 1024 bytes and you actually get a number of 3.906GB instead of 4.000GB. To better express this, computer professionals have started using different units such as GiB (gee-bee-byte), MiB (mee-bee-byte), and KiB (kee-bee-byte) to express when they mean groups of 1024 versus groups of 1000. If you have a 160GB hard disk, it'd actually be 156GB before it's formatted. Then once it's formatted, you've lost some more due to much more complex issues to discuss like partition tables, cluster size, reserved space, and the like. With a 500GB drive, formatted NTFS with 32K clusters and no waste reservation, I have a usable space of 465GB. How can I remove my laptop hard drive to replace it ? Please unplug the power cable, and remove the battery first before removing the Hard Drive. Remove anything else plugged into the computer: mouse, USB drives, etc. It would also be wise to ground yourself by touching a un-painted metal object before touching the insides of a computer. After removing the battery, you should see if you computer model has a way to ground the Motherboard. On a Dell 610 -- you simply hold the power button down for 5 seconds after disconnecting the battery to ground the Motherboard. On some laptops, switching drives is as easy as undoing a latch, sliding the drive caddy out, removing a couple of screws, swapping drives, and then repeating the previous steps in reverse. But on other machines, the hard drive is buried under the keyboard or motherboard, without an access panel. Dealing with this type of design entails removing dozens of screws, the keyboard deck, the keyboard, the motherboard, and many parts and connectors. Fortunately, the latter scenario has become significantly rarer in recent years. The best place to start when you want to upgrade or replace your hard drive is with the user's guide for your laptop. If the disk-swapping procedure is simple, the guide will tell you how to do it. In that case, you won't need any further help, though some of the tips offered here may make the operation easier and safer for you and the equipment.

If your user's guide doesn't cover the procedure, it may be a more complicated task. Fortunately, you can find a teardown guide and/or video on the Web for virtually every modern electronic device. A quick search for your laptop model should yield something you can use. If not, searching for a similar model may turn up helpful

reference material.

Spudgers are excellent tools for gently prying apart pressure-fit laptop components.

To replace your hard drive, you'll need (at a minimum) a high-quality small-head Phillips screwdriver; you may also need hex-head Torx drivers and with recent Macs, a pentagonal driver. Ideally, you would use a good multi-tool with a comfortable grip and swappable flat, Phillips, and Torx tips of appropriate size for laptops, cell phones, and the like. Thin-handled jeweler's screwdrivers are undesirable because they may not allow you to apply enough force. If you don't have the right tools for the job, you can probably find them on Amazon and eBay, or at your local hardware store.

For some laptops, you may also need a spudger (a plastic or metal tool that you can use to gently pry apart pressure-fit plastic parts). Older Mac laptops are infamous for requiring spudgers, but many other laptops also call for some gentle prying before they'll grant access to their guts. If your spudging skills aren't well developed, stick with plastic versions; they wear out more quickly, but they're less likely to scratch metal surfaces or cause electrostatic damage. Spudgers are inexpensive, too, so you can grab an array of thicknesses and shapes at little cost. Thin-nose tweezers can be handy on occasion, too. If possible, use a pair with angled tips, so you can see what you're gripping, without your hands getting in the way. Angled thin-nose tweezers are great for gently prying open latches and for pulling screws out of wells.

If you're not familiar with the numerous small connectors that laptops may include, a magnifying glass can help you spot tiny catches that might break if you attempted to pull a plug out of a connector with the latch still attached, or might result in your accidentally pulling a receptacle free from a circuit board. If possible, use a magnifying glass to watch for the following factors that could damage your laptop. Some tiny connectors have latches that are difficult to spot. If a cable isn’t coming out as easily as you think it should, take the time to look for a latch.

Keep an eye out for small cables and connectors when taking apart your laptop to replace your hard drive.

Cables: Hidden cables are another common laptop hazard. All parts of a laptop other than shields and miscellaneous plastic are connected electrically, and if a socket isn't handling the job, a cable is. Ribbon cables and wire cables run from the keyboard deck (the upper half housing the keyboard and touchpad, among other things) to the motherboard, from daughter boards to the motherboard, from the motherboard to the base, from the modem to the motherboard, and so on. Other cables connect the touchpad, the finger swiper, the status lights, the speakers and any other components embedded in the keyboard deck.

Removing ribbon cables generally entails flipping up a tab at the back of the slot where the cable terminates. Wire cable connectors usually terminate in pressure-fit connectors that must be pried out. Sometimes you may have to depress a small catch. A spudger handles this task very well.

REMOVAL TIPS AND TRICKS:

Most hard drives are mounted on rails or metal frames with screws, rubber grommets, or other shock-reducing technology. You'll need to reuse these rails or frames when mounting your new drive, so take care not to lose them during the swap. Usually, the screws from the old drive will fit the new one, but different hard drive vendors may use screws with a different thread pitch. Your replacement drive will have shipped with its own screws; if these aren't long enough or are unsuitable for some other reason, you may need to visit your local computer store.

On older ATA hard drives, an adapter may cover the connection pins. You must remove this adapter for reuse with the new drive, but perform the operation cautiously; if you don't grab the adapter in the middle and pull it straight back, you may bend the connector pins. When this happens, you can try to force them back into position, but straightening them isn't easy, and they sometimes break off entirely.

If you can't get a firm enough grip to pull the adapter off, try to pry it up gently with your tools but do so in tiny increments, first on one side and then the other, alternating until the adapter falls off.

Side-mounted hard drives: The easiest hard drives to replace are those in laptops that use side-mounted, removable drive caddies or trays. Usually, a latch or screw holds the drive in place, and typically that fastener is accessible from the bottom of the laptop. Undo the latch, or remove the screw or screws; slide out the tray; and replace the drive.

Under an access panel: Many laptop designers situate their hard drives under a removable panel located on the bottom of the machine. Remove the panel; detach any retaining clips, screws, or frames; and slide the drive out. Usually, you'll have to pull backward to free the drive from its connector, and then lift the drive up and out.

Under the keyboard or motherboard: On laptops where the hard drive is located in one of these places, your job is a lot tougher. Carefully store the removed parts in a logical, organized manner, however, and you'll find the task time-consuming but not impossible.

Though the particulars vary, the disassembly procedure should go something like this:

Flip the laptop over and remove the screws that hold the keyboard deck in place. Remove the keyboard deck. This may require sliding a spudger along the seam between the lower portion of the case and keyboard deck to release snaps that may be holding the two together. Some modern units are sealed, so don't assume that there's an easy way in. Remove the keyboard and other components that hide the hard drive or prevent you from dislodging the motherboard. This step may involve taking out screws; peeling back tape; detaching components such as modems and Wi-Fi modules; and detaching clamped ribbon cables, regular cables, or antennas with pressure-fit connectors. You may also have to remove metal RF shields. Be gentle and reread the section on hazards, above. If the hard drive is situated under the motherboard, you can probably remove the latter after taking out a few more screws. However, the ports integrated onto the motherboard protrude out the case, so you may have to jockey the motherboard as you pull it out. Again, be alert for hidden cables.

Stop the disassembly process as soon as you have access to the hard drive. There are drives that are taped in place, screwed down, or held in position by fancy hardware. There are also drives that lay loose after removing a shield or panel. None of these various circumstances pose a special challenge; but carefully observe what's there, and above all don't force things.

Once you've successfully removed your old hard drive, simply reverse the procedure

to insert the new drive and reassemble the laptop.

Here are some common Laptops Models. You can learn how to take-apart a:

Dell 610 Laptop - this website has guides for many Dell Laptop models

HP Pavilion dv6000 series laptop

Acer Aspire 5100 laptop

HP Pavilion dv6500, dv6600, dv6700, dv6800 notebooks

If your model isn't listed above, please do a Google search for ‘disassemble brand /model’ or replacing ‘brand / model’ with your own laptop make and model. For instance, if you have a HP Pavilion G6, you can search ‘disassemble HP Pavilion G6.’

I have installed my new hard drive but my laptop ca nnot recognize it. How can I fix this? Windows 7 installs only the driver necessary for the hard disk drive on which it is installed. This means any changes to a SATA boot drive’s low-level configuration can confuse the operating system. This can happen if the SATA modes in your notebook’s BIOS settings are accidentally changed or if the BIOS settings are inadvertently reset. To check this, first access notebook’s BIOS settings. You can usually do this by pressing the F2, F10 or Delete key shortly after powering up. Now look for an option labeled ‘SATA Mode Selection’ or anything similar. This option will either be set to IDE or AHCI: please change this to the corresponding opposite setting, save the changes, exit the BIOS and finally restart Windows (or re-try the recovery option). If this doesn’t fix the problem, then it’s likely that the hard disk itself has developed a fault. If you have access to another PC, confirm this by downloading and burning anUltimate Boot CD (UBCD). This can be used to start your notebook from an external CD or DVD drive, and then use UBCD (which include Seagate’s own test tools) to assess the drive without the added confusion of what Windows can and can’t ‘see’. If the Ultimate Boot CD can’t detect the drive either, then it increases the possibility of the hard drive being faulty.

My computer has come up with a message saying that there us ‘No Bootable Device Available’ - What Does This Mean and how can I fix this?

Simply put: ‘No Bootable Device Available’ means your computer can't find your hard drive. As your computer ‘can't find’ your hard drive (HDD), it cannot boot (start) Windows.

It would be best to check if your computer has any link left to the hard drive. You've already tried pushing F1 (if you are on a Dell), and received an "Internal HDD Error".

So, Step 1: Press F2 (or whatever the computer suggests) to enter BIOS setup. If F2 doesn't work try the ‘Delete’ or F10 key. The ‘esc’ key works on some brands, too.

BIOS has different versions, but there should be an section labelled ‘Primary Hard Drive’ - if it says ‘none’ then your computer doesn't even recognize that a Hard Drive is connected. It could just be a loose connection in which case, you would need to

remove your Hard Drive and push it back in firmly. This should fix the problem.

My laptop keeps restarting and goes off on the wind ows logo screen. Do I need a new hard drive? Please reinstall your operating system. If the same problem persists then you need a new hard drive.

Are some laptop hard drives compatible with other b rands of laptops? Yes they are as long as the other machine uses the same interface (SATA or IDE).

I ordered a Samsung hard drive but I was sent anoth er manufacturer? Yes. We can ship other branded hard drives from Western Digital, Toshiba Samsung or Hitachi as the spec is still the same. I can’t find my laptop model number on your listing s? We try our best to list every compatible laptop model we can in which you can use this hard drive, but if you cannot find it on our listings, please let us know and we will check whether we have the right hard drive for you.

My hard drive seems to be clicking, do I need a rep lacement? The clicking is the sign of the hard drive on its way to becoming faulty. It’s best to replace it with a new hard drive.

My current hard drive is working fine but I would l ike to upgrade it so that I have more space. How can I do so? The ideal option in this case would be to purchase an 2.5” external enclosure and do the following: Step 1: Replace your old hard drive with the new one. Step 2: Reinstall your operating system (Windows XP) Step 3: Transfer all data from your old hard drive to your laptop by putting your old hard drive in the external enclosure. After you’ve transferred all data from your old hard drive in the external enclosure, you can format it and either use it as a back up or even an external hard drive. Please find some pictures of External Enclosures below:

Please email us if you have any further questions.