Hard drive
Most modern laptops use 2.5″ hard drives. Older laptops use IDE hard drives, newer laptops use SATA hard drives. SATA and IDE drives are not interchangeable, they have absolutely different connectors.
If your laptop came with an IDE hard drive you cannot replace it with a SATA drive. The connector on your drive will not mach connector on the motherboard.
As you see on the pictuer above, a SATA drive has two flat connectors and an IDE drive has two rows of pins.
SATA hard drives has faster data transfer rate then IDE drivers. SATA – 150MB/s and IDE – 100/133MB/s.
Laptop hard drives spin at different speeds and most common are 4200RPM, 5400RPM, 7200RPM.
The RPM number indicates how fast the hard drive platters spin. Hard drives with high RPM number are quicker than hard drives with low RPM number because they can access data faster.
SATA connectors on a laptop hard drive are similar to SATA connectors on a destkop hard drive. You can connect a SATA laptop hard drive to a desktop computer using same SATA cables.
WHERE HARD DRIVE IS LOCATED IN A LAPTOP.
On most laptops the hard drive can be accessed from the bottom.
On some laptops the hard drive is burried inside the case and it’s necessary to disassemble the laptop in order to access and replace the hard drive.
HARD DRIVE UPGRADE.
A hard drive is the slowest part in any laptop. If you would like to speed up your laptop, replace your low RPM drive with a faster one. Fast RPM drives are backward compatible with low RPM drives.
If you would like to install a larger hard drive, take a look at the user’s manual and laptop specifications. Make sure your laptop supports larger drives.
Laptop parts | Repair Man | 
December 26, 2008 2:53 pm
December 12th, 2011 at 3:28 pm
@ Kiran,
It’s possible this is fan related problem. Probably the fan is failing and the system overheats. I’m afraid you’ll have to replace the fan.
Is your laptop still covered by the warranty. If it is, don’t fix the laptop yourself. Take it to the repair center and they will replace the fan.
Just in case, here’s HP G62 laptop disassembly guide:
http://www.insidemylaptop.com/hp-g62-compaq-presario-cq62-disassembly/
You can access and replace the cooling fan only the motherboard removed as it shown in the step 25.
November 23rd, 2011 at 9:36 am
Hello sir
I have an HP I3 processor – Intelcore 370M G62 model with
windows 7 bought recently 6 months back. It is making big noise and the temparature is increasing upto 90 degrees and switch off automatically.
I request your suggestion to rectify my problem and I would like to know the simple methods to avoid heating and noise along with causes for the same.
Thanks
Kiran
November 12th, 2011 at 9:42 am
@ Jim,
You can buy an external USB enclosure for your hard drive. Install the drive into the enclosure and connect it to any other working PC or laptop via USB port.
Take a look at this data backup guide:
http://www.insidemylaptop.com/recover-files-from-broken-laptop/
Hope it helps.
November 5th, 2011 at 9:03 am
I need to trasfer data from MP0804H laptop hard drive to my desk top using the hard drive adopter, but i can’t find the pin 1 on the hard drive. Please help!
August 2nd, 2011 at 2:49 am
This is really nice. Really appreciate your time.
July 28th, 2011 at 12:24 am
Hi,
I am replacing the hdd in my amilo si2636. To take it out I have to pull it out from the side of the laptop using a plastic sticker stuck to the hdd, like that in the 2nd picture at the top on this site. When I put in my new hdd I want to put on a sticker like that as well so I can take it out if I have any problems but I can not find a sticker like that any where and I also do not know what they are called. please help.
May 3rd, 2011 at 10:01 am
maria,
Make sure the installation CD is clean. Also, clean the optical drive lens with 99% alcohol. Open up the DVD drive and clean the lens with cotton swab. Try installing Windows XP again.
If it doesn’t work, test your hard drive. You can download SeaTools utility from Seagate and run it on your laptop. This tool works fine with many laptop hard drives. If the hard drive fails test, replace the drive.
April 8th, 2011 at 4:07 pm
i formated my system {laptop} and ever since then i’ve been having problems installing an operating system [windows xp]. it keeps on skipping some files and at the end it just shows me a 00000000 error when i retart it. please what could be the problem as i am highly worried
February 21st, 2011 at 10:48 pm
Phil,
Do you have enough skills to solder the connector back to the motherboard? If yes, try it. You have nothing to lose anyway.
February 20th, 2011 at 4:14 am
I have a DEll c640 and was fitting a new hard drive. The connector on the motherboard was very poorly soldered and no reinforcments to hold it in place so it came away from the motherboard. How practical is it to try and resolder or should I just go for a new motherboard?
February 2nd, 2011 at 9:51 pm
hardik,
Is it question or statement?
February 2nd, 2011 at 9:49 pm
Matt E.,
You cannot do it at home. If data very important, you should send your hard drive to clean room recovery. Try Drive Savers.
February 2nd, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Hello Repair Man. My hard disk has a mechanical failure.Has a clicking sound when trying to power up. I was wondering if it would be possible to have the platters switched into an operating hd to be able to recover the data?
thanks for your time
January 27th, 2011 at 11:14 pm
thanks man thats really helpful!
January 12th, 2011 at 3:41 am
i have compaq presario c95tu ,it is made for wind ows vista but can install xp in it
January 11th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Oh, wow. Thanks for the answer. I haven’t come across a broken or worthless hard drive to take apart yet.
January 4th, 2011 at 9:10 am
Evi,
Hard drive platters spin at very high RPM (4200, 5400, 7200, or even 10K or 15K).
The head arm moving all the time positioning the read/write head on the right spot with data.
If you hit or drop the hard drive, the head crash will occur.
December 26th, 2010 at 1:03 am
I have a question. Hard drives are very fragile, which is common knowledge, but just out of curiosity: why? What is inside it that makes it so fragile that you should only handle it by the sides? I had to have mine replaced previously because I… “accidentally” smacked my laptop during an infuriating game (I know, it was stupid). I think I’ll go take apart my old hard drive… Any harmful chemicals I should worry about?
Loving the site
Thanks
November 21st, 2010 at 3:45 pm
mal b,
Windows Vista is not embedded into the motherboard, you’ll have to reinstall it after replacing the hard drive.
You cannot download Windows Vista from Microsoft, but you can find it on P2P network (use torrents).
After you download the correct version of Windows Vista, you should be able to use installation key from the license sticker on the bottom of the laptop.
After installing Vista, activate it online. It’s possible you’ll get an error message that your key is invalid, just type it again and try activating again. It should work.
November 21st, 2010 at 2:05 pm
i have an HP Compaq Presario CQ60-111EM. which wont boot up i do the start up test and memory is fine primary hard disc test says hash 10008-replace hard disc smart hard disc passed i did not get back up discs for windows vista my question is if i replace the hard drive is win vista embedded on the motherboard or can i download vista from microsoft and use my existing product key thanks repair man
July 29th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
jinhua,
This could be memory failure. If you have two memory modules installed, you can try removing them one by one and try turning on the laptop with each module separately.
You need an external USB enclosure for notebook hard drives (2.5″ hard drives, not 3.5″).
July 29th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
jinhua,
You can remove the hard drive from the failed laptop and install it into an external USB enclosure (about $15-20). After that you connect this enclosure to another working PC or laptop and access your data.
Take a look at this guide: http://www.laptoprepair101.com/laptop/2007/04/17/access-hard-drive-using-usb-enclosure/
July 27th, 2010 at 8:58 am
Hi Repair man,
My laptop can not boot anymore.the sound was ” dee~~~~dee~dee~” one long and two shorts when started. We don’t think we will reuse it cause it was old. but there are many data inside it.
I opened it, wanted to take out the hard disc. i just know it is a SATA connecter through the pictures from net. i want to buy a laptop hard driver box to copy the data out. I wander that is the laptop SATA hard driver box suit for all kinds of SATA-hard disc?
Thank you.
July 27th, 2010 at 8:44 am
Hi Rapair Man,
My laptop can not start becuase there maybe something wrong with the integrated graphics or the screem. I have give up to change a motherboard, but to buy a new laptop.
the problem is that my data is still in the hard disc. that is a SATA
June 20th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Hello.
I have a 5yr old laptop with an IDE drive that isn’t recognized in the BIOS. Is a pin bent an intermediate connector missing all i have at the moment is a large open slot and the bracket carrier. is the motherboard interface broken?
I ordered a tiny thin rigid black plastic connector from Ebay but worry it isn’t what i needed and will stay wedged out of reach in the slot.
It works okay using a linux live cd and a USB thumbdrive for stored files;-)
@James – Disk burning software dpesn’t always offer the option to burn an *image* to disk but that is what you want to do. It sounds like the FILE was saved to disk. An image can be read by hardware and is bootable.
Windows Powertoys for XP ISO Image Burner Free (Microsoft) was retired so. i have been using ISO Recorder v 2 Free/Donationware.
Great site and an informative discussion i really appreciate it.