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.
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