Dell Laptops

[smith04]

A friend just asked if I could look at his laptop and get it running again. He believes it is a harddrive problem. I don't know the model right now, but it is a Dell. I know that for desktops, Dell often has parts that do not match up with most replacement parts. I think this applies mainly to PSU and motherboards though.

Would it be a problem if I took a hard drive out of an old IBM T20 laptop and put it in the Dell? I know that you can't just take one hard drive from one PC to another and expect it to work correctly without reloading the OS, but will it at least bootup and give me an indication that it is a harddrive problem?
Or better to take the hard drive out of the Dell and put in the IBM?

smith04

[Paul Komski]

95% of laptop hard drives are IDE and 2.5" - so physical migration is seldom an issue.

Software migration is another matter and you would however have to install an OS (even DOS) on the drive before you can use it in the laptop.

You can test drives from a boot floppy or CD or by accessing them from another PC using a 2.5 to IDE convertor cable or in a USB enclosure..

[jlreich]

You will need to swap the hard drive into the drive carriage for the different machines. And also Dell usually uses an adapter on the IDE connection so you will need to pull that off the Dell drive and put it on the other one.

Or you could just use the Dell diagnostics CD that came with the machine. If your friend doesn't have it you can download it from their website.

[Erik]

As already stated it shouldn't be a problem. You will need to change the drive cage, and possibly the connector. That is no big deal though, possibly a screw or two.

I would run a diagnostic CD first though. Even if it isn't the Dell one, you can use and EBCD or Ultra Boot CD. Both include HD diagnostics. That will tell you real quick and for sure if it is a HD problem.

[smith04]

I found a CD that came with the PC that had Delldiag on it. Ran it, found multiple problems with the hard drive. Error Code 0F00:0244. Read about it online and decided I need a hard drive.

The hard drive in it is a Hitachi Travelstar Model HTS548040M9AT00.

I would like to upgrade from the 40 gig to a 80 gig drive. I found Hitachi Travelstar Model HTS548080M9At00 but this seems to be an old design. Can anyone help me find an 80 GB or even 100 GB drive that would work with the Dell Inspirion 5100. I can't get all of the details, well because it is dead.

Help would be appreciated!

Smith04

[Paul Komski]

Any ATA-6 2.5" drive should do the trick - but stay under 127GB if you think the BIOS is not modern enough to support 48bit LBA.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380&name=Notebook-Laptop-Hard-Drives

[smith04]

I bought a WD 80GB hard drive from New Egg and put it in the laptop and problem solved.

Thanks for the advice.

smith04