Are HD carriers for current 2.5" drives standard?

I want to upgrade the HD in my Toshiba Satellite laptop - 40Gb (37Gb
useable) simply isn't enough. It's been a while since I've fooled with
2.5" drives so I'm pretty rusty... just a few pics and questions:

http://satin.sensation.net.au/rowan/25HD1.jpg
- Is this a standard carrier or specific to Toshiba? I can't find any
brand or ID on it. I'd prefer to buy a second carrier so I can keep the
first HD "as-is"

http://satin.sensation.net.au/rowan/25HD2.jpg
- This is not an IDC connector as I have seen with older 2.5" models -
it's more like a female card edge connector. I can't tell if this is
part of the carrier, or has the connector for 2.5" drives changed in
recent years? (Or does this drive have a special proprietary Toshiba
connector...)

Here's a view of the bottom:

http://satin.sensation.net.au/rowan/25HD3.jpg

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Barry Watzman]

The carriers are laptop model specific and completely non-standard, but
there is no need to get a new carrier, the drive is held in the carrier
with 4 screws, you remove the screws and change the drive. The mounting
holes are standardized (well, there are 2 mounting hole standards, but
the older one has pretty much died and was only used on drives of less
than about 4 gigabytes).

You don't mean "IDC", you mean "IDE". IDC is a real term (insulation
displacement connector), but it's totally different from IDE (integrated
drive electronics) and is not the term that you intended to use.

The connectors on 2.5" drives themselves are totally standard, the
standard is a 44 pin connector that is essentially a smaller version of
the desktop 40-pin ide connector plus 4 pins for power and ground.
There are also 4 more pins that are used for master/slave/cable select.
They do not normally go into the cable, however, and their use is
model specific and not standardized.


googlegroups@sensation.net.au wrote:

I want to upgrade the HD in my Toshiba Satellite laptop - 40Gb (37Gb
useable) simply isn't enough. It's been a while since I've fooled with
2.5" drives so I'm pretty rusty... just a few pics and questions:

http://satin.sensation.net.au/rowan/25HD1.jpg
- Is this a standard carrier or specific to Toshiba? I can't find any
brand or ID on it. I'd prefer to buy a second carrier so I can keep the
first HD "as-is"

http://satin.sensation.net.au/rowan/25HD2.jpg
- This is not an IDC connector as I have seen with older 2.5" models -
it's more like a female card edge connector. I can't tell if this is
part of the carrier, or has the connector for 2.5" drives changed in
recent years? (Or does this drive have a special proprietary Toshiba
connector...)

Here's a view of the bottom:

http://satin.sensation.net.au/rowan/25HD3.jpg

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Barry Watzman]

The carriers are laptop model specific and completely non-standard, but
there is no need to get a new carrier, the drive is held in the carrier
with 4 screws, you remove the screws and change the drive. The mounting
holes are standardized (well, there are 2 mounting hole standards, but
the older one has pretty much died and was only used on drives of less
than about 4 gigabytes).

You don't mean "IDC", you mean "IDE". IDC is a real term (insulation
displacement connector), but it's totally different from IDE (integrated
drive electronics) and is not the term that you intended to use.

The connectors on 2.5" drives themselves are totally standard, the
standard is a 44 pin connector that is essentially a smaller version of
the desktop 40-pin ide connector plus 4 pins for power and ground.
There are also 4 more pins that are used for master/slave/cable select.
They do not normally go into the cable, however, and their use is
model specific and not standardized.


googlegroups@sensation.net.au wrote:

I want to upgrade the HD in my Toshiba Satellite laptop - 40Gb (37Gb
useable) simply isn't enough. It's been a while since I've fooled with
2.5" drives so I'm pretty rusty... just a few pics and questions:

http://satin.sensation.net.au/rowan/25HD1.jpg
- Is this a standard carrier or specific to Toshiba? I can't find any
brand or ID on it. I'd prefer to buy a second carrier so I can keep the
first HD "as-is"

http://satin.sensation.net.au/rowan/25HD2.jpg
- This is not an IDC connector as I have seen with older 2.5" models -
it's more like a female card edge connector. I can't tell if this is
part of the carrier, or has the connector for 2.5" drives changed in
recent years? (Or does this drive have a special proprietary Toshiba
connector...)

Here's a view of the bottom:

http://satin.sensation.net.au/rowan/25HD3.jpg

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[KLR]

On 7 Jun 2005 17:44:03 -0700, googlegroups@sensation.net.au wrote:

I want to upgrade the HD in my Toshiba Satellite laptop - 40Gb (37Gb
useable) simply isn't enough. It's been a while since I've fooled with
2.5" drives so I'm pretty rusty... just a few pics and questions:

http://satin.sensation.net.au/rowan/25HD1.jpg
- Is this a standard carrier or specific to Toshiba? I can't find any
brand or ID on it. I'd prefer to buy a second carrier so I can keep the
first HD "as-is"

I have a toshiba sattelite laptop too (about a 94 model) and it has a

different carrier to that. I upgraded it to a fujitsu 80g hard drive
from a 40, and found that there was a rib in the carrier that stopped
other brands of hard drive from sitting in there fully. clamping it
in the vice, and carefully flattening the rib soon fixed that however.

There may have been some cutting involved too, but it wasnt a really
big drama

http://satin.sensation.net.au/rowan/25HD2.jpg
- This is not an IDC connector as I have seen with older 2.5" models -
it's more like a female card edge connector. I can't tell if this is
part of the carrier, or has the connector for 2.5" drives changed in
recent years? (Or does this drive have a special proprietary Toshiba
connector...)

Here's a view of the bottom:
cant see the connector from that pic, its way too dark in there

- but if it isn't 2 rows of male pins then you have big problems, and
will have to probably buy a matching hard drive from toshiba of the
capacity you want

mine had the industry standard connector though - (2 rows pins only)

http://satin.sensation.net.au/rowan/25HD3.jpg

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[rowan194]

Barry Watzman wrote:

The carriers are laptop model specific and completely non-standard, but
there is no need to get a new carrier, the drive is held in the carrier
with 4 screws, you remove the screws and change the drive. The mounting
holes are standardized (well, there are 2 mounting hole standards, but
the older one has pretty much died and was only used on drives of less
than about 4 gigabytes).

Are drives all a consistent height now? I remember with older models
they varied, it was hit and miss whether drive X would be a successful
drop-in replacement for drive Y...

You don't mean "IDC", you mean "IDE". IDC is a real term (insulation
displacement connector), but it's totally different from IDE (integrated
drive electronics) and is not the term that you intended to use.

Actually I did mean IDC (referring to connectors and cabling), but
since that's fairly generic perhaps "44 pin DIL header" may have been a
better term. Note that the carrier does not have the male DIL header,
it's a female edge type connector.

One of the screws is stuck in so I'm not too keen on applying too much
force. That's why I thought it might just be easier to buy a new
carrier.

 

[Barry Watzman]

There are 3 height standards, 18mm, 12.5mm and 9.5mm. 18mm, however, is
no longer used. The only issue here is physical, that is, you can use
a 12mm drive in any laptop that will let such a drive fit. Quite a few
laptops, even if they came with 9.5mm drives, will take a 12mm drive,
but not all of them.

I've had cases where Toshiba used "lock-tite" on the screws and I wasn't
sure I would be able to get them out. Usually, you can clamp a small
size vise-grip wrench on the screw head and get it out. One one or two
occasions, I've had to use a drill and drill out the screw head.
Amazingly, the drive survived, but it's definitely in the "absolute last
resort" category. Replacement carriers can be impossible to get, and
sometimes outrageously expensive.



rowan194 wrote:

Barry Watzman wrote:

The carriers are laptop model specific and completely non-standard, but
there is no need to get a new carrier, the drive is held in the carrier
with 4 screws, you remove the screws and change the drive. The mounting
holes are standardized (well, there are 2 mounting hole standards, but
the older one has pretty much died and was only used on drives of less
than about 4 gigabytes).


Are drives all a consistent height now? I remember with older models
they varied, it was hit and miss whether drive X would be a successful
drop-in replacement for drive Y...


You don't mean "IDC", you mean "IDE". IDC is a real term (insulation
displacement connector), but it's totally different from IDE (integrated
drive electronics) and is not the term that you intended to use.


Actually I did mean IDC (referring to connectors and cabling), but
since that's fairly generic perhaps "44 pin DIL header" may have been a
better term. Note that the carrier does not have the male DIL header,
it's a female edge type connector.

One of the screws is stuck in so I'm not too keen on applying too much
force. That's why I thought it might just be easier to buy a new
carrier.

 

Following up this topic in case anyone finds it via a search... today I
successfully got the stuck screw out using needle nosed pliers and
replaced the 40Gb Hitachi HD with a 100Gb Seagate unit. The connector
on the HD *is* the standard IDC/header connector, but there's an extra
piece of plastic that fits over the header pins. It was no problem to
pull this off and attach it to the new HD.

Powered up, put in the recovery CD, and about 15 mins later I had a
factory install of XP on my new HD. No problems at all.

The original HD won't go to waste either - I purchased an external USB2
enclosure for it (price: a mere $AUD11, or around $USD8!) and it's now
tucked away in my laptop bag as backup storage.

 

[KLR]

On 20 Jun 2005 08:30:14 -0700, googlegroups@sensation.net.au wrote:

Following up this topic in case anyone finds it via a search... today I
successfully got the stuck screw out using needle nosed pliers and
replaced the 40Gb Hitachi HD with a 100Gb Seagate unit. The connector
on the HD *is* the standard IDC/header connector, but there's an extra
piece of plastic that fits over the header pins. It was no problem to
pull this off and attach it to the new HD.

Powered up, put in the recovery CD, and about 15 mins later I had a
factory install of XP on my new HD. No problems at all.

The original HD won't go to waste either - I purchased an external USB2
enclosure for it (price: a mere $AUD11, or around $USD8!) and it's now
tucked away in my laptop bag as backup storage.

the USB2 enclosure had better have a very short USB cable on it, or
have an internal battery. There seems to be so much voltage loss down
standard USB cables, when powering a laptop hard drive that the drive
stops working once it tries to do its first read. This starts
happening more and more after some uses of the unit. (maybe USB
connectors get dirtier, lose their grip etc etc with age and use ?)

I found that a USB cable about a foot long was fine with most
computers, but not on all. As a result, i made up a rechargable
battery pack to connect to the HDD and power it when in use

Remember too that if you use the front panel USB connector on most PC,
then there is another foot or so of pissy thin wire from it to the
motherboard, and with any sort of load on it, it isnt going to be at
5v by the time it gets to the end of the cable to the drive.