Need new hard drive for my laptop , how do i find out which one i need ?

[Howard]

Hi all ,

Following a catastrophic failure of my laptop ( was fine when i turned it off at 4am yeaterday , but turning it on at midday today elicited clicking noises , and the computer immediately powering itself off. )

Managed to resurrect it enough to copy all my bits and bobs off it , although while doing it , got several BSOD's and a message about Kernel , it didn't stay on the screen long enough to read it , Angelas brother says to just get a new drive.

So , its a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pro V2085 , how do i find out what drive i need ?

Thanks in advance

H

 

[Sp!ke]

Its probably just a bog standard 2.5" laptop drive. Take it out and see if its IDE or SATA. Probably a screw or two and then slide it out.

 

[Howard]

I've had the cover off , how do i tell if it's IDE or SATA ?

Edit :- ignore me , it has Serial ATA written on it ....

Predictably , the next question is ....

Wheres the best place to get one ? and how do i get Windows XP on it ?

 

[Sp!ke]

It will probably say what it is however IDE generally has a row (actually two rows) of brass pins wheras a SATA looks like a strange shaped plastic connector at its end.

 

[Sp!ke]

Shop around for a drive, dabs.co.uk maybe or scan.co.uk somewhere like that will be much cheaper tha the high street. Make sure you buy a 7200rpm drive rather than a 5400 one as it will be markedly faster.

Do you still have the Siemans media like an xp recovery disk? Does the laptop have an xp license key written under it?

If so you should be able to grab a corresponding XP cd and use your existing license written on your laptop.

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Some availble HERE

 

[Howard]

I've still got the Siemens recovery disc , but it doesn't have a full version of XP on it as far as i am aware ? Will i need to buy a copy of XP ?

I've got the XP license key on the bottom of the laptop ...

 

[gaz_l]

Dabs' selection:

http://www.dabs.com/productlist.asp...edId=11154&PageOffset=0&RecordOffset=0#Paging

Amazed at how cheap laptop drives are these days..

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[gaz_l]

Your recovery disk should re-install the OS. Fit the new drive, put the recovery disc in the CD/DVD, switch on, follow the prompts. I doubt you'll even have to put the product key in, but it's worth writing it down before you start, just in case..

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[Howard]

Looks complicated .....

In it at the moment is a 40gb thing , can someone find me a link to a 7200 rpm 40gb ( ish ) one that will work please , as i don't have a clue what i am looking at ....

Its a SATA

With regards to the recovery disc, am i going to have to down load all the drivers for everything again ? because they came pre-installed ....

 

[gaz_l]

Nothing that small still available from dabs, how about this one?

http://www.dabs.com/productview.asp...d=11154&NavigationKey=11154,47250000,42240000

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[stevesey]

Don't worry about going for the same size 80Gb will be fine.

 

[gaz_l]

With regards to the recovery disc, am i going to have to down load all the drivers for everything again ? because they came pre-installed ....

As you've got the recovery disc that came with the laptop, it should install all the necessary drivers when you do the recovery. If you'd been starting with a "vanilla" flavour XP disk, you might have had to download drivers from F-S's support site.

Depending on your setup, you'll have to re-install drivers for whatever external gubbins you've got (printer, scanner, etc.)

Your main issue is how to get your data off the fubared disk. But, of course, being a sensible user you've got it all backed up, haven't you??

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[Howard]

I keep everything on a nice 100gb Lacie drive ( thanks Alfie ) ...

Had a paranoia attack about 2 months back and did it all , so yes , i'm backed up ... .except for a couple of bits which i managed to copy over just now !!

I'm using the laptop at the moment to type to this , touch wood , been ok for now ...

H

 

[Sp!ke]

If you're able to use the laptop then once you've got your replacement HDD, give me a shout and I'll clone your current disk to the new one for you. I could even pop down the lock for you and do it if you like.

 

[Howard]

Excellent , thanks mate !!

 

[Dieselman]

give me a shout and I'll clone your current disk to the new one for you. I could even pop down the lock for you and do it if you like.

Can you do his credit and debit cards as well wilst you're there...

 

[Howard]

You're welcome to them !!

I'm just a poorly paid lock-keeper

 

[whizzkid11]

Can you do his credit and debit cards as well wilst you're there...

You need a postman for that, you get the originals that way - and could sell the clones to Howard!!

If its just the details you want, get in touch with the government... they'll send it out in the 20m record batch...

 

[jadefox]

Hi Howard, off the back of your thread I realised I had a perfectly usable laptop myself upstairs which has been inactive for about 2 years due to hard drive failure (this beast cost me about £2K at the time it was made - it really was all singing all dancing at the time I bought it!) and so I looked into HD prices, they've really come down!! So I ordered a 120 gig off the internet and installed it a few days ago - The BEAST is back!! lol It cost me £45

If it hadn't been for your thread I wouldn't have known how cheap HD's had become, nor would it have spurred me on to fix it - so cheers matey!
I hope you manage to install your one as easily as I did mine, it took all of 10 minutes to take the old one out and put the new one in - actually a hint - for ages we thought there was a missing fitting off of the new one, but there was a pull off black connector from the old one which fitted on the new one....and it took about half an hour to use the original discs to restore windows...you should find it just as easy hopefully!