New Hard Drive for Dell Latitude D600

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

I just went to work for a company and they provided me w/a Dell
Latitude D600. The problem is the PC is in a virtual time warp
straightjacket. Specifically the notebook runs Windows 2000
Professional and Office 2000. I have been using Win XP OS and and
Office 2003. It is next to impossible to install any new apps.

I would like to use my own formatted plain vanilla hard drive w/this
system. Buy a 5400 rpm notebook drive w/same form factor (does anyone
know the spec) and then install XP and Office 2003 on it.

Is there any reason I cannot do this? For example there is a hidden
diagnostics partition on the notebook. Can the notebook work w/out it.
I don't care about the diagnostics and can always swap the original
hard drive w/it. I have done this w/a Compaq notebook w/no problem.
Can the bios of the Dell D600 be accessed independently w/out the
invisible partition? Is there anything in the bios that will permit my
company to lock me out of putting another drive in there. I have no
intention of connecting the notebook to our network unless I use the
original drive.

Finally, can you buy the drawer, clip and drive assembly that houses
the drive in the Dell notebook as an off the shelf item? Are they
bundled w/drive. I want this so I can swap the drives w/out changing
the clip. Or do I have to buy a whole new second drive from Dell,
which might be costly.

Thanks