Swapping external IBM Travelstar hard drive

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

Hi. This post isn't exactly about a laptop, but it is about a laptop
peripheral, and maybe a laptop hard drive. I have a nice IBM Travelstar
external 8GB PCMCIA hard drive. It works very well as a self-powered backup
drive for my laptop. It's built well, with lots of shock protection inside
the case. Unfortunately, it's ONLY 8GB.

So I took my old Hitachi (now Travelstar, right?) 20GB notebook drive and
replaced the IBM Travelstar inside the external case. Other than the fact
that the 20GB drive was half the thickness of the original IBM drive, it fit
fine, with the drive connector fitting both drives OK. I put it all back
together, inserted the PC card dongle into my laptop, the beeps happened,
showing my laptop recognized that a PC card was inserted, but the new drive
never mounted.

I listened carefully, and it sounded like the replacement Hitachi drive
never really spun up normally. It sounded like it was trying, but never got
there. I notice the power rating on both drives say 5v, FWIW. It seems like
the PC card circuitry in this IBM cable/case isn't drawing enough power(?)
for the larger Hitachi drive. Is this a likely cause of the drive's
inability to work?

Any other ideas on if/how I can replace my IBM Travelstar 8GB drive with my
Hitachi 20GB drive? Again, it's a PC card cable connection, to a
shock-mounted, padded external case. No other power (other than the PC card)
supply is used. Thanks in advance.


Fr@nk

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

Ultra-DMA drives like the ones supporting ATA-5 require the new 80-wire
ribbon cable.


"Bill Joy" <wcjoy@pacbell.net> wrote in message
news:2Vrte.273$N22.25@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com...
> My guess is that your external case (sounds like an old one) does not
> support ATA-5. My limited experience (with one Travelstar drive) is
> that the drive is not downward compatible to the older standards.
>
>
> "Fr@nk" <Fr@nkATwizardDOT.net> wrote in message
> news:Iarte.11107$FP2.2346@lakeread03...
>> Hi. This post isn't exactly about a laptop, but it is about a laptop
>> peripheral, and maybe a laptop hard drive. I have a nice IBM Travelstar
>> external 8GB PCMCIA hard drive. It works very well as a self-powered
>> backup
>> drive for my laptop. It's built well, with lots of shock protection
>> inside
>> the case. Unfortunately, it's ONLY 8GB.
>>
>> So I took my old Hitachi (now Travelstar, right?) 20GB notebook drive and
>> replaced the IBM Travelstar inside the external case. Other than the fact
>> that the 20GB drive was half the thickness of the original IBM drive, it
>> fit
>> fine, with the drive connector fitting both drives OK. I put it all back
>> together, inserted the PC card dongle into my laptop, the beeps happened,
>> showing my laptop recognized that a PC card was inserted, but the new
>> drive
>> never mounted.
>>
>> I listened carefully, and it sounded like the replacement Hitachi drive
>> never really spun up normally. It sounded like it was trying, but never
>> got
>> there. I notice the power rating on both drives say 5v, FWIW. It seems
>> like
>> the PC card circuitry in this IBM cable/case isn't drawing enough
>> power(?)
>> for the larger Hitachi drive. Is this a likely cause of the drive's
>> inability to work?
>>
>> Any other ideas on if/how I can replace my IBM Travelstar 8GB drive with
>> my
>> Hitachi 20GB drive? Again, it's a PC card cable connection, to a
>> shock-mounted, padded external case. No other power (other than the PC
>> card)
>> supply is used. Thanks in advance.
>>
>>
>> Fr@nk
>>
>>
>
>

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

First, 5v is not the "power rating". It's the voltage. Power = voltage
* current. It's likely that the power requirement of the new drive is
fine, it may even be less than that of the old drive, but your use of
the terms is improper and could lead you astray.

[If the drive draws 500ma at 5 volts, the power required is 2.5 watts.
500ma = 0.5 amps.]

It's also not a given that you can change the drive. The PC card,
and/or the drivers for it, MIGHT "know" that it's an 8 gigabyte card and
might not support drives of another size. Or, in a very extreme case,
they might be hard coded to check the model number and/or serial number
of the drive (those can be read, if desired).


Fr@nk wrote:
> Hi. This post isn't exactly about a laptop, but it is about a laptop
> peripheral, and maybe a laptop hard drive. I have a nice IBM Travelstar
> external 8GB PCMCIA hard drive. It works very well as a self-powered backup
> drive for my laptop. It's built well, with lots of shock protection inside
> the case. Unfortunately, it's ONLY 8GB.
>
> So I took my old Hitachi (now Travelstar, right?) 20GB notebook drive and
> replaced the IBM Travelstar inside the external case. Other than the fact
> that the 20GB drive was half the thickness of the original IBM drive, it fit
> fine, with the drive connector fitting both drives OK. I put it all back
> together, inserted the PC card dongle into my laptop, the beeps happened,
> showing my laptop recognized that a PC card was inserted, but the new drive
> never mounted.
>
> I listened carefully, and it sounded like the replacement Hitachi drive
> never really spun up normally. It sounded like it was trying, but never got
> there. I notice the power rating on both drives say 5v, FWIW. It seems like
> the PC card circuitry in this IBM cable/case isn't drawing enough power(?)
> for the larger Hitachi drive. Is this a likely cause of the drive's
> inability to work?
>
> Any other ideas on if/how I can replace my IBM Travelstar 8GB drive with my
> Hitachi 20GB drive? Again, it's a PC card cable connection, to a
> shock-mounted, padded external case. No other power (other than the PC card)
> supply is used. Thanks in advance.
>
>
> Fr@nk
>
>

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

Thought about replacing it with a new USB2 2.5" enclosure instead? I
recently swapped out my factory 40Gb drive for a 100Gb one, and put the
40Gb drive into a USB2 enclosure. The box cost $AUD11 ($USD8)

I'm not sure your laptop would support USB2, but you can buy PCMCIA
adapter cards. Check that they can supply enough current to power a
HD...