Declan Moriarty wrote:
>
> On Thu, 20 May 1999, WJCarpenter wrote:
> >>> You have a Toshiba - right? Toshiba have expensive propietary
> >>> components, so they can rip you off on spares. Knowing what disk
> >>> you can put where requires a knowledge of the options on your
> >
> >Most notebooks are full of proprietary stuff. I don't think Toshiba
> >is exceptional in this respect. For HDDs, there seems to be an
> >industry defacto form factor for 2.5in drives. The length and width
> >is the same, and the connector location is the same. The only
> >difference is the height of the drive.
...and the connector. My Toshiba 700CT had one form factor and
connector.
My T8000 has another. The T8000 has a Toshiba proprietary connector,
hence you need a Toshiba or Toshiba-compatible drive. I got mine
from CMS and it works well (but expensive).
BTW, CMS has a "upgrade kit" which includes a PCMCIA card that
allows one to plug your old drive in, run a DOS/WIn program, and
restore your HD from the old one. Problems are that this only works
to restore Windows partitions, and this card is different for each
notebook (it is NOT a standard PCMCIA/IDE card with a custom cable
for a single laptop -- as I found out). The upgrade kit does work,
however. Linux also can use the kit as a PCMCIA IDE interface to
read/write from the external drive (which is a bare drive in a static
bag, not a case).
>
> >FYI, Toshiba is one of the major manufacturers of 2.5in hard drives.
> >For what it's worth, I have seen mail order prices for 6.4GB Toshiba
> >2.5in drives for around US$250.
>
> Without disagreeing with any of what you said, I have run
> across some older Toshiba laptops which could not take a hard disk
> upgrade. There was one which could not be upgraded from 80Mb, which is
> a wierd place to get stuck. Hence the caution on my part.
That might be the case, but some like the T8000 require opening up
a slot (screw only) to replace the drive. Most modern laptops are
more configurable.
If I were to get a new laptop, I would go with a more standard
one that uses the "standard" 2.5" hard disk I/F, a standard
(non-win-modem)
internal modem or 10/100-T interface, etc.
--
W. Wade, Hampton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"...brought to you by the company that made your computer FAST
and RELIABLE...." -- recent MSN/MS ad! Linux is stability,
performance, compatibility, flexibility, scalability, and FREE!
