Hdd fitting problem on a laptop

[konakona]

A friend of mine had his toshiba-branded hdd die on him, and luckily for him I happened to have a 2.5'' fujitsu sitting around from a now deceased laptop of my own. The trouble came when we tried to put the damn thing into the drive slot with the drive cage on, it simply wouldnt slide in.

Upon more careful inspection, the left corner of the dysfunctional toshiba drive has a diagonal indentation absent from the fujitsu; inside the drive bay, there is a protruding area that matches with indentation, which obviously conflicts with the drive that lacks a matching structure.

The fujitsu drive appears to be quite standard, so it must be some sort of proprietary thing for this satellite lineup. Since it is more of piece of plastic sticking out than missing, I doubt there would be some kind of simple adapter solution of any sort. Does it require some sort of drive specially made for this computer? Or maybe I could open up the laptop and remove some unnecessary bits of plastic to sort it out?

 

[Tsuwamono]

bash off the plastic with a magnatized screw driver while the PC is on... that should do the trick....

Seriously though.. ya remove the plastic. its just Toshiba trying to be douche bags

 

[Fardringle]

If possible, remove the extra plastic from the cage around your replacement drive. Don't try to dig around inside the laptop's drive bay unless you have to.

 

[konakona]

Originally posted by: Fardringle
If possible, remove the extra plastic from the cage around your replacement drive. Don't try to dig around inside the laptop's drive bay unless you have to.

IIRC, the extra piece of plastic is inside the bay, not on the cage. the drive wont fit at all even with the cage removed. I expected better from toshiba with satellites being so popular... oh well

 

[bruceb]

That is very interesting to know. I have a Toshiba Satellite 1415-S105
and am thinking of upgrading the hard drive from it's 20GB size which
is almost full to something like 80GB or so. So if I decide to do that it
may pay to look for a Toshiba drive to be sure it will fit.

 

[corkyg]

Laptop drives are all the same - Toshiba, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Seagate, WDC, etc. The differences are in the caddies that they ride in.

If you remove the old Toshiba HDD from its carrier and put the Fujitsu in the same carrier, there should be no problem.

 

[bruceb]

I would normally agree. But the OP said the reason his new drive didn't fit
as a protrusion inside the laptop. He did not say if it was on the hard drive
cage or not, in which case, swapping it would work. In my case, when I
decide to change it, I will pull it out first to see if anything will be in the way.
Then decide what to buy or how to proceed.

 

[corkyg]

My point is that if the old drive fits inside, protrusion notwithstanding, then a new HDD in the exact same carrier will also fit. There being zero difference in the actual drive.

You make a valid point. If something is in the way, then it's always a good idea to check the cavity/path.

Every OEM uses a different caddy or carrier design, and sometimes those vary with models by the same OEM.

If the protrusion inside OP's Toshiba does not interfere with the old HDD and caddy, then it will not interfere with the new HDD in the same caddy.

If, however, the old drive and caddy will no longer slide in, then something was dislodged during the initial removal process. That opens up a different can of worms.

 

[konakona]

Originally posted by: corkyg
My point is that if the old drive fits inside, protrusion notwithstanding, then a new HDD in the exact same carrier will also fit. There being zero difference in the actual drive.

You make a valid point. If something is in the way, then it's always a good idea to check the cavity/path.

Every OEM uses a different caddy or carrier design, and sometimes those vary with models by the same OEM.

If the protrusion inside OP's Toshiba does not interfere with the old HDD and caddy, then it will not interfere with the new HDD in the same caddy.

If, however, the old drive and caddy will no longer slide in, then something was dislodged during the initial removal process. That opens up a different can of worms.

Well here is something I guess I shoudlnt have left out. comparing the two drives, the toshiba looks more "bare" without the shiny metallic "cover" extending all the way up to the length where the pins are, as seen on the fujitsu. In other words, the two drives are inherently different in that fujitsu's metallic cover (the opposite of the PCB side) overlaps with the pins (goes over them entirely when viwed from a side), whereas the toshiba has just the pins and nothing on top of it on that end of the drive. This metallic cover thingy I keep mentioning is part of the hdd's shell, if you know what I mean.

We have repeatededly put the toshiba hdd back in the slot and took it out multiple times back and forth, so potentially broken pieces inside the bay is definitely not the case.

 

[bruceb]

How about posting some photos of the OEM Toshiba Drive
next to the new Fujitsu unit and perhaps a shot of the
slot in the laptop where it slides into ? ?

 

[Old Hippie]

My point is that if the old drive fits inside, protrusion notwithstanding, then a new HDD in the exact same carrier will also fit. There being zero difference in the actual drive.

QFT.

All 2.5" drives are the same.....unless you have a PATA and a SATA. You have a manfg. specific caddy (adaptor) on one, or both, of the drives.

 

[corkyg]

I suspect you have not removed the Toshiba drive from the Satellite's caddy. Look for some screws along the side (usually 4) - remove them, take the drive out of the caddy and put the new one in. What you refer to as "shield" is part of the caddy.

Here is a Toshiba 2.5" PATA HDD. This is the top. If you turn it over, you will see the backside of a green circuit board. If you see anythings else, it is the laptop's caddy or carrier.

Front

Back

 

[konakona]

corkyg, thanks for the illustrative pic there. but again I am afraid I didnt make myself too clear. it is my fujitsu drive that has extra bit of metal hanging over the pins that prevent the pins from plugging into the connector inside the bay. his toshiba drive that came with his laptop looks exactly like in your picture with the pins seen clearly from the top without anything blocking the view

for your record, first thing we did when we took out the hdd was to unscrew the caddy


admittedely, I am not the best photographer in the world.. here are some pics that I took in a hurry before the lunch break:

seen from above
the red ellipse shows the extra metal bit I am talking about

the fujitsu is on the left.


EDIT: actually the toshiba drive in the pic shows the caddy, only because we were trying all sorts of different combinations in desperation to get it to work. the caddy is unmistakable from the top cover of the drive which goes over the entire top part of the drive (sorry for the lack of better wording...) where all the labels are stickered onto.

FACTS
1. the laptop originally came with a toshiba drive
2. the toshiba drive crapped out
3. I had a spare fujitsu drive lying around
4. the fujutsu did not fit
5. fujitsu has the pins covered by the metal casing
6. the metal casing is part of the drive itself, not a caddy

 

[corkyg]

I have a Fujitsu drive as well, and it does not have that metal shroud. I can see it in your picture.

Tell you what - email me privately, and I'll send you a good Toshiba drive. (80 GB/5400 RPM.)

I the meantime, I'll research that Fujitsu shroud. It may be removeable.

OK - I think I found an older Fujitsu drive (30GB) and it looks like what's in your picture.

Fuji
It appears that this drive has the pins recessed under the top cover - definitely non-standard.

 

[bruceb]

It looks like in that photo, that is a part of the cover lid.
If that cover is only over the circuit board, you could remove
it and trim it off. But if it is over the drive platters, then removal
would ruin the drive due to dust & dirt and also the fragility
of hard drives.

 

[konakona]

thanks for replies again, and I guess it is pretty safe to conclude the fujitsu drive was the culprit here. Strangely, I have another fujitsu that originally came from a different laptop (samsung as opposed to HP), which lead me to believe that was more of a standard.

at one point he considered ditching the laptop altogether (sell it to someone) and go for a new one, but changed his mind at the end and decided to settle for a new drive. I sure hope they have a decent deal at local fry's, as he wants it up and running asap.

 

[Old Hippie]

It appears that this drive has the pins recessed under the top cover - definitely non-standard.

I learn something new everyday.....that's enough for today!