What the hell were they thinking??

[VirtualLarry]

Ok, so a friend of mine that is a computer tech gets a computer in that is dead. Apparently the mobo died. It's an HP micro-ATX unit.

Well, for some crazy reason, the left-side panel is NON-REMOVABLE. I guess they do that to be cheap, or add strength to the case.

But the HD that is installed in there, has not only some green piece of plastic holding it in on the accessable side, but it has a SCREW holding it in on the non-accessable side.

WTF???

There doesn't appear to be any way to remove the HD and move it into another case along with all of the other components, short of taking a dremel tool to the other side of the case and cutting a hole into it, in order to get a screwdriver in to take out the HD.

 

[RebateMonger]

You didn't state the model number, so potential advice is limted. I do know that I've replaced hard drives on several HP boxes and the drives came out. I also remember that HP often uses special-headed screws as part of the mounting arrangement for drives. Those aren't removed during the disassembly process.

The disassembly process for all the HP's I've worked on were well-documented in the online manuals.

 

[Gunbuster]

Ummm you pull up on the green tab and slide out the HDD.

I agree that HP makes some shit but you loose this round.

 

[Jesusthewererabbit]

Does it have one of the removable external HD bays? My old HP case does, and it took me a while to figure out that I had to take off the front panel and slide that whole thing out to get to the hard drive.

 

[goobernoodles]

I work with HP's DC7800 everyday, and they're actually one of easiest cases I've had to navigate ever.

 

[DrGreen2007]

Ive got tons of the DC7100/7600/7700P/7800/7900 machines, the SFF (Small Form Factor) are the easy ones to work on.
The USD (Ultra Slim Desktop) ones are hard to work on the internals.
To get the HDD, you sometimes have to slide the front of the machine out of the rest to get inside

But yeh, we need the model #

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Jesusthewererabbit
Does it have one of the removable external HD bays? My old HP case does, and it took me a while to figure out that I had to take off the front panel and slide that whole thing out to get to the hard drive.

Yeah, I think on the ones I've worked on you have to remove the front panel and the disk slides out from the front after moving the green tab.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Gunbuster
Ummm you pull up on the green tab and slide out the HDD.

I agree that HP makes some shit but you loose this round.

I think you misread my post. There's a screw on the opposite side, with no way to get the side panel off to get at the screw. (Unless you like removing about six or eight rivets.)
Edit: I'll get you the model number tomorrow if I can. The physical case is at a friend's house.
Edit: I finally got over to his house. He's at work right now, and his GF answered the door. I asked her if I could copy the number off of it, but then I saw that it wasn't sitting where it was when I first saw it, so perhaps my friend was able to fix it. I'll let you know, once I get a chance to talk to him.

 

[Homerboy]

If they got the screw and the HDD in, then it can get out right?
you're missing something here, they didn't build the case around the HDD.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Homerboy
If they got the screw and the HDD in, then it can get out right?
you're missing something here, they didn't build the case around the HDD.

That's kind of what I can't figure out. I didn't take a detailed look at it personally, as it's my friend that is working on the system, but he told me about the screw, and I was thinking WTF.

Edit: The more I think about it, the more I think that my friend probably needs to take off the front of the case, and then things will become self-explainatory.

I worked on a different HP case, that had a permanently-attached side, and that's what I had to do to install another DVD drive. Then again, there was no fastener on the other side of the existing DVD drive either.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: Homerboy
If they got the screw and the HDD in, then it can get out right?
you're missing something here, they didn't build the case around the HDD.

That's kind of what I can't figure out. I didn't take a detailed look at it personally, as it's my friend that is working on the system, but he told me about the screw, and I was thinking WTF.

Edit: The more I think about it, the more I think that my friend probably needs to take off the front of the case, and then things will become self-explainatory.

I worked on a different HP case, that had a permanently-attached side, and that's what I had to do to install another DVD drive. Then again, there was no fastener on the other side of the existing DVD drive either.

Go to the HP website and download the manual....it will show you and tell you in detail how to remove the hd!

 

[tcsenter]

You have to remove the front panel/bezel from just about all HP and Compaq towers in order to really get anything in and out of there, except for the expansion cards and CPU cooler.

 

[Gunbuster]

Front plastic comes off, you then slide the HDD out. Pull up the green tab, The Screws slide.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Gunbuster
Front plastic comes off, you then slide the HDD out. Pull up the green tab, The Screws slide.

Yea! RTFM!

 

[frostedflakes]

Originally posted by: Gunbuster
Ummm you pull up on the green tab and slide out the HDD.

I agree that HP makes some shit but you loose this round.

This. The screws are mounted directly to the HDD and are used to guide it on the rails and then lock it in place. As others have mentioned, remove the front panel and then it should be more obvious. You'll either need to push or pull a tab to unlock the drive and slide it out the front.

If it makes you feel better, took me a while to figure this out on a family member's HP that I worked on about half a year ago.

 

[n7]

Yes, the answer has been given.

Take off the front plastic bezel.

Pull clip, & HDD will then slide right out.

It's a piece of cake once you've done it a zillion times

 

[Malak]

I had the same issue with my Alienware. All the screws going into the harddrive were covered so you couldn't unscrew them. Then I realized the tabs weren't holding the drive in, they were screwed onto the drive. Drive and tabs all came out together

 

[ussfletcher]

I had an HP desktop computer we got back in 2000, and I was never able to remove the DVD-Rom for the same reason, the left side panel was removable but underneath that there was just a solid sheet of metal riveted to the case, visible through a small hole was the screw holding the drive in (about an inch and a half away from the hole..)

 

[VirtualLarry]

It's an a1712n.

Manuals are here
Looks like you do have to remove the front of the case to get at the drives. Strange system.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Gunbuster
Ummm you pull up on the green tab and slide out the HDD.

I agree that HP makes some shit but you loose this round.

bingo lol op fail, many cases have one side that is permanently on, even antec sonatas. the drive retention solution takes this into account.