[Ham-Computers] Laptop Hard Drive Connector Differences

[Jim Hill]

I'm replacing the hard drive on my Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop 
purchased in 12/02, and noticed the connector "pins" differ.  It's 
not a SATA drive, and I assumed all non-SATA laptop drives had the 
same connector.  Now, I'm not so sure.

I just bought a 120 GB Western Digital Scorpio hard drive 
(WD1200BEVE, see bottom row center 
at 
http://www.newegg.com/store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380&Tpk=laptop+hard+drive 
) as a replacement . The connector on this drive has two rows of 
pins. The hard drive currently in the computer (Seagate ST9160821A) 
has a flat sheet of thin plastic with a row of flat metal "pins" on 
each side. The Seagate worked fine until I dropped the computer. 
However, the Seagate was also a replacement.  It's a long story, but 
I think the drive that came with the computer had pins (see below):.

The original drive (Hitachi DK23EB-40, I think) started to fail about 
a year ago shortly before I was scheduled to leave on a long trip.  I 
was unable to remove the original drive, so phoned a local computer 
store (mom and pop type), and discovered they had closed their 
business. The owner said he still did some repairs at his home,  so 
at his request I left the computer at his wife's business (a 
restaurant) for him to remove the original drive and replace it with 
a drive I had purchased.  I picked the computer up later, and noticed 
the original (defective) drive had some bent pins.  I wondered what 
had happened, and assumed he either handled it roughly or gave me 
another 40 GB drive by mistake.  Since the replacement drive worked 
fine, I didn't pursue it further.

The hard drive receptacle has a slot with thin flat "wires" rather than holes.

For other Inspiron owners - I think I found the trick for removing 
the drive. The drive is bolted to a drawer that slides into the 
computer. A bolt must be removed and the front panel of this drawer 
must be slid down about 1/8" before the drawer can be removed. The 
front panel sticks, and can be moved by gently prying with a 
screwdriver. Verify the front panel of the drawer moves up and down 
freely before attempting to pull the drawer out of the computer.

Thanks, Jim