Satellite Laptops :: A-Series models

[gorpok]

I wish to upgrade the hard drive in my Satellite model A25-S2792....I have chose an 320Gb Western Digital drive (model WD3200BEVERTL) as an upgrade from the Hitachi 80Gb drive. My problem is I have installed two of these drives and each time it formats (via Windows setup) and then comes up with disk read errors. Is this drive not compatible with the laptop and if that is the case, what is the max size hard drive I can install in this machine....

Any help or thoughts are appreciated....

[cee_64]

Based on the date of that system I seriously doubt that the bios supports 48bit addressing which is a requirement for drivers larger than 137 GB in size.  I'm also guessing that you are using Windowx XP which needs to be at Service Pack 1 level or higher to support 48bit addressing.  You MIGHT be able to get a 320GB drive to work by installing from an XP Install Disk that has SP1, 2, or 3 integrated into it, but you will still stand a good chance of corrupting your system.  You can test this theory out by installing from an SP1 or higher XP disk and creating the porimary partition to 120GB. 

Your best choice would be to use a 120gb hard drive will is within the limited parameters of your BIos and will be fully supported and reliable.

 And while we are at it, you should ignore the previous poster as his information about "hard drives are not made to be setup for an install with Microsoft operation systems" is not correct.  His site is nothing but a portal to other search engine sites solely for the purposes of making money from ads and should be avoided. 

[AZComputer]

Hello, since You want to just change the channel on your tv with your remote ..but wait .. this is a computer you are attempting to make hardware changes to ! It is obvious you failed to even read the install info that came with the hard drive ! The drive comes with software installed ON THE DRIVE to setup your drive to function with an older bios that may not be designed to handle that size of drive. it is called LIFEGUARD.

HERE IS THE DIRECT LINK TO WD SETUP .PDF INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS FOR EIDE AND SATA HARD DRIVES

http://www.wdc.com/en/library/sata/2779-001006.pdf

Talk about failing to look before you leap... Why in the world would a computer user buy a hard drive BEFORE RESEARCHING if it is compatable with your notebook? Lazy..is my guess.. or maybe following the advise of a irresponsible peer that " installed a bigger ( is better right ? ) hard drive in my computer .." so you need to " decide " to do the same. Why in the world would you want a HARD DRIVE of that size in your notebook ? Are you planing to upgrade your software to Vista next ? ...LOL...The drive you purchased is a perfect use for additional storage as an external box. If you install it into your cpu and then fill it up with video or games etc you will end up with an extreme SLOW COMPUTER operation due to the size and more files to sift thru each keystroke or access. This post will hopefully educate you to the fact that your decision to add more storage room by putting a larger drive into your cpu is an ignorant flawed choice. Take my experienced advice and get an external usb box at your local computer store and enjoy more storage and no computer slow down. PUT your new big drive into the USB Connection box and use it right away. However, you will need to format the drive, something you also " decided " is not something you want to be concerned with..

Hey, you can become educated and succeed at a better computing experience. Here is where the online help is listed at a few links.

My DIRECT LINK TO EDUCATION ABOUT HARD DRIVE UPGRADES: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000413.htm

My easy common english easy to understand online help: http://www.onlinealot.com

Western Digital Software downloads and support site : http://support.wdc.com/

Now you MAY need another cpu to format your hard drive. If you or an associate has a desktop pc with xp on it then get a cheap adapter to plug in your notebook drive into your desktop and format via xp. You must do a little research about how xp works in this aspect and NTFS file system first. I suggest this so you do not continue to remain perplexed and in the dark as to your previous mistakes.

You may also use your laptop to set up the new drive in a USB EXTERNAL BOX

FREE SOFTWARE is available to download and use on your laptop that will " see " your external unformatted big drive via the USB BOX CONNECTION and allow you to Partition and Format the drive for use. Wait.. what did I just mean by the word " partition" ? Oh .. did you forget to use the support links I an sharing with you? Yeah, all hard drives need to be PARTITIONED first.. then FORMATTED. So if you are still lost AS TO WHERE TO GET AN EXTERNAL BOX with a USB CONNECTION then include it in a post so I or another sympathetic geek can lead you more.... good computing requires constant education not just a " .. I am gonna do this ..or that .." pathway. Or .. you can find a good tech and pay to have them do it for you. I provide FREE TECH SUPPORT. http://www.azcomputer.com

[cee_64]

AZ, if you notice I mentioned RELIABLY in my post.  Using any of the drive overlay programs to fool the bios that doesn't have 48bit addressing support into running a drive that requires it is NOT reliable enough to trust.  Many have tried and most have had problems doing it.