Compatible hard drives for Portege 3480CT

[stuaart]

Hi,

I have a Portege 3480CT and I need to replace its internal 12GB (IBM Travelstar) hard disk since the old on has developed bad blocks. Now, I assumed this would be relatively straight-forward, but I was mistaken.

Anyway, I got a replacement 2.5" HD (this time a Hitachi Travelstar, 20GB drive), however I have been unable to get it working. I have run the IBM/Hitachi diagnostic program and whilst the old 12GB hard drive is detected and checks out ok, the 20GB does not even get detected (i.e., looks as though nothing is on the IDE line).

It was suggested to me by IBM and Hitachi that there is a compatibility list for their hard drives and this one may not be supported (http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/compatibility.htm), however I have been unable to find my drive on their list (model is HTS424020M9AT00). Basically all I want to know is what drives *are* compatible or what my problem with the laptop is otherwise.

For further info, when I try to install Win2k, I get an ArcRead failure, presumably because it thinks the drive does not exist.

Thanks.
Stuart

[Barrie]

Hi

I suppose that there is problem with HDD and false setting that decide if the HDD will be master or slave device.

In my opinion you should contact Service partner to ask them which HDD is suitable for your unit. You can also check on the net and pick up some information because there are a lot of different vendor where you can buy HDD. I found also information that it is possible to use 40GB HDD for your unit but it must be built in by vendor.

[stuaart]

Thanks for the swift response.

> I suppose that there is problem with HDD and false
> setting that decide if the HDD will be master or slave
> device.

The device is master. I have tried it explicitly as slave and cable select, and none of these work. The original 12GB drive was set to master.

> In my opinion you should contact Service partner to ask
> them which HDD is suitable for your unit.

They pointed me towards Toshiba, and to be honest, I just want to ask someone who works there simply whether they know if the drive is compatible, not compatible, or they don't know.

I'm reluctant to return this one and then buy another.

[Ivan25]

In my opinion this information can be given to you by some HDD vendor. I don`t know in which country you live but Google a little bit around and you will find a lot of vendors where you can buy HDD for your unit exactly.