Laptop Hard Drive questions

[novafire]

I obtained a close to mint condition Dell 475mc laptop (486). It is only missing the hard drive and drive sled. I know it is nothing special but I would like to get it working again. A few searches have found little info on this model or its drive. I have a few questions:

-Can the drive be replaced with a drive from other models or is this sled/drive combo unique to only this model? or is only the sled unique and perhaps many drives could work?

-Can any other drive be adapted easially to get it to work? If I have to do some "creative modding" I would not mind.

-Would a SCSI drive and SCSI PCMCIA card work? Can I boot off of SCSI PCMCIA drives? I might install Linux if I have a drive to put it on.

I do not have all that much experience with laptops, so any help to any of these questions would be great.

Thanks

 

[novafire]

anyone?

 

[Mingon]

The only major thing to consider is in the drive height, it will be either 9.5mm or 12mm. If it an old laptop it is likely to be 12.5mm but if I was you I would pick up a hard drive of e-b@y and use that.

 

[novafire]

So, assuming the machine takes 12.5mm drives, (which i _think_ it does). I should be able to get pretty mach any 12.5mm drive working in there?

 

[corkyg]

Laptops can usually take either 9.5 or 12 mm. The thing you need to make it convenient is what you call the "sled." In laptop parlance that is known as the rail assembly. You might find a like model at E-Bay you could cannibalize. But also, those items are frequently stocked by the maker as a way for people to have more than one HDD and swap them easily.

You should also check Dell's support website and see if the User's Guide is available for download - usually in PDF format. That would be pretty old, and more than likely would use the old PCMCIA cards and not the newer CardBus. Those also could be a way to connect a drive.

 

[novafire]

sorry about this blank post....

 

[novafire]

Originally posted by: corky-g
Laptops can usually take either 9.5 or 12 mm. The thing you need to make it convenient is what you call the "sled." In laptop parlance that is known as the rail assembly. You might find a like model at E-Bay you could cannibalize. But also, those items are frequently stocked by the maker as a way for people to have more than one HDD and swap them easily.
You should also check Dell's support website and see if the User's Guide is available for download - usually in PDF format. That would be pretty old, and more than likely would use the old PCMCIA cards and not the newer CardBus. Those also could be a way to connect a drive.

Ya, Dell's site has a bit of info, but not much. About using the PCMCIA bus to attach drives.. you mean like using a IDE or SCSI PCMCIA card? How new is cardbus, btw?

 

[novafire]

Anyone know if the rail assembly for the 475mc is similar to other Dell Latitudes? I assume it is similar to the other 486 models, but what about the newer ones? It is easier to find parts for the newer models.