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Cracking open a laptop hard drive
The Hitachi Travelstar
Laptops are quickly overtaking desktops as the computer of choice. The heart of any
laptop, meanwhile, is its hard drive. Explore this image gallery to see how one of the
world's most popular mobile hard disks (the Hitachi Travelstar) is put together to power
countless laptops. You'll gain a new perspective on the main component powering all
those notebooks you see the next time you frequent the local coffeehouse.
The Hitachi Travelstar mobile hard disk. This model sported a 5400rpm motor, ATA
interface and 40GB of data storage.
Cracking open a laptop hard drive
Removing the hard drive cage
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Related Manuals for Hitachi Travelstar
Summary of Contents for Hitachi Travelstar
- Page 1 Explore this image gallery to see how one of the world's most popular mobile hard disks (the Hitachi Travelstar) is put together to power countless laptops. You'll gain a new perspective on the main component powering all those notebooks you see the next time you frequent the local coffeehouse.
- Page 2 Several Philips screws (one of which is shown here at the top left corner) must be removed to free the Hitachi hard disk from the silver hard disk assembly used to hold the hard drive securely within the Dell Inspiron's hard disk bay.
- Page 3 This silver cage, perforated to encourage cooling airflow, holds the hard disk securely within the Dell's hard disk bay. Cracking open a laptop hard drive Hard disk cage removed...
- Page 4 Once the hard disk cage's screws are removed, the assembly falls free from the Hitachi hard drive. The Hitachi's circuit board, shown here on the right, is then revealed. Cracking open a laptop hard drive Disassembling the Hitachi Travelstar...
- Page 5 To continue disassembling the Hitachi Travelstar, next several small Torx screws must be removed. So, too, must the drive's label. Cracking open a laptop hard drive Disassembling the Hitachi Travelstar...
- Page 6 Torx screw is eliminated, the cover freely opens. It should be noted, of course, that removing the label (even if the screw behind the label remains) voids the manufacturer's warranty. Cracking open a laptop hard drive Inside the Hitachi Travelstar...
- Page 7 Once the seven Torx screws are removed, the drive's front cover (now shown on the left) easily slips away. Cracking open a laptop hard drive Inside the Hitachi Travelstar Hard Disk...
- Page 8 Removing the cover reveals the actual Hitachi hard disk platter (the large silver mirror- like disk), actuator arm (whose arm begins at approximately the 7 o'clock position in this image) and spindle motor (the silver circle in the center). Meanwhile, the actuator arm mechanism, which is responsible for controlling and moving the actuator arm, is the silver metallic assembly in the bottom left corner.
- Page 9 Here's a close up of the underside of the Hitachi hard drive's front cover. Cracking open a laptop hard drive The actuator arm...
- Page 10 Cracking open a laptop hard drive The Travelstar read/write head In this closeup of the Travelstar's actuator arm, you can see the read/write head that sits at the arm's tip. The head, of course, is responsible for reading and writing data to the Travelstar's hard disk platter.
- Page 11 Here's the Hitachi Travelstar hard disk with the actuator arm, assembly and circuit board removed. All that remains, essentially, is the Travelstar hard disk platter and the spindle motor hub. Cracking open a laptop hard drive The Hitachi Travelstar platter...
- Page 12 The actual Hitachi Travelstar hard disk is smaller than a mini CD. Here you can see it pictured next to a small screwdriver. Cracking open a laptop hard drive The spindle cover...
- Page 13 The Travelstar's spindle (and spacer) are tiny. Engineered to perform at precise tolerances, the actual spindle cover and spacer are quite small; they must be to accommodate the smaller mobile two-and-a-half inch hard disks. Cracking open a laptop hard drive...
- Page 14 Removing several additional Torx screws from the drive's bottom enables slipping the Travelstar's circuit board away from the hard disk cover. This specific board features Samsung-manufactured circuits. The board also contains the pin assembly (positioned here on the board's left edge) used to connect the drive to a PC or IDE cable.
- Page 15 The backside of the Hitachi Travelstar Circuit Board reveals the component was manufactured in Malaysia. Here you can also see another view of the same pin assembly shown in the last image (positioned here along the board's right edge). Cracking open a laptop hard drive...
- Page 16 Here are all the components that powered this Hitachi Travelstar mobile drive through its three-year lifecycle. How to Replace the Pins on a Laptop Hard Drive...
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Page 17: Things You'll Need
The laptop hard drive, mostly a reduced version of a standard hard drive, has data cable connector pins that may break off. Replacing these pins is a straightforward process that will require moderate computer hardware skills. Instructions Things You'll Need: Damaged laptop hard drive ... - Page 18 Replace the controller board with one from a similar make and model, and plug in the ribbon cable. Some manufacturers will use the same controller cards for several models over a product's lifespan. Since the pins are very small and very close together, it is not possible to repair them once they break off.
- Page 19 Questions to ask Before attempting any form of self data recovery or hard drive repair What is the problem? Does the hard drive spin? If so does it click? Does the armature kick out? Do the hard drives heads vibrate to initiate? ...
- Page 20 Is there an odd smell to the drive? If it doesn't spin do you here a slight or faint ticking sound? Does the BIOS see the hard drive? Does the BIOS see the hard drive as the correct model? ...
- Page 21 Chip; this would go up in smoke and leave a pin hole or a very big mess on or over the IC MICRO CONTROLLER These rarely fail unless there has been an extreme hit by power such as a lightning strike that may cause voltage through the IDE Cable. If this does fail you would normally find visible damage TRACKS Internal track are the thin Copper ribbons that run through the board that...
- Page 22 Try that same scenario 6 months after heavy use... and results will could be very different There's a high chance that each PCB has made themselves unique to each drive! How can this be? Its called SMART Technology where the hard drive is designed to reconfigure itself during operation to maximizing performance and protecting data.
- Page 23 Head crash is a term used for describing when the read\write heads make contact with the hard drives platters causing scratches or ditches damaging the platters clean smooth surface, in a lot of cases this will remove all the ceramic coating of the platter leaving a see through glass and platter dust (THIS IS DEEMED UNRECOVERABLE) Above is a demonstration of removing the side sticker on a clicking Maxtor HDD...
- Page 24 This is much like getting your tires balanced this is a counter weight to enable clean rotation of the HDD Platters, this alignment needs to stay intact for any hope of HDD repairs Computer will not turn when I plug in the HDD This will most likely be a power failure of the PCB and the PCB is drawing more power than what the whole computer needs to boot, Chance of repair is high but parts can be an issue...
- Page 25 Use Of Debug Card Post Error & Code Introduction of POST Card JET-1023 ISA POST Card JET-1048 PCI+POST Card JET-1054 Mini PCI POST Card (Type III for notebook) JET-1049 PCI Checker Card JET-1050 PCI Test Card ...
- Page 26 The POST card used for PC system assembly, motherboard test and BIOS debug.
- Page 27 JET-1023 ISA POST Card JET-1023 ISA POST Card specification Full compatible with any kind motherboard which has the ISA Bus slot. Dual port decoder(80H and 84H) without jumper setting, it can use in general and Compaq motherboard. JET-1048 PCI+ POST Card JET-1048 PCI+ POST Card specification Full compatible with any kind motherboard (such as 80486, Pentium, Pentium II, ...
- Page 28 Auto port 80H/84H switch without jumper setting. It auto switch to PORT 80H for general motherboard and to switch PORT 84H for COMPAQ motherboard after system power for POST function execution. Dual POST code display --- User can readout POST at PCB component and ...
- Page 29 JET-1054 mini PCI POST Card JET-1054 mini PCI POST Card specification (support type III) notebook Full compatible with any kind motherboard (such as Celeron, Pentium II, Pentium III, AMD K6 and AMD K7) which has the type III mini PCI Bus extension slot.
- Page 30 JET-1049 PCI Checker Card specification POST code display --- 2 digitals 7-segment LED display for POST code indicator.. Full compatible with any kind motherboard (such as 486, Celeron, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium 4, AMD K5, K6 and K7) which has the PCI Bus extension slot.
- Page 31 JET-1050 PCI TEST Card JET-1050 PCI TEST Card specification Include all JET-1048 function. Real time and without probing to show 10 PCI signals --- Real time monitor the 10 PCI Bus signals (such as CLK, RESET#, FRAME#, TRDY#, DRDY#, DEVSEL# and C/BE[3:0] signals) by indicator LEDs.
- Page 32 Burn-in testing --- The system will continues restart every N seconds is running even the system is dead during burn-in test. (It can keep the system is running to burn-out some defect component during QC/QA burn-in testing). Trouble-shooting assistant --- Watch Dog reset by POST port function --- JET-1050 will output a pulse ...
- Page 33 What is POST Card function ? The primary function of POST card is display the POST code during system BIOS perform the Power On Self Test (POST) function. How to select the POST Card? The primary function of POST card is display the POST code. It is no performance consideration for using the POST card.
- Page 34 motherboard. Refer signal and power LED (if your POST card had this function) of POST card to solve the fault function if any firstly. Readout the POST code when system boot up failure. Record the POST code and check the BIOS POST lists to get POST code message to know what kind problem occurred.