Replace 4 GB SSD?

[ceo]

Hello!

Even tough some of you may think this is an akward question but is it possible to replace the 4 GB SSD of the cheapest model with an ordinary 2.5 S-ATA harddrive?

Mikael

[drwlew]

Hello!

Even tough some of you may think this is an akward question but is it possible to replace the 4 GB SSD of the cheapest model with an ordinary 2.5 S-ATA harddrive?

Mikael

It is not that difficult, same as changing RAM. It is a standard SATA interface. Any drive with this connection will work. A member of another forum replace the original 120GB drive with a 10,000 RPM 80GB Seagate HDD and achieved remarkable boot and application call up times.

As to the 4GB SSD, it has been confirmed by HP that it is a standard SATA drive. Please consider some of my upgrades in General Discussion for this model.

Next, some people are considering larger SATA SSD replacement. At about $550 for 32GB and $900 for 80GB, that is more than the base price of your HP 2131. Still, the result is an almost military spec. and rugged 2133, that is pure solid state and able to take a beating (no moving parts).

Given the standard SATA connection, there is a world of possibility. I favor the 32GB SSD option with XP.

[noah.bronstein]

It's all very straightforward except that the drive bay holding the 4 GB Flash module will NOT hold a regular drive. I'm in the process of upgrading mine, and ran into this problem. You have two options: hack at the regular one with a file or something, or maybe make your own out of sheet metal. OR you call HP and order one for a ridiculously inflated price. I will attempt the latter tomorrow and report on my findings.

[mikez]

I have not opened mine to verify, but from looking at drawings and photos . . .
It looks like HP is using a drive with a special mounting plate - - -
Like in the days when every box had different disk drive "mounting rails".

Post whatever solution you come up with - someone else will someday want to "build a bracket".

[noah.bronstein]

Holy cow, this has been a huge hassle.

I called HP to see about getting a new hard drive mount. They said sorry, we can't sell you one without selling you a hard drive and SATA adapter too. The cost of buying that part set from the HP Parts Store is about $180, depending on the hard drive you choose. I even complained to them about the inherent limitations of a 4 Gb flash drive (Actually it's 3.7, so they're shorting you 300 megabytes), noting that SUSE was unable to install service pack 2 due to lack of space, and that this was really a design flaw in the computer. They were sympathetic, but not helpful. The very nice support person said there was really nothing he could do for me.

So that leaves me with three options:
#1: Take the drive bay apart and drill holes where I need them. I don't like this option, for obvious reasons. Warranties are good and I prefer not to void them.

#2: Stay with the Flash drive, and run some other version of linux (I like Ubuntu) capable of running on the small drive.

#3: Return the computer and get one with a bigger hard drive. This is actually proving very difficult, but I am going to go this route (unless I can't get it to work).

In order to complete option #3, I am going through some serious beurocratic junk. Let me elaborate:

Phone call to PC Mall (where I purchased the computer) reveals that they will not take a return of HP products due to an agreement with HP.

Phone call to HP reveals that PC Mall was telling a half-truth: they should take a return, but only if I can get a PC Mall customer service representative on the line with a HP representative in a conference call.

Currently waiting for that conference call to happen... I'll post as soon as it does.

[noah.bronstein]

Okay. So.

I tried for about three hours to get that conference call between HP and PC Mall. No dice.

I instead went out and bought some heavy duty aluminum foil (used as a heat shield for an MSR Whisperlite or equivalent camping stove) and cut it up and made a new bracket. Works like a charm. The laptop does now get very VERY hot, much hotter than with the Flash module, and the battery life is much worse. But the speed of the computer is much better, and the storage is finally livable.

I will post pictures once I get a pretty version of the bracket made. The first version was fugly and needs to be redone.

[mikez]

Great news. Bet it took less than a three hour telephone call also. Who said DIY was dead?

[Xenel]

you might be able to make a stack of those brackets and sell them online...

[mikez]

There are already potential buyer(s) in other threads here.
Once you get the details worked out, your local sheet metal shop could probably turn out a few dozen in their nap or lunch time.

[noah.bronstein]

/* note: edited a few hours after posting to include a note about the second picture and a comment about how I got the screw-holes in the right place */

First, a disclaimer. I made this mount for myself, and I'm telling you how so that if you're in a similar situation, you can work with what I did and maybe be successful. But if you break your computer, hard drive, drill bits, metal shears, finger, nose, toe, etc, it's not my fault.

Difficulty: maybe 4 out of 5
Delicacy: 2 or 3 out of 5
Crazy inventor factor: very high
Cost: I paid $13 for the copper
Time: about 6 hours, all told (buying copper and making holder)

This is not as scary as removing the fan-window screens, but took significantly more time due to the hit-or-miss nature of making the shape be just right.

Also, make sure you store your flash module in a safe place so that if you really screw up you can still use your computer.

Step one: finding sheet copper

I chose sheet copper because it conducts heat well and is flexible, drillable, and very tough. I happen to have a sheet metal shop in town, so I went down and bought some from them. They only had 20 mil (16 oz) thickness, so that's what I got. In hindsight, it's a little too thick, but works just fine. 10 mil or 12 mil would be easier to work with, and would probably be plenty stiff. I only needed about 5 x 5 inches, but bought twice as much so I could screw up once and still be okay. (I did screw up once)


Step two: acquiring all the right tools

I used:
metal shears
electric drill with various bit sizes
pliers
non-magnetic screwdriver set
bench grinder
utility knife (leatherman, in my case)
screws to fit in the hard drive mount holes (not the same size as the flash module, for me)
piece of worthless shop cloth
sharpie marker

and make sure to wear all cotton clothing. Static charge on your body = dead computer, and you might not even feel it happen. (50 volts is small to your body and HUGE to your computer)


Step three: getting the approximate shape

I laid the hard drive down on the copper sheet and traced the outline, and made marks approximately where the screws needed to go. then I cut out an overly large piece so I could trim it down later.

Then, I cut the piece to look like gumby. Here's the target shape:



And here it is, halfway installed. The shape of gumby at this point isn't quite right, and I later had to trim his feet and head, and drill a screw-hole in his head. The shape in the first and third pictures is the final shape.



And fully installed:



So, once gumby has the right general shape, you can start bending his hands and feet to fit snugly around the drive. This might take a while. Don't stress the the exposed circuit board, or you might crack some wires and have a dead drive. Also, note that gumby cannot allow the hard drive to extend above the mounting posts, or it will interfere with the keyboard.

Now, figure out where to drill the holes. I did this by putting the drive in the mount, and sliding it horizontally to the wrong location, and then marking the verticle location with a sharpie. Then, I did a similar thing in the other direction, so I had a cross-mark right on the spot.

Take the gumby to a location far away from your computer and hard drive, and then drill the holes. Drills have huge magnetic fields. Magnetic fields kill computers.

If you're lucky, smart, and extremely good looking, you got all the holes in the right places. I wasn't quite so lucky, and had to re-drill and rebend gumby for an hour or two. This involved carefully scraping the holes with a utility knife to make them larger. I also had to trim gumby a little bit with the metal shears, since he was still too big to fit in the socket.


Step four: Installation

So, after all that effort, it's time to install gumby. Except that for me, the screws stuck out too far due to big fat rounded screw-heads, and the whole contraption wouldn't fit in the hard drive socket in the laptop. So I got some pliers and a shop rag and a bench grinder, and held each screw by the threads with pliers, using the rag to protect the threads from being squished, and grinded the screw heads down about halfway. The rag started smoking and disintigrated due to built up heat.

Now my contraption fits in the socket, and I plug everything in and turn the computer on, and install an OS using an external optical drive. Victory is mine!

I also found that the laptop generated a bit more heat using this drive, so I immediately removed the fan-window screens, as per instruction elsewhere in this forum.