hard drive transplant question

I have a 100GB h/d in my laptop. It is IDE/ATA, but Gateway says they have
hard drives htat are compatble with my laptop at 160GB capacities. But I have
a differnet option. I will be coming into a 160GB, HP Personal Media drive in
a short while. I was wondering if I could, perhaps, transplant the hard drive
from the hp personal media drive, into my laptop and move the 100GB out to
the personal media drive.... would this work? would it be reversible if it
DIDNT work? If they h/d ISNT compatible with my laptop (because its to slow
or sometihng), am I risking bricking the laptop?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Mike

From what I can see, the unit looks like it may have a 3.5" drive in it,
rather than a 2.5" drive. The capacities they offer also suggest this is
the case. This would mean that it just won't physically fit in your laptop.

Also, when it comes to hard drives, there are 2 interfaces in the current
models. SATA and ATA. You'll need to find out which one you have, and use
that information when trying to replace it.

Another issue may be that if you got it into your system and installed your
OS and applications on it, it may not be recognizable to the Media Drive, if
you tried to reverse it. There may be some applications or hidden
partitions or who knows what on it.

Personally, I'd say just go to newegg and buy a new one. But you'll still
need to find out which interface you have.

Clint

"thunderstruck_302@hotmail.com"
<thunderstruck302hotmailcom@discussions.microsoft. com> wrote in message
news:B2F742D0-1B6B-43E8-859D-04F2E733040B@microsoft.com...
>I have a 100GB h/d in my laptop. It is IDE/ATA, but Gateway says they have
> hard drives htat are compatble with my laptop at 160GB capacities. But I
> have
> a differnet option. I will be coming into a 160GB, HP Personal Media drive
> in
> a short while. I was wondering if I could, perhaps, transplant the hard
> drive
> from the hp personal media drive, into my laptop and move the 100GB out to
> the personal media drive.... would this work? would it be reversible if it
> DIDNT work? If they h/d ISNT compatible with my laptop (because its to
> slow
> or sometihng), am I risking bricking the laptop?
>
> Thanks in advance for your help.
>
> Mike

Laptop drives are generally interchangeable. There are some laptops that use
a very non-standard recovery method for the OS. Some drives will not work in
those laptops because of this. I have also heard of cases (notably IBM)
where only certain brands of drives are recognised. I've never seen this
personally. If the drive fits and the cable is the same it's unlikely you'll
cause any damage by trying it.

--
Kerry
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
www.vistahelp.ca



thunderstruck_302@hotmail.com wrote:
> I have a 100GB h/d in my laptop. It is IDE/ATA, but Gateway says they
> have hard drives htat are compatble with my laptop at 160GB
> capacities. But I have a differnet option. I will be coming into a
> 160GB, HP Personal Media drive in a short while. I was wondering if I
> could, perhaps, transplant the hard drive from the hp personal media
> drive, into my laptop and move the 100GB out to the personal media
> drive.... would this work? would it be reversible if it DIDNT work?
> If they h/d ISNT compatible with my laptop (because its to slow or
> sometihng), am I risking bricking the laptop?
>
> Thanks in advance for your help.
>
> Mike