Upgrade hard drive on compaq presario V4832ea (series V4000)

[capintxu]

The hard drive on my compaq presario V4832ea just died yesterday. It is a Toshiba MK8025GAS - 80GB Ultra ATA/100 EIDE hard drive - 5,400RPM, 2.5-inch width, 9.5mm height. Now I am willing to upgrade to a bigger one. I've got 2 candidates:

- WD1200BEVE

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=16

 120GB ATA / 100

- WD3200BEVE

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=599

320GB ATA / 100

Obviously I prefer the bigger one but I am not sure if the laptop will pick it up.

As far as I have read if the controller on the motherboard is ATA-5 (Ultra-ATA66) the maximum hard drive size is 128GB because is uses a 28-bit address bus. If it is ATA-6 (Ultra-ATA100) the maximum size is 128 petabytes because it uses a 48-bit address bus.

I have been trying to find out what controller is in the motherboard but had no luck. The only document I could find was "the maintenance and service guide" saying that the harddrive uses ATA-5 (http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00553278.pdf) but that doesn't make sense to me because the original Toshiba harddrive delivered with the laptop is ATA-100 that suggests ATA-6.

So, anyone has tried to install a hard drive bigger that 120 Gb in a servies V4000 laptop?

Or anyone knows the answer anyway?

Cheers

capintxu

[capintxu]

Btw, the model number of my laptop is:EL009EA#ABE

[EverWin]

hi,

by loking at your Laptops Specifications

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00696256&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&lc=en&dlc=en...

it has Intel 915GM chipset motherboard, so check this out

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_maximum_hard_disk_capacity_supported_in_intel_915_types_of_mother...

i think a 160GB H.D.D should run, just Fine....

Regards,

EverWin

Message Edited by EverWin on 10-28-2009 09:05 AM

[capintxu]

Thanks Everwin, but how do you know is using chipset 915GM (I think you meant 915 GM, not GN)? I must be going blind but I haven't found the chipset the motherboard is using from the product information page.

Actually I was thinking about getting a 320GB one, which should be also ok.

[capintxu]

Just looked a bit more carefully inside the document (Maintenance and service guide) under the support page for the 4382ea laptop. The manual actually refers to the V4200 series but I'll assume it is the same as the V4300. On page 3-9 it says it uses either 915GML or 915PM/M25P128 chipset.

I have also checked the chipset through the control panel on my laptop. It says:

Mobile  Intel (R) 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML

I've tried going to the intel website to get information about the chipset but I have been unable to find if it uses LBA-48 as the link you posted says. I am wary of information obtained from unknown websites (at least unknown to me). I'd just prefer to read that on the intel website. Just to be able to sleep after buying the HD. I'm planning on buying it from a online store and if I can't get it to work it is going to be a headache to get my money back.

So, anyone has tried installing a big harddrive (at least bigger than 130GB~140GB) on a V4000 series laptop?

[capintxu]

I got the answer to my question from this post (see the reply from i_mac).

Apparently someone having a laptop with the same chipset as mine was having trouble with a 250GB harddrive. That sounds like is not supported to me. I think I am going to stick with the 120GB one.