Replace a (standard) 9.5mm laptop HD with a (thin) 7mm one ?

[Woodwood]

Does anyone know if it is possible to replace a 9.5mm (standard) thickness 2.5" hard disk drive in an HP laptop with a 7mm ("thin") one ?  There are many thin 7mm ones about now, and I wondered if I could upgrade my 9.5mm one with a thin 7mm one ?  (this would depend on the mounting and alignment of connectors of the two sizes - obviously the 7mm one would physically fit into the space where any 9.5mm one ued to be)

Woodwood

12.September.2014

HP Pavilion dm4-1050ea (I assume this model carries a fault 9.5mm 2.5" SATA HDD - HP spec document doesn't actually say)

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

The dm4 will have a 9.5 mm drive and a caddy. 7 mm drives are a compatible replacement for 9.5 mm drives but not vice versa. The 7 mm drives have the mounting holes in exactly the same place as the 9.5 mm and the SATA connectors are in exactly the same location on the bottom or "green board" side so they plug in exactly in place of a 9.5 mm drive. The drive will just not fill the caddy all the way to the top, like a swimming pool with some water removed but the mounting holes and caddy will hold it in place fine. For a few models, the drive is held in by rubber rails and not mounting screws and the rubber rails will be too thick. They do however make a spacer you can  adhere to the top of the 7 mm drive that will make it the same physical dimensions as a 9.5 mm drive. 

Manual

See Pages 29 and 57

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[Woodwood]

Thank you for that answer, Huffer.  [edit: the HD bracket etc is described on p.27, and p.57 is the first page about removing & replacing the optical drive in the document I refer to below.  Let me check the manual you referenced - same content, but actually a different document]

As I have never opened the HD compartment I have no first hand experience of how the HD drive is mounted.  The method you describe is iidentical to that used in a design of enclosure I have.

However, the HP maintenance and service guide for the dm4-1050ea [and others] appears to say something different.  The various models covered by this document (c03106715) have two different methods neither of which you precisely  describe. 

(pp 51 and following)  In the first the drive is simply "Lift[ed] the hard drive out of the hard drive bay", having removed the cover of the drive bay, and disconnecting the cable while doing so.  In the second, the screws are shown as holding the drive in the bracket from the side, not the bottom. The first method raises the issue of the drive not being held securely in the drive bay, it being free to move vertically by 2.5mm, in the second method, it is not clear whether the vertical alignment would be the same for the two drive thicknesses (though it may be).  The illustrations show both a solid connector and a cable attachment (cable attached presents no alignment difficulty).

In fact the manual is confusing on this issue, probably because it attempts to cover too many different ways in which the drives might be mounted for the models for which the manual is designed, while being only two in number, your explanations, Huffer, are clear, if seemingly of marginal relevance to this specific case.

To sum up, I don't understand exactly what the manual is describing, it doesn't seem what you describe, but I'll take your advice that 7mm 'thin' HDs can be used  in place of 9.5mm 'standard' HDs in this particular model. 

Issue resolved !  

Woodwood

12.September.2014