geeky DIY

ahhh... i wanted to write about something else, really... because this side of me, the 'geeky' side, is so erm.. un-flattering! =P and i do have more exciting news to honk about... really! in any case, i thought it might be good to share a bit of what i've learnt today, in case you find yourself in the same situation.

in today's world of mobile technology... we often end up with laptops crashing after its life-span of 3-4 yrs (typical of a PC) or longer (often for a Mac or a good PC like the Thinkpad) and then what do we do with the parts that still (kind of) work?! i mean a hard-disk-drive (hdd) can still be functional even if the motherboard's fried. as in the case of my old lappy top... the flimsy dell. you can remove the 2.5" hdd and get an enclosure (i.e. a little box with some funky electronics that link the hdd to a usb or similar device so you can hook it up to your computer) for it and use it as an external hard drive until... well, it eventually dies, too. by then you are left with an enclosure and no hard drive! oops.

yesterday, i decided that i should replace the dead and gone 2.5" hdd that went kaput recently. i thank my lucky stars because it decided that it's had enough only after i've transferred my files to a new lappy top (thinkpad x61s ... i wish the x300 came out earlier!!!) i get to use... but it's always good to have a backup; i know what hassle it is to lose data... like gigabytes of data; no fun. so i went to get a 2.5" laptop hdd at a computer store. they come in all sorts of brands but i am generally partial to the japanese ones... i got a 120gig Fujitsu drive and learnt that a lap top hard drive is often associated with the synonyms of either IDE or PATA, which should not be confused with SATA; as the synonyms are printed on the packaging, you just don't want to get the wrong one because the Advance Technology Attachments from your hdd enclosures must match. once you've got the right hdd (or hope that you do), you happily go home and try to assemble it in your existing enclosure.

there are usually about 20 to 22 parallel rows of pin-sockets in the drive enclosure to which you fit the hdd. there may be 4 (or more) pins on the hdd which are not necessarily used. once you've done the assembly you try to see if your lappy top recognises it. usually the usb mass storages that you stick into the usb ports will initiate your machine to recognise the new device... the thinkpad did so too but no drive was displayed in 'My Computer'. within the 'Device Manager' window, and the 'Drives' option, the new Fujitsu hdd was listed as being in existent. hmm...?!?! i reckoned that it's not been formatted that's why the system didn't load it as a drive with a path location... how does one format a new laptop drive when you aren't using it as a laptop drive but as an external hdd?!

yikes!. i thought... so i googled for answers... and was relieved to find this web page that provided the answers. Project: DIY External Hard Drive went through it step by step with clear screen-shots of how to go about the whole procedure. i mainly needed to partition and format the drive and so i followed the instructions to deal with that within the Administrative Tools in a PC. there might be something similar out there for macs. despite a bit of frantic panicking, i am happy to say, it all worked out! and now i have a functioning hdd with enough capacity to hold as much crap as i so desire! =)

baaah.... so much for such geekiness!

posted by ~overacuppa~ on Monday, 10 March, 2008 at 22:13 hrs