Review of the Samsung HM160HC, World's Fastest ATA/IDE Mobile hard drive

[jaxelsson]

Originally Posted by K-TRON

jaxelsson,
the inspiron 6000 should have no problem reading the Samsung harddrive.
Two things come to mind in regards to your problem:
1) your harddrive is not set properly. There is instructions for setting the jumper on the label of your samsung harddrive. Master mode is no jumper, slave mode is a jumper on the lower two pins, and cable select mode is a jumper on the upper two pins.
Try all three modes to see if that changes anything
2) your laptop may not be able to read ATA-6/7 harddrives. Go to Samsung's website and look for a drive utility. You may need to change the firmware to run in ATA-5 mode

I was using it as a Master (since I replaced the master), but tried slave and CS also now without results.

I also tried running ESTOOL but it won't find the drive (same as bios). When I use the drive via the USB2-adapter ESTOOL doesn't realize it's a genuine Samsung and refuses to work with it, stupid software.

So, my next thing now is to buy a 44pin->40pin cable and connect the drive in my desktop computer and try to run ESTOOL there. But I put the work on hold over easter, guess I'll drive by a store today. If I get it to work I'll set maximum ATA-6 and then ATA-5 if it doens't work, and possibly also limit the size to 137gig (more than I need anyway). The drive I've replaced is a ATA-6 (UDMA/100).

One strange thing I've noticed is the hdd controller in the I6000 is a ICH6M, which is a SATA controller... Is there a SATA->PATA-adapter in there?

[K-TRON]

No wonder why the harddrive is not working in your laptop.
I should have looked up the inspiron 6000 before, it uses SATA harddrives.

The Samsung drive will not work in your laptop because it runs the PATA interface.
You would need a SATA harddrive for your laptop

Email the place you bought your harddrive from and return it. Tell them the situation, and they should refund you.
You can buy much better SATA harddrives.

Sorry for the mistake, I should have read more into your situation

K-TRON

[jaxelsson]

No no, it's a 44pin PATA interface that's used, so it's unfortunately not as easy as getting a SATA drive.
However the chipset seems able to use SATA (and PATA). The 40gig Hitachi that I'm trying to replace is a ATA-6 PATA-drive. Wish Dell would have used the SATA interface instead...

I've found an old Dell D600 at work that I'll try the Samsung drive in (the D600 has the same 40 gig Hitachi as my I6000).

[jaxelsson]

So, now I've tried the drive in a Dell D600 without problems. BIOS can only see a 137 gig size drive, but that's fine. ESTOOL works. Been trying to change the maximum ATA-specification used and the maximum address, but regardless of the settings my Dell Inspirion 6000 won't acknowledge the drive. Don't think I'll get it to work. Others with I6000:s might consider themselves warned.

I hate the BIOS in these Dell laptops. Please just give me a real Award or AMI bios, with settings...

[K-TRON]

Is there an interposer for your Inspiron 6000?
an interposer slides over the 40 or so pins on the end of the hard drive, and than plugs into the port inside your laptop. Without it the drive will not power up.
If the drive does not have an interposer, than I dont have any idea why it is not being recognized.

K-TRON

[jaxelsson]

Yes it does, both my I6000 and the D600 has the same model. Can't figure it out either, so I think I will be stuck with my current drive. Thinking of firing of a mail to Samsung support before I concede unconditionally.

[nando4]

Originally Posted by jaxelsson

No no, it's a 44pin PATA interface that's used, so it's unfortunately not as easy as getting a SATA drive.
However the chipset seems able to use SATA (and PATA). The 40gig Hitachi that I'm trying to replace is a ATA-6 PATA-drive. Wish Dell would have used the SATA interface instead...

ICH6M would have a SATA controller on the southbridge. If you can identify accessible points for the 4 SATA I/O TX/RX lines on the systemboard AND enable the SATA controller in bios or software, you could run a SATA HDD/SSD instead. See this if wishing to pursue the idea further.

[Hep!]

Originally Posted by jaxelsson

So, now I've tried the drive in a Dell D600 without problems. BIOS can only see a 137 gig size drive, but that's fine. ESTOOL works. Been trying to change the maximum ATA-specification used and the maximum address, but regardless of the settings my Dell Inspirion 6000 won't acknowledge the drive. Don't think I'll get it to work. Others with I6000:s might consider themselves warned.

I hate the BIOS in these Dell laptops. Please just give me a real Award or AMI bios, with settings...

Ummm, you sure that the BIOS is only seeing that? I don't know of a chipset that has a 137GB limit on it, usually the limit is 32GB on older chipsets [way older, P2-P3 and earlier], something really high (way past 137GB) on new ones...
Windows XP pre service pack 1 only could address drives up to 137GB. I have a hunch that you're using an old XP disc and it's not seeing the rest of the drive.
Just download nLite and slipstream in SP2

[K-TRON]

137Gb is the normal addressing of a system which has a 48 BIT limitation. I have seen this on a number of systems. When I put a HM160HC into my Latitude C640, it reads 137GB.

On much older systems the maximum harddrive capacity was less.
For example, my Northgate from 1986 can only read harddrives less than 250 MB

K-TRON

[Hep!]

The more you knoooooooooooooowwwwww!