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Sager 5620 Hard Drive Size ATA version

post #1 of 10
3/4/07 at 5:53pm
Thread Starter 
I want to upgrade my Sager 5620 Hard Drive.

1. What size limit does the bios recognize?

2. Do the ATA-6 work?
Found that ATA-6 is backward compatible with 5.
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post #2 of 10
3/6/07 at 10:32am
Thread Starter 
bump
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post #3 of 10
3/6/07 at 6:41pm
Laptop only supports ata100--which is ata-5

Specs say it only supports 60gb, but that is likely because it is all that was available when it came out.

There is no reason that it will not accept a drive up to 120gb (well, 137gb actually). Any PC/laptop sold since 2000 should have at least 28-bit addressing, which means it can read anything up to 137gb (above that requires 48-bit logical block addressing).

Whether you want to sink that expensive of a drive into a laptop that is that old is another matter, since you will not be able to transfer it to a new machine when that laptop dies (since current laptops use SATA)
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post #4 of 10
3/6/07 at 8:40pm
Thread Starter 
First, thanks for the detailed answer.

Sager tech. said "80 he thought." Not a great answer but sufficient I suppose and they were very prompt as usual. I appreciate the reasoning you used. Seems reasonable to me.

Good point on the obsolescence issue. I can get an 80 gig for around $60. I will probably pass the notebook down to one of the kids or grandkids (if it is still breathing). Right now it still works so well I can't justify buying another.

Thanks again.
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post #5 of 10
3/6/07 at 11:51pm
I recently bought a new harddrive for my laptop after the old 60gb died...the difference between a 40 and 60 was something like $5, the difference between 60 and 80 was like $10, the difference between 80 and 100 was something like $20 and the difference between 100gb and 120gb was something like $30.

Nothing terribly back breaking with the largest ata drive being $120, but given that I have a boat load of old harddrives around and a usb harddrive enclosure costs $20, I opted for the 80gb so I could dual boot Vista and XP--I store all my data on the external drives, so 80gb is more than enough....actually 60gb was.

btw, an ata-6 drive will behave as an ata-5 drive if you put it in your laptop (getting harder to find ata-5 drives)
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post #6 of 10
3/7/07 at 12:23am
Thread Starter 
Yes, I decided on the Seagate 60 ata-6 for $60 shipped Newegg. Partially because 60 was the old max spec. but mostly because I keep most data on my desktop's big drives. I should do a clean OS install. I have expected this one to give out it is so old but it just keeps going, little touch up now and then.

I love this old Sager, but hate the loud fan ... cleaning helps for awhile but it always get loud again ... and my screen is dimming I can tell ... but it is still a snappy 2 gig and flawlessly stable.

I'm not sure I would do Sager again, after 3 of them, just because of the fan/heat/noise thing. Maybe the new ones are better in that regard.

Have you looked at this. A lot there for the price.
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post #7 of 10
3/7/07 at 12:43am
A big reason for the noisy fans in the desktop processor in the laptop--heat=death in a laptop.

Today's more laptop friendly mobile CPUs are quieter than our old beasts (mine is newer than yours, a 5680).

The a8jp is a fine machine--I would certainly consider it once this one dies--but until it does it still is a remarkably competent machine compared to a lot of laptops....even current ones.
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post #8 of 10
3/7/07 at 1:09am
Thread Starter 
That's exactly my problem. This thing is just too darned good, something major has to happen to it to junk it.

Do you know of a source for a new fan for the hs? I bought a 5660 used on ebay for my son and his fan is much quieter. I found a source for the entire hs and fan for 120 or so but hate to put that much more into it. I actually think the thing is affecting my hearing
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post #9 of 10
3/7/07 at 11:42am
the buy sell forum on this forum is a good place to scrounge for parts, as is ebay

Have you tried cleaning off the fans with a can of compressed air? Be careful cleaning these fans this way. Take a pin or paperclip and place it threw the grills to hold the actual fan blades in place, then blow the can of compressed air in.

A cooling fan is not designed to spin at the speed a can of compressed air will drive the baldes. If you do not hold the fan in place, you can burn out the bearings.

Ideally, you would open the CPU cover and remove the heatsink and CPU first to give the accumulated dust a better exit. Also, clean the sink and cpu and reapply arctic silver. I do this every six months to ensure better heat removal.
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post #10 of 10
3/7/07 at 12:54pm
Thread Starter 
Yep, I've done it ... AS5 ... the whole bit. Just lazy. But my fan does have an irritating pitch to it that I wouldn't mind loosing.

I will check out the buy sell of the forum.

Thanks again for the help. HD on the way
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