Travelstar®
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the interface connector on my Hitachi Travelstar drive look different than my
original drive?
Many laptop drives have enclosures and adapters that ease the integration of the drive into the system.
Remove the original drive from the enclosure and take off any adapters.
You may then install the new Hitachi Travelstar into the enclosure with the original enclosure and/or adapter.
Here are some examples of adapters you may encounter:
If you accidentally discarded the adapter or enclosure required for your laptop, we recommend contacting
the system manufacturer to obtain a replacement.
Below is a link to a Google search in case the system manufacturer is not able to provide these pieces to you.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=laptop+drive+caddie
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Will a Hitachi Travelstar drive fit into my laptop?
Most laptops will accommodate a standard 2.5-inch form factor drive with a 9.5 mm drive height.
If your system uses a 1.8-inch form factor drive, you should obtain an identical model to use as a replacement.
Contact your laptop manufacturer if you have any questions.
In addition to size, you will need to make sure the interface is supported by your system.
Current 2.5” mobile drives are available in both a Serial ATA (SATA) and Parallel ATA (PATA) interfaces, but
they are not interchangeable.
SATA enabled laptops have only begun showing up since the beginning of 2006.
If you are not sure what interface your system uses, we recommend contacting your system manufacturer.
Due to the specialized nature of the 1.8” mobile drives, we recommend contacting your system manufacturer
to find out what drives you can use as replacements.
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How can I transfer data from my original drive to the new Hitachi Travelstar?
The easiest option is to obtain an external 2.5-inch USB or Firewire enclosure and use a utility
to ‘clone' the existing drive setup to the new drive.
However, your system must have an existing USB or Firewire port to use this option.
The advantage of this option is that you can use your original drive as additional storage using the
same enclosure.
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How can I get into my laptop to swap out my old drive and replace it with the new Hitachi
Travelstar?
Please check with your laptop manufacturer for proper hard drive replacement instructions.
If you are not comfortable replacing the hard drive, please consult a qualified technician.
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Why does the drive access LED stay ‘lit’ after I install a Hitachi Travelstar drive?
On some systems, the drive activity LED may stay on constantly with the newest 2.5-inch drives.
This is because the motherboard LED circuitry does not properly detect the correct signal voltage used by
the drive.
Mobile drives are moving to using 3.3 volts on the interface lines (from 5 volts on previous models) to
reduce power consumption.
Systems should be able to detect the lower voltage according to the ATA specification.
If the system is unable to properly detect the correct voltage of the mobile drive, it will cause the
drive activity light to stay on constantly.
This is not a problem caused by the drive.
This will not hurt the drive or the system in any way.
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I installed a Hitachi Travelstar drive into my laptop and I cannot get my operating
system CD to start. I keep getting an ‘invalid media’ error. What do I do now?
You will need to change the boot sequence in the system BIOS to boot from CD-ROM before booting
from the hard drive.
Consult your laptop documentation or manufacturer for information on changing BIOS settings.
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Can I install a Hitachi Travelstar 2.5” drive in a desktop system?
Yes, you can install a Travelstar 2.5-inch hard drive into your desktop system.
To do so, you will need mounting brackets to mount the drive in a desktop drive bay and a 44 to 40 pin
adapter to connect the mobile ATA interface to the desktop ATA interface.
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What is the difference between a Travelstar and a Travelstar Enhanced
Availability version?
The Travelstar Enhanced Availability drives (E7K100, E5K100, E7K60) are designed to be used
in 24/7 environments.
The standard Travelstar drives are designed to be used in laptops and portable devices.
Hitachi recommends the Travelstar drives for use in laptops.
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