Upgrading the drive in the HP2133 mini-note is straight forward, as long as you have a steady hand and the right tools at your disposal. I took some photos of the internals of my mini-note during the upgrade from the 4gig SSD that comes with the base model, to a 120gig Western Digital drive. Here’s a quick breakdown of what you will need and the steps involved.
What you’ll need:
- A very small philips (crosshead) screwdriver
- A small torx head driver (or you can use a very small slotted screw driver)
- A pair of pliers
- A notebook SATA drive (i used a Western Digital Scorpio drive)
All the tools can be obtained from your local hardware store. I bought my hard drive from newegg.
How long will it take:
About 15-30 minutes (it took me about 20 minutes once I located the correct tools for the job).
Step-by-Step:
- Remove the battery
- Remove the three philips screws located behind the battery
- Gently lift up the keyboard to access both the memory slot and the hard drive enclosure
- Position the keyboard where you can easily access the drive enclosure (I placed it at the front of the mini-note - see photos)
- Remove the two philips screws holding the drive enclosure (on the left hand side)
- Remove the torx head screw holding the drive enclosure (on the right hand side)
- Gently lift up the drive enclosure, and disconnect the SATA cable
- Unscrew the factory drive from the enclose and replace it with your new drive
(To complete this step you may need to carefully bend back several tabs on the drive enclosure, the 4 Gig SSD that comes with the base model is smaller than a regular note book SATA drive)
- Re-install the drive in the mini-note (I suggest you insert the torx head screw first, as I dropped it a couple of times in to the machine and had to take out the two philips screws more times than I would like)
- I suggest that you don’t screw the unit back together until your sure that your new drive is functional
When you power the machine back up, you should hit F10 to look at the ROM (BIOS) setup to make sure your drive has been recognized.
After installing the drive, I loaded Windows XP Home on to the mini-note, and I’m so happy I did after my experiencing with SUSE!
Photo’s:
The mini-note after carefully lifting up the keyboard
The drive enclosure inside the mini-note
The mini-note drive bay, with the drive enclosure removed
The original 4gig SSD drive (left) and the Western Digital 120gig SATA drive (right)
Close up of the 4gig SSD that comes with the mini-note
Very nice write up, I added it to the mininote wiki incase as it might help someone else out;
http://wiki.mininoteuser.com/doku.php?id=howto:installnewhdd
Nice write-up. I posted about the hard drive upgrade how-to over at ShinyPlastic:
http://www.shinyplastic.com/archives/05-10-2008-computer-hardware-upgrading-the-hard-drive-in-hp2133-mininote.php
FYI,
You had/have 30 days to return your Mini to HP and swap it for the larger hard drive and more memory version.
Is it just me or does it look like you could solder some more memory onto the solid state drive?
I don’t understand how you did that. The SSD is PATA, the hard drive is SATA. Are you saying there’s one connector that will accommodate either SSD or HD?
Mike - thanks for the comment, the included 4 gigabyte SSD card (and the mini-note connector) is definitely SATA not PATA, so it’s plug-and-play to switch this out with a 2.5 inch SATA drive.
Mateo - probably, but that would need a steadier hand than mine. The memory on the board is SAMSUNG804, Part K9GAG0BU0M-PCB0. I found a link to the specification on SAMSUNG’s web site if that is useful to you.
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/productInfo.do?fmly_id=672&partnum=K9GAG08U0M
Will a 2.5 SATA300 Drive work? I was thinking of getting a SEAGATE MOMENTUS 120GB 7200RPm (# ST9120823AS) drive to replace my 5400RPM drive.
Wondering if its possible to switch the existing ssd harddrive out for a larger one, rather than a 5400 rpm or 7200 one?
How did you install Windows XP after you have replaced the drive? Just press F10 after HDD installation?
Do all HDD’s bought individually already have windows XP or any other operating systems in the new HDD already?
I was thinking of buying a new laptop notebook or netbook, but didn’t know what to buy, either the Acer Aspire One or Mini Note? If I can do this with the Mini Note,like swapping SSD to a bigger HDD or maybe in the future I can swap with a much desirable large SSD, then I might consider buying it.
I heard the processor in the Mini Note is not as good as the Intel Atom N270 is this true? What Pros and Cons do the Mini Note have and how about the Acer Aspire One?
I see one major step lacking here. Unless the drive bracket has been changed but from the pictures it appear to not have been.
I just attempted this procedure. Major problem is this, the holes on the 4gig SSD have less distance between them than a standard 2.5″ drive. Adding something worse is that the studs protrude on the inside making the 2.5″ hard drive not fit correctly in the MiniNote.
My only guess now is to try to drill out the studs or dremel them out. Did you guys leave this step out or am I missing something? It Appears from the Picture that my drive bracket is the same as yours. Please Advise
Matt
Hey Matt - I had to make some minor modifications to the drive enclosure, but it was just to bend back a couple of tabs back (which I mentioned in the write-up). I wonder if they have changed the enclosure since my original post. Cheers, Chris.