Cheap Upgrade from SSD to 1.8 HDD

I just finished upgrade from the terribly slow 8g ssd to Samsung 40g 1.8 zif drive. Got the drive from Overstockdealz.com for $19 US, shipped in 4 days (within US) and was brand new, works fine! http://www.overstockdealz.com/products.asp?id=HS040HB I had ordered a 1.8 zif to 2.5 ide adapter for $4.95 US off Ebay free shipping from Hong Kong. Used that to copy over the entire installed Windows XP off the SSD to a large drive, then back thru the adapter to the new drive using Easeus Drive Copy. Then expanded the image from 8g to 40g using Easeus Partition Manager. (both programs free download from Cnet.) Windows XP booted up and all my stuff was still there. To use the Samsung drive you need a ribbon cable that is white at the drive end and blue for the motherboard end. This cable was included with the zif adapter. You only need a flip cable for copying off the original SDD mated to the zif adapter. I made one by sanding the original ribbion on the top side one end. My AA1 runs much faster and has plenty of room now.
EDIT: Didn't realize when I posted this, OverstockDealz only ships to US address. Hope this is still usefull for some of you.

 

Thank you for your insights. I received my 60 GB Samsung N1 today and gave up trying to insert the ZIF cable to the HD. I guess it's too thick (blue = .35 mm, white = .25 mm) so I have to wait for the ZIF/IDE adapter I also ordered in HK to recycle the SSD. Your report gave me hope that this will work. I hope it won't take too long

Meanwhile, I'm happy with the 1.5 GB RAM I've got after the upgrade and that the AA1 is running in good condition after reassembling it for the first time.

 

Viva,

I had alot of trouble with the zif cable. This link has some pictures that helped me. Espically the open/close on the Samsung connector lock. http://www.leog.net/fujp_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12497
Your 1.5 GB RAM is awsome! Maybe I should try that too.

Jim

 

Hi,

finally assembled. You are right, insterting the ZIF cable is really tricky on the HD end. Everything is so small ...
I had to order a special ZIF cable (blue at MB end, white at HD end), but even with that several tries were necessary. The IDE adaptor shipped with another cable (blue/blue and too short), but it was helpful to try the connections outside the AA1.

Thanks for the link, it was very instructive.

Greetings, André

 

André were you able to copy your original drive to the new drive? Any problems?

 

thanks for your post. is this the kind of cable i can use?
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:jN6 ... 9004r14256

 

Looks ok to me. Just make sure pin 1 of one device follows down the same edge of the ribbon as pin 1 of the next device.

 

This looks pretty cool - how does it perform compared to the stock SSD? I am getting pretty sick of the lag in OSX with the SSD.

EDIT: Also, am I reading correctly that I will have to order a separate cable? Thanks.

 

It peforms very well, much beter than stock ssd. Hard drive is still the way to go at this time. SSD have some work to do.

 

what is the rpm on the drive you got from overstockdealz?

 

4200 rpm.

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/ ... ppmi=1160#

My wife has the AA150 with 160gb drive, 5400 rpm. Her Acer is just slightly faster than mine with the 4200 drive. But a huge improvement over the original 8gb SSD.

Jim

 

thanks. i finally got the time and upgraded the hard drive last night. it showed in bios on the first try. at first, i thought the white end of the cable wasn't going in b/c it only went in like 1 millimeter. and because i had read other posts, i thought my cable end was too thick, and i sanded it down as much as possible. But it made no difference. Then i read someone else say that it barely goes in. so i put in another one and locked it and it was fairly secure. i used tnkgrl's video to give myself a little more confidence about the whole thing. and after some careful placing of double stick tape its running fine.
i didn't notice much general speed improvement, but that's because i was on ubuntu on my ssd and ubuntu on hdd is about the same. when i get more time, i will do some more i/o intensive tasks (esp. things that need random write...)
thanks so much for this tip. now i have 1.5GB ($15) ram and 40GB hdd ($20) cables were about $10 w/shipping. So, so far ~$45 to upgrade a $250 netbook and i feel like i learned a lot in the process. next step, maybe to practice soldering and see what else i can mod...
thanks again.

 

Glad it worked out for you. I didn't notice the speed up until after using my upgrade for a month, I got on someone else's 8gb machine and wow was it dogie slow.

 

I just ordered this a few minutes ago and I'm looking forward to the speed bump.
My question now is this - do I need to buy a new cable to install it? I am NOT looking to do anything with my SSD at the moment. I just want to do a clean install to the HD. If so, what cable will I need? Thanks for the help.

 

Lunged,

You will need a 10 cm blue at one end, white on the Samsung end, available on Ebay from Hong Kong (takes two weeks). You could sand the original cable a little thinner. It only goes in the sansung drive about 1-2 mm.

Jim

 

Okay, thanks. I wasn't sure if that was just for transferring data outside the netbook or for actual use in the netbook. I guess I'll try sanding first. Hey, my girlfriend lives in Hong Kong... but I'm sure Ebay is still a better deal!

 

I was able to upgrade to the HD by sanding the original cable down. Works like a champ. I had some issues with Ubuntu installing, but looks like it works great now. Might try to install the Win 7 RC tonight. Thanks again for the great find, my brother in law might try it later this week.

 

The ribbion is the only hard part of this otherwise easy upgrade. Glad you made it work.

 

Yes it took a while, I had to sand a littler harder but fit after a couple of minutes of sanding. I had a pretty tough time trying to figure out how to physically fit the drive into a comfortable position in the case. I also did not want to bend the ribbon too much so that I would not break it. A pretty easy upgrade once it was all said and done. I installed the Win7 RC1 this morning and works great. I love this forum!