Bondwell B310 Hard Disk

[tcm13]

I have a Bondwell B310 for which I need a hard disk. A service manual would also be nice. I am tring to repair this for a friend, it was his first computer.
Any help would be appreciated.

[CP/M User]

"tcm13" wrote in message:

> I have a Bondwell B310 for which
> I need a hard disk. A service
> manual would also be nice. I am
> tring to repair this for a friend, it
> was his first computer.

> Any help would be appreciated.

I've left my message in the hardware
section! :-)

Cheers.

[Erik]

The Bondwell was a nice laptop in its day. The B310 should be an AT class machine running a 286.

The hard drive should be a semi-standard laptop hard drive from the day and was probably between 20 and 60 MB. If you can, please post the manufacturor and model number of the drive itself. There are probably a number of compatible replacements available somewhere.

Erik

[CP/M User]

"Erik" wrote in message:

> The Bondwell was a nice laptop in its day.
> The B310 should be an AT class machine
> running a 286.

The people in comp.os.cpm will be having
a field day with me then! :-)

> The hard drive should be a semi-standard
> laptop hard drive from the day and was
> probably between 20 and 60 MB. If you
> can, please post the manufacturor and
> model number of the drive itself. There
> are probably a number of compatible
> replacements available somewhere.

Would they? IBM compatable based laptops
back then would have been pretty
customized machine, which would mean
you'd have to find a Hard Disk from another
Bondwell B310.

But I'm only really going from experience
from getting memory for the Sanyo 386
laptop. That has a 61Mb hard disk in it.
With some of the newer laptops though
like Toshiba ones, I tend to see people
requesting specialised HD manufactured
for their Notebook computers.

Cheers.

[tcm13]

The hard disk is a 20mb, I not sure of the maker but heard that the company was Conner.
My biggest problem at the moment is opening the computer case without damaging it. I have removed all the screws I can find but still cannot open the thing. In an ideal world I would have a service manual. Can anyone help me with info on how to correctly open the case to a Bondwell B310v?

[Erik]

I can't really give you more then generalities without the service manual or without seeing the machine.

The first thing to look for is "hidden" screws. A lot of these machines had foil stickers with serial numbers and other information on the bottom of the machine. Sometimes they'd hide a screw under those. You can usually tell by running a fingernail along the sticker and feeling for a soft spot.

Other places there might be screws is under rubber feet and in battery/accessory compartments.

Another thing they might have done was make a pry-open case (although usually not with screws too). If they did there will be a noticable seam (about as thick as a quarter) between case halves and there will be open spots along that.

Good luck! I hope you get it fixed!

Erik

[tcm13]

OK! Found a screw lurking under a sticker in the battery bay. So I have removed the HD, it is a Seagate ST351A/X, 42.82mb, I'm sure this is not the original. Anyone know where to get a cheap replacement? I Googled for 20mb HDs and found prices between $110 and $200. That can't be right - my 80gb HD didn't cost that much!

[Erik]

You'll probably find that the "legacy" drives are far more expensive per megabyte then current drives.

I found an exact replacement for that Seagate at www.computertradeexchange.com (http://www.computertradeexchange.com/inventory/SEAGATE.html) for $50.

It looks like you can use just about any half-height, 3.5" IDE hard drive under 80 MB in that machine. There might be some cabling issues with the power or maybe even the data cable and you might not have the proper drive type in the machines BIOS, but you know the ST351A/X will work. . .

Other sites that seem to have old IDE hard drives that might work:

http://www.quadaenterprises.com/

https://store.separts.com/ - The ST351A/X is in stock for $11.50!

http://www.charlesworks.com/harddrives.htm - $15 for the Seagate and a couple of plug-replacements up to 200 MB for the same.

I got all of this from Googling ST351A/X. You could also google IDE 3.5" hard drive for more hits.

Keep in mind that most of these drives will be used and, often, untested.

Also keep in mind that I have nothing to do with any of these companies.

Good luck and let us know how this works out!

Erik[/url]

[crash52]

OK! Found a screw lurking under a sticker in the battery bay. So I have removed the HD, it is a Seagate ST351A/X, 42.82mb, I'm sure this is not the original. Anyone know where to get a cheap replacement? I Googled for 20mb HDs and found prices between $110 and $200. That can't be right - my 80gb HD didn't cost that much!

i found my old Bondwell B310 laptop. great shape. extra battery, too.

anyone interested?

[Sharkonwheels]

Seagate 3xxx series.
Hmmm.. I don't remember those.
Those the fat 3.5" drives? like as high as an ST-251 (HH) but 3.5" ?


Tony

[MAV]

The Seagate ST-351A|X is a great HD for its time. You can read more about it here: http://www.olddiscdrives.go.ro/ide.htm

The sum of all respects,
MAV