Salvaged HDD from old Laptop.. What next ?

Honest Abe · 06-06-2020, 07:35 AM

So I salvaged an old HDD 2.5" (Hitachi) from my old laptop which breathed its last about 2 years ago. I am unsure about it's other components and have no clue if I can revive it.

But the disk is fine.. When connected with a USB-SATA cable, the disk was detected and after activating with vgchange, I am able to mount it on my work machine and see its contents..

Disk Specs: Link

Disassembling tutorial I am following: YouTube_Link

Laptop Specs: Link

At this moment, my best guess is that the motherboard cmos battery, laptop battery (replaced once maybe 5 years back) is gone (hoping the damage is minimum)

This is too under powered and slow and unreliable to effectively set up as a distro hopping bed (ancient hardware) or entertainment box (got another new laptop this year) or back up server (unreliable disk) etc. So I am a little short on ideas.

To LQ veterans who love to revive old hardware, what would you use this for ?

rkelsen · 06-06-2020, 08:00 AM

I'd put an SSD in there. Its performance might surprise you.

I've got an i5 powered laptop from 2012... put an SSD in it and my socks were rocked.

camorri · 06-06-2020, 08:11 AM

My old 2.5 inch drive from my 10 year old netbook is now in a 2.5 inch case, ( about $20 for the case ) is attached to my Pi. I use it to rsync the latest updates to Slackware ( usually daily ) and then I update my current system form that drive. Saves a lot of downloading.

I put a ssd in the netbook, run a full version of Slackware on it. Still does a nice job. More that good enough for many daily tasks. Its now my backup travelling system.

syg00 · 06-06-2020, 08:14 AM

I keep old laptops around for testing stuff - maybe LVM, maybe LUKS, ... maybe seeing what Ubuntu is doing with snap ...
Generally nothing permanent.

I also have the odd disk laying around to test things via a USB interface - converting USB to gpt, forensic recovery after a reformat, whatever strikes a fancy. Pick an interest, and follow it.

Honest Abe · 06-06-2020, 09:34 AM

Thanks for your attention. I wiped the exiting partitions and dd'd the new kubuntu 20.04LTS to the disk. But this disk is not recognized at system (workmachine/desktop) boot up. It is still attached to the desktop with an USB-SATA cable.

Code:

Disk /dev/sdc: 298.1 GiB, 320072933376 bytes, 625142448 sectors
Disk model: HTS545032B9A300 
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x6511e92e

Device     Boot   Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1  *          0 4597727 4597728  2.2G  0 Empty
/dev/sdc2       3689420 3697355    7936  3.9M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)

It does not show up in my bios as a bootable device. But unetbootin detects this as an USB drive. This is weird.

OTOH, the laptop's power led does not glow upon connecting the power... Maybe a faulty adapter too.

@rkelsen,@camorri yes. I have plans to get 2 SSDs, an nvme m2 for the newer laptop and the other being regular. The regular would go into this laptop once I chalk out the issue.

@syg00.. not that I don't find the idea of data forensics n recovery extremely appealing but I have to put it up for later.. I am getting very less time with my desktop these days due to lockdown.

fatmac · 06-06-2020, 09:42 AM

That's useless......you're kidding!

I run a 2008 Toshiba Satellite Pro - 2GB ram - 60GB SSD - 1.2GHz processor - using Devuan.

It may not be fast, but it does everything I need it to.

(I do have others too.)

With your 'old' one, try booting (from USB) to ram, to run it faster.

Honest Abe · 06-06-2020, 11:35 AM

@fatmac, I would still use it if I could. The laptop is a brick right now and I have no idea which component is fault.

fatmac · 06-06-2020, 02:39 PM

Ok, start with the easy stuff - has the fuse in the plug blown....

Is there power to the motherboard - try another power supply....

Are the ram modules seated OK - remove/re insert...

Then the less obvious ones, such as has a capacitor blown, (bulging head)...

(When it gets this serious, unless you're an electrician, it's time for a replacement motherboard.)

EdGr · 06-06-2020, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honest Abe

OTOH, the laptop's power led does not glow upon connecting the power... Maybe a faulty adapter too.

Check the adapter's output with a voltmeter. The laptop is not that old and may be worth reviving if the adapter is faulty.
Ed

Timothy Miller · 06-06-2020, 04:04 PM

According to the specs it max's at 8GB ram. A first gen Core w/ 8 GB ram will still EASILY run anything (os-wise) there is, and will be quite responsive if you threw a SSD in there as has been suggested earlier.

sp331yi · 06-06-2020, 05:29 PM

Hitachi HDDs are a POS and you were fortunate to get rid of it!
My rule of thumb is NEVER buy Hitachi memory of any sort.
As the Mod said, put a good SSD in there and count your blessings the old one failed when it did.
buy an USB3 enclosure for it at the same time, in case your PC is bricked.
Whatever you do, HAVE FUN!

RickDeckard · 06-11-2020, 01:49 PM

I would personally use something like what you've described, which sounds low end, as perhaps a DNS or media (non-backup) server for home network use. I have a single core Toshiba Satellite C655D which runs DNSCrypt/Unbound and it does very, very well.