RM all in on PCs HDD Help please

[harry2998]

Hi, i just got 5 RM all in one pcs from a freecycle site, they all came without hard drives (as they came from a scout hut). does anyone have any advice as to what sort of hard drives i need? as the one i have doesnt register. once i get them running ill have 4 of them for sale fairly cheaply. many thanks in advance.

[jpaterson]

What boards are in the RM One's?

[harry2998]

how do i find that out??

[Michael]

I believe they use notebook components, so a 2.5" SATA disk drive.

[harry2998]

cheers, ill source one and see if it works, many thanks, ill let you know how it goes

[Arthur]

All of the RM One's I have taken apart use mATX motherboards (typically Asus) and either a 3.5" PATA or SATA HDD depending on the age.

 

If you have a support contract with RM, you can use the Serial Number Search option on the support website to find out the make and model of the motherboard.

 

http://i.imgur.com/fdA2P.png

[Arthur]

If you download a copy of the Ultimate Boot CD you could use a program called "Hardware Detection Tool v0.5.0" under the System menu to find out the make/model of the motherboard.

 

http://i.imgur.com/q3n33.png

[harry2998]

hi lads, cheers for the advice ,still not working, would i need a specific brand of hard drive? ie one that is designed specifically for the pc?

[Arthur]

still not working

Have you tried taking the back of the case off of one of them to see if the motherboard has any SATA ports?

 

would I need a specific brand of hard drive?

Any make will be fine i.e. Hitachi, Samsung, Western Digital, Seagate.

 

If you don't need a lot of space for the OS and applications, you could even get SSDs. A 64GB Crucial M4 is only £54.

Edited April 17, 2012 by Arthur

[harry2998]

i have no idea what any of that means, lol, i might just sell them on for parts.

[Michael]

Just a thought before you give up - do they actually switch on OK? Technically a computer can still POST (Power on Self Test) with no hard drive. You'll just get messages informing you there's no OS.

 

If they don't switch on OK, have you made sure they have memory (RAM) installed. It might be both memory and hard disk are missing.

[Arthur]

If you can upload a photo of one of the computers, someone on EduGeek might be able to work out what you need. Ideally one of the front and one of the internals. Edited April 17, 2012 by Arthur

[harry2998]

cheers, it starts up on the bios, but refused to recognise one hard drive, (a seagate), and recognised another, but it half started windows then asked if i wanted to start with safe mode, command prompt, etc, they all have DDR ram installed. the only things missing are the hard drives i think.

[Michael]

In that screenshot there are two DIMM slots (black) and neither of them have memory installed.

 

You're right though, without memory you wouldn't get into the BIOS.

 

If it's half loading Windows XP (I'm guessing), did you use a hard drive from another PC? If so, this is normal behaviour. You will need to properly re-install XP.

[harry2998]

i dont have a spare hard drive to re install for it, i want to find out the right kind of HDD that fits in the chassis.

[Michael]

From that screenshot it's difficult to say. Technically a 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drive use the same cable, but as you say, it's all about properly mounting it in the case.

[Arthur]

Thanks for the pics! They are really helpful. The motherboard in that computer is an Intel D845GRG...

 

http://i.imgur.com/vAUfF.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/eiHLB.png

 

According to the manual for this board, it has two 40-pin IDE (Parallel ATA) connectors for 3.5" hard drives (2.5" HDDs will not work) and supports a maximum of 2GB RAM using 2 x 1GB DDR DIMMs. Based on that information, you are going to need the following items to get the RM One's up-and-running again (assuming no other parts are faulty)...

 

1 x 3.5" 7,200rpm IDE / PATA Hard Drive (per computer)

* 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 / ST3250820A ([url="http://www.scan.co.uk/products/250-gb-seagate-st3250820a-barracuda-72008-ide-(pata)-7200-rpm-8mb-cache-80-ms"][b]£49.98[/b][/url] from Scan)
* 160GB Western Digital WD1600AAJB Caviar Blue ([url=http://www.scan.co.uk/products/160gb-western-digital-wd1600aajb-caviar-blue-ide-(pata)-7200-rpm-8mb-cache-89-ms][b]£47.16[/b][/url] from Scan)
* 160GB Western Digital WD1600BB Caviar Blue ([url="http://www.cclonline.com/product/6436/WD800BB/Hard-Drives/80GB-Western-Digital-Caviar-Blue-3-5-Hard-Disk-Drive-Clean-Pull/HDD0020/?Switch=Exc"][b]£16.66[/b][/url] from CCL, [url="http://goo.gl/yCxKm"][b]£23.99[/b][/url] from Aria)
* 80GB Western Digital WD800AAJB Caviar Blue ([url="http://www.ebuyer.com/182432-wd-caviar-blue-wd800aajb-80gb-hard-drive-ide-7200rpm-8mb-cache-wd800aajb"][b]£44.17[/b][/url] from eBuyer)

 

2 x 1GB DDR PC3200 DIMMs (per computer)

Crucial - [url="http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=D845GRG&Cat=RAM"][b]£37.98[/b][/url] (£18.99 each) « [size=2]This RAM is guaranteed to be compatible with the motherboard above[/size]
Scan - [url="http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-corsair-value-select-ddr-pc2700-(333)-184-pin-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-25"][b]£34.20[/b][/url] (£17.10 each)
CCL - [url="http://www.cclonline.com/product/19208/VS1GB333/Desktop-Memory/1GB-Corsair-Value-Select-333MHz-DDR-Memory-Stick/RAM8059/"][b]£31.80[/b][/url] (£15.90 each)
eBuyer - [url="http://www.ebuyer.com/63128-1gb-ddr-pc3200-memory-cheap-at-ebuyer-evr1024ddr400"][b]£28.54[/b][/url] (£14.27 each)

 

* All prices exclude VAT.

[SYNACK]

According to the manual for this board, it has two 40-pin IDE (Parallel ATA) connectors for 3.5" hard drives (2.5" HDDs will not work)

 

Newegg.com - KINAMAX ADP-IDE23 Laptop 2.5&#34 to Desktop 3.5&#34 IDE Hard Drive Adapter Converter - Adapters & Gender Changers ?

[Arthur]

I don't know about you, but putting a 2.5" 5,400rpm IDE HDD in an RM PC from 2002 that most likely contains a low-end P4-era Celeron would make me suicidal. Not really an option is it?

 

http://i.imgur.com/ox5yZ.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/dxTBT.png

 

The benchmarks above are from an eight year old 2.5" IDE HDD just to give you an idea of how slow these things are.

 

Harry2998 could buy a slightly more modern Samsung HM160HC (the world's fastest IDE laptop HDD), but why bother when his desktop PCs can take 3.5" 7,200rpm HDDs?

Edited April 18, 2012 by Arthur

[SYNACK]

I don't know about you, but putting a 2.5" 5,400rpm IDE HDD in an RM PC from 2002 that most likely contains a low-end P4-era Celeron would make me suicidal. Not really an option is it?

 

I never said it was a good idea

[dhicks]

does anyone have any advice as to what sort of hard drives i need?

 

As others have pointed out, your machines take 3.5" PATA drives (wedged somewhere under the CD drive and in one of the side compartments, if I remember correctly). The motherboards are probably quite/very slow by today's standard and some seem to have come without RAM. Depending on what, exactly, you plan to use these machines for (or sell them for use as), you could use a flash memory card with an adaptor instead on a harddisk - fast access, low power, no noise, but more limited storage space. These machines probably aren't going to be up to much beyond running Windows XP or a copy of Linux to run a web browser, though, so probably aren't going to be needing that much disk space anyway.

 

Another option is to treat them as handy computer cases with integrated screens - get a new motherboard (you can get some good motherboard / CPU / RAM / Windows deals on eBay), a 3.5" SATA harddrive and a copy of Windows 7 and you have yourself a new all-in-one computer. I seem to remember the cases used those annoying star-bit screw heads, so you might want to get a packet or two of standard case screws to replace them with as they tend to get chewed up when removing them.

[harry2998]

cheers for all the great ideas lads, im going to keep one and give one to my brother, so if anyone wants one, please do let me now, youd obviously have to come pick them up though. haha Edited April 27, 2012 by harry2998

[harry2998]

i didnt point out in my last message, i wont want any money for them. so if anyone wants one, let me know

[richardtj]

That particular model has the hard drive (ATA/133)- ide in the base of the computer (behind the speaker). One side is for the PSU and the other is for the HDD.

[harry2998]

the hard drives were removed by the people who gave them to me