Replacing the SSD with a 1.8″ PATA Drive
While the SSD in the Acer Aspire One has very fast read times, it suffers from very slow write times and many of the tweaks that you have to make when installing Windows XP is to reduce the amount that the operating system is writing to the drive. The AAO’s that come shipped with XP have 120GB HD’s that don’t suffer from these slow writing times. While there are many ways to speed up Windows XP on the Acer Aspire one, it may be better to just replace the SSD with an HD if write times become a problem.
This hack, like the Acer Aspire One bluetooth mod, comes from the netbook hacker Tnkgrl. Instead of using the standard 2.5″ laptop drive that most netbooks use, she’s found that a 1.8″ PATA HD, like those found in an iPod or Zune will plug directly into the connector used for the SSD. It requires almost no fabrication to fit, and the BIOS auomatically detects the drive. eBay is filled with used 20GB and larger drives in this format, so this modification can be relatively cheap to perform.
Here is a link to the site, which includes video with step-by-step instructions.
http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/modding-the-acer-aspire-one-hard-drive/
Category: Modifications, SSD 16 comments »
January 31st, 2009 at 12:08 pm
What PATA SSD drives would work in the ACER ONE?
February 1st, 2009 at 10:41 am
AspireOne has a “special” cable- Most 1.8″ drives use a flat ZIF cable and the Aspire got a TIF socket for the PATA cable- (they are almost the same but the TIF is not as thick as the ZIF)
All Toshiba 1.8″ drives have a TIF socket… but i dont think the cable is supplied
On other sites I have seen ppl buying the cables on E-bay
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I have one toshiba 1.8 hdd , i cannot connect to the aao the zif cable is to tick less than 0.35mm , can anyone precise what is the tickeness for the cable of toshiba hdd
March 31st, 2009 at 5:31 pm
@whiterabit: You’re right, the ZIF cable is too thick for most of 1.8” hard disks available. The option I followed was to sand slightly one of the edges, with a very fine-grained sandpaper. Be very careful because wire is too weak, and you could easily damage the contacts. I was looking for a thicker ZIF wire, but I didn’t found one :-S
April 24th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
they have a lesbian chick that replaced her ssd with a 1.8 zif harddrive.it was on youtube her name was tnk girl or something like that.if you have trouble finding her Just write me and I will send her page. to luke3rd@yahoo.com
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
HI THERE I WOULD HAVE GONE WITH A DIGITAL WESTERN 10,000 VOLOCI-RAPTOR OR SEAGATE 15,000 RPM CHEETA HARD DRIVES OR GONE WITH A 1.8 INCH 128 GB SSD
September 7th, 2010 at 3:40 am
Hi. I have an aspire one that came with a 120 gb hdd. Unfortunately I was a dope and broke the zif connectors for the keyboard and touchpad. I know… genius….. anyways, I was wondering if I bought one of the aspire one versions with the ssd drive, could I simply “transplant” my hdd into the ssd machine? From what I’ve heard it will physically fit into the case, but is the cabling compatible? I’m hoping the mono is pretty much identical, including HD connectors, but I’m not sure. Any advice would be appreciated… thanks!
Mark
September 7th, 2010 at 3:42 am
Oops. I was trying to say I hope that the “mobo” is identical… not “mono”… d’oh!
September 12th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Greetings All
I have an Aspire zg5/aoa 110 and want get rid of the ssd and replace with a seagate Lyrion 1.8 20Gb hdd. All went well except the zif cable thickness . The Lyrion has a slot that the cable should go into whilst the ssd and the mobo have connectors that can be “opened” and the cable placed in and then closed. Do any 1.8 hdds have the same mechanism. If so then the thickness of the cable is not so important..
The lyrion hdd uses vw1 cable as does the ssd but no fit. Once more a standard that isn’t.
September 21st, 2010 at 4:34 am
I want to replace the SSD card with a hard drive, as detailed in Tank Girl’s video guides. I have a Toshiba 30GB 1.8″ HDD but I simply cannot get a cable into its ZIF connector. Tank Girl says that she reused the cable from the Acer, but I grew very wary of the amount of force I was using to try to get it into the slot. So I bought a blue-white ZIF cable (the white end being thinner) but even that refuses to fit.
Is it really just a case of using a terrific amount of force?
There’s another online guide at http://www.digitalintelligence.com/support/zif_hard_drive_enclosure/ (not about the Acer but using a Toshiba HDD) and that shows a blue-ended cable. So what am I doing wrong? Under a magnifying lens I can’t see any damage to the drive’s connector (and I have the black locking bar in the open position).
Any help would be very welcome.
September 21st, 2010 at 12:56 pm
It turns out that I wasn’t doing anything wrong: the Toshiba ZIF connector is only supposed to accept 1mm or so of the ribbon cable. Though it doesn’t seem as though the cable is making proper contact, it is.
This might help anyone else in the same position as me.
Having said that, my newly-installed HDD isn’t being recognised by the Acer’s BIOS. I suspect that the drive itself might be faulty.
October 12th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Greetings All
Bert’s info that only 1mm of the zif cable need be inserted into the hdd’s “socket” is interesting. I have one of those 30Gb Asus ext hdds which uses a 1.8 hdd which I tried to use in the Acer but couldn’t fit its ribbon cable into the hdd. I found exactly the same problem when reassembling the hdd into the case little or “no” cable went into the socket. However when used the hdd worked ok as a ext. hdd. So bert is right about the 1mm. I will be trying to put the hdd into the Acer again and report back
March 30th, 2011 at 3:45 pm
i have just won one of these on ebay for £85, it only had a few seconds left and i didnt read the spec properly, i will be trying to upgrade the ram and drive, i justed wanted to comment on the above issue’s with the thickness of the wire and i read a person on youtube who done it said you will have to sand the cable down.
hope that hekps
October 7th, 2011 at 10:12 am
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December 4th, 2011 at 11:12 am
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October 6th, 2012 at 12:51 pm
I thought I knew a lot there is to know about this stuff, but seems we are never to old to learn..;)