How to replace the hard drive on Toshiba Satellite 1135?
I have a Toshiba Satellite 1135-S155. SMART system says hard drive is failing and shuts down computer before it boots up. Sounds like it needs a new hard drive, but I can’t find it (or a repair manual) to replace it. Can you tell me were it is located and how to remove it? Thanks!
The hard drive is located under the DVD drive. The DVD drive is secured by one screw on the bottom of the laptop. Remove the screw and slide the DVD drive out of the laptop. Under the DVD drive you’ll see the hard drive; it’s secured by four screws. Remove screws, slide the hard drive away from the motherboard to disconnect it and lift it up. Not you can transfer mounting brackets to a new hard drive and install it back into the laptop.
April 1st, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I don’t know if Toshiba will forgive human error, though. I just have the automatic warranty. But yes, I hope to all that can be hoped for that I can remove things from the drive; I do have several important things that are irreplacable, like photos of my daughter. Teaches me to practice what I preach with backups, hmm?
Thank you again. At least I know that it is more likely than not to be a problem correctable by HD replacement. I hope you have a great day.
April 1st, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Katrina,
I think you are right. The description sounds like a problem with the hard drive. If you have any important files on the drive, I would stop using it ASAP because it might fail completely.
As I mentioned in the previous comment, you can try connecting the hard drive to another working computer via USB enclosure. I might have a better chance to recover your data that way. In some cases a failing hard drive works better when it’s cold. Remove if from the laptop and attempt data recovery next morning. Do it fast, you might have only one chance to access your data.
If the laptop has no physical damage you can try sending it to the repair shop and replace the hard drive under warranty.
April 1st, 2009 at 11:50 am
Wow, that was fast! Thank you very much.
Now, I apologize for the length of this, but I just don’t have the experience to know what is relevant. I know computers, but I’m used to simple harware issues and more complex software ones.
I didn’t open the case, but I did reseat my RAM and jostle everything the little openings would let me get to. I can run through a desktop and put one together by heart, but laptops make me supremely paranoid to play with.
After it was dropped, it functioned for an hour before it slowed to a crawl. I Ctrl Shift Esc’d quickly to check my Memory use, and it was under 40. It was odd, but I set it back down and went out for a cigarette. When I came back in, it had frozen entirely, and just as I sat down it blue screened. I think I might have yelped like a dog in my horror.
I tried rebooting and it would loop endlessly. Once I got home, I ran the Startup Config fixer that comes with Vista. It worked once, took almost two hours to do whatever it was that it was doing, then told me to restart. I did. It looped once more, and to top it off once I rebooted and tried to go back into that nice little sys recovery area that I was in, it froze every time.
I asked my boss for a Windows disk from the office (hush hush on that one
) so I could use the recovery features, hoping for something. It let me get back into those little utilities, and I tried an offline command line System Restore. It couldn’t find my HDD. I used one of the other little tools and tried to browse my computer — it showed that my C drive existed, but it wouldn’t let me into it, saying it didn’t exist. Also, a Properties check showed it at 0 bytes of 0 bytes.
I ran that Startup fix again, and magically Vista booted! Kind of. Very slowly. It took about an hour to boot, but by golly it did. My files are there, my desktop is there, and I can (almost) navigate. However, almost every startup program errored on load, it takes 30 minutes to open a folder (no exaggeration, thank god I have video games to amuse me. However, memory use was in the single digits), and there are I/O errors at every turn. I couldn’t even do an auto backup or burn a data disk.
The laptop is only 10 months old. The fall is the only feasible problem I can think of that would have caused a computer that worked just perfectly to utter failure. I need more gigs of space anyway, but I didn’t want to do it like this.
Thanks again for the quick reply, and sorry for talking your ear off!
April 1st, 2009 at 11:33 am
Katrina,
You can access the hard drive from the button of the laptop as it explained shown at http://www.irisvista.com/tech/
How it’s failing? Try reconnecting the hard drive first, maybe it’s just loose connection between the hard drive and motherboard.
Yep, if the laptop still boots you can use a live Linux CD (I use Knoppix) or you can buy an external USB enclosure for laptop hard drives, remove the drive from the laptop and install it into the enclosure. After that you connect that enclosure to any other working computer and hopefully it pops up in My Computer.
How it’s failing? Any error messages or what?
April 1st, 2009 at 11:27 am
Hi there! Your site has been so informative, I can’t thank you enough. I notice a lack of commenting activity, so I don’t particularly expect a response, but I would be thrilled to recieve one.
I have a Toshiba A205-5803 — know the HDD position on that?
My laptop was dropped and though I have been able to put my years of Tech schooling to use on it, I can only think that this is a major HDD failure. I can only hope to use Ubuntu to recover my files before replacement.
Not that you care, of course, but I feel odd leaving such an impersonal cry for help to someone who is obviously very busy. You are appreciated, you know. I wish I’d have found this site years ago. Ah, the headaches I might have saved.
I just hope it is *only* the HDD and nothing else. Toast me? ;P
January 29th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Hi! could any one help me regarding my Toshiba Satellite 1135-S155 problem? I cannot get it to power-up, I’ve already checked the adapter(its okey)? And is there a manual on how to take Toshiba Satellite 1135-S155 apart?
**************************************
Did the adapter check pass ( unclear due to question mark )… my suggestion is use Toshiba repair shop. You should be able to locate it on internet using web search.
I have a similar trouble and it appeared to be a lose soldering connection in the area of power connection.
I am tempted to do something very un – inventive… as the power flows fine as long as power connection is slightly tilted. Technician at Toshiba repair suggested to re – solder system board ( $ 250 ) or replace system board ( $ 450 )
I tested power jack, each soldering point, no issues. May be someone knows exactly what needs to be tweaked, would appreciate comment.
November 28th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Looking for a replacement hard drive for a Toshiba Satellite 1135-S155 laptop. Any ideas where I can find one?
October 1st, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Hi! could any one help me regarding my Toshiba Satellite 1135-S155 problem? I cannot get it to power-up, I’ve already checked the adapter(its okey)? And is there a manual on how to take Toshiba Satellite 1135-S155 apart?
April 19th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Hey, thanks for the “hidden hard drive” help on my Toshiba Satellite 1135. I’ve searched Google and could find nothing.
You were the only one with the “below the DVD drive” info that helped me! Keep up the good work!
Jim
March 10th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Val,
You’ll find service manual for a Toshiba Satellite 2450 here. This manual has step-by-step disassembly instructions with pictures.
March 10th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I desperately need an assembly/disassembly guide for a Balance 557s laptop. Can anyone direct me? Thanks.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:18 am
Hi
Just bought a second hand Toshiba Satellite 2540CDT off Ebay and the powerjack is faulty. We can’t work out how to open the battery cover to get to it!! It doesn’t seem to move in any direction – anyone got the answer please?
March 1st, 2008 at 5:24 am
Thanks for the writeup. The screws on my toshiba satellite 1135-s155 became so tight they are nearly impossible to unscrew. Opening the wrong back cover panel was a significant waste of effort. Now I know which screw to concentrate on
September 26th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Draven, from my past experience in the electronic field and opening a few laptops. This ribbon cable is held in by a pressure type of connector. Using a small screw driver and take the blade horz to the board and rub it up along the side of the connector. You are trying to raise a tab on the side (short edge). Might need to rock it up from one side then the other. Putting it back together will require inserting the ribbon back in the slot and then rocking from side to side the part of the connector that came up in earlier post. The part that came up will look like a telescoping sleeve and this is part of the mechanism that locks the cable in with a squeezing action.
Hope this helps
September 6th, 2007 at 11:36 am
I have a Balance laptop(storbrand) as well as the person that posted in january, my problem is with the power jack as well, i know exactly were to get the jack, however i cant seem to get the laptop open enough for me to get to it. There appears to be a short IDE cable from the motherboard to the back of the keyboard, however i see no way of disconnecting it. Does anyone know how to disassemble a balance notebook or where a guide is at?
August 17th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite 1130-S155, could you please direct me to a disassembly guide? I cant find one anywhere! My internal wifi card doesnt work, and I want to open it up and see if i can fix it or swap it out with one from another laptop
how picky do you think it would be with a 802.11g internal card from an IBM T42? i’ve never dealt with internal wifi cards before so I have no clue about compatability isses
thanks!
March 13th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Danny,
It’s not easy to replace the hard drive in a Toshiba Satellite 1110 laptop. You cannot access it from the bottom,right? I believe the hard drive is located inside the laptop and you have to disassemble the whole laptop in order to replace the drive. It’s located on the left side, under the palm rest.
March 13th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Harry,
In a Toshiba Satellite 1135 laptop the hard drive is located under the DVD drive. Remove one screw securing the DVD drive, slide the DVD drive from the laptop and you’ll see the hard drive. Easy.
March 12th, 2007 at 11:02 am
I have a Toshiba 1110 and am trying to install a new hard drive on it, but the hard drive is inaccessible from bottom. Anyone has any ideas, please…
March 9th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
I have a Toshiba Satellite 1135-s1553 and need to know how to replace the Hard Drive. There is nothing wrong with the notebook, the hard drive is too small. I don’t just want to poke around in the case without some direction.
February 15th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Thanks for helping me find the hard drive on the Satellite 1135-S155.
January 23rd, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Chris,
You should change the hard drive because it might fail any moment now. At least, if you don’t want to change it right now, do not leave any important data on it because it might become unrecoverable.
January 21st, 2007 at 5:36 pm
I have a Toshiba 1135 series Satellite w/ a 30 gb hard drive, and it too shows a “smart system predicts hard drive failure is imminent, back all files up now” ..
It has been that way for about 5 months now (it is 3 years old), and since this started happening my comp runs and retrieves info at the speed of a 386.
I sent the laptop back to Toshiba a month before the 1 year warranty was up because the modem didn’t work, and I figured I would get it fixed. –It came back with a working modem, and a broken touch pad, with an expired warrany, and Toshiba told me tough luck..
January 8th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Christy,
It CAN BE fixed if you find a correct power jack and solder it on the motherboard instead of the broken one. Probably you’ll have to replace the AC adapter too if you cannot remove the broken pin from the plug.
Anyways, you can connect the laptop hard drive to a desktop computer via the adapter. Or you can buy an external USB enclosure for laptop hard drives, put the hard drive inside the enclosure and connect it to any working computer. The hard drive should be detected automatically and you can access and transfer the data.
January 6th, 2007 at 10:37 am
I have a Balance laptop (storebrand) the prong that the battery charger plugs broke off inside- it can’t be fixed without replacing the motherboard. I also have a Gateway Desktop computer that needs a new hard drive. Can I take the hard drive from the laptop and install it on the desktop? If so, how do I do it. If not, how do I get my stuff off of that hard drive, I can’t get power to it?
December 20th, 2006 at 7:02 am
I have a Toshiba Satellite A35-S1592. Could you tell me how to replace the harddrive. Thanks
December 19th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
Graham,
Check out this post. You’ll find some good tips in the comments.
December 18th, 2006 at 5:53 am
My toshiba satellite 1135-s115 gives me a PXE MEDIA test failure. I Tried reloading recovery disks says I have bad sectors.Im thinking the hard drive is going bad (I’M on my Second Mother board replacement…)
October 19th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Debra,
Qosmio F15 doesn’t have a part called video harddrive. I guess you are talking about laptop video and it failed on your laptop. Some Qosmio F15 and G15 computers have a problem with video and I know that Toshiba is replacing system boards on these models (even though the laptop is not under warranty anymore).
I don’t know why your warranty says Qosmio F10 replacement; I’ve never seen and never worked on Qosmio F10. I guess it a non-USA version of Qosmio F15 and probably has the same issue with video. Not sure.
October 19th, 2006 at 11:42 am
I have Qosmio F15. My video harddrive failed and Toshiba replaced knowning they have problems. I noticed on the extended warranty is says Qosmio F10 replacement. What does this mean and the fan runs constantly.
Debra