Replacing the Hard Drive of a JVC MP-XP741
Written by Chrisko   
A fellow member on Fred Miranda was looking for a truely portable solution for storing his photos.  His solution was to take an ultra portable 9 inch Subnotebook and upgrade it's 40GB hard drive to a Hitachi 100GB 5400rpm drive.  This not only provides huge storage space for photos, but it also allows him to view and edit raw files on the go with a high resolution colour calibrated display, connect his camera to the unit for studio shooting, use the same workflow on the road as at home, and any other features a normal PC would have.

Like myself and a lot of photographers he looked at a lot of the cheaper units which allow transfering the contents of a memory card onto another device or a built in hard drive.   These do not allow to review or select which files to transfer.  There's also a number of higher end units such as the Popular Epson P-4000 which I considered getting.  But my biggest beef with these is you are not getting a lot for the price.  You still have a low resolution screen which isn't colour calibrated, and they are slow.

The specs on the laptop are:

  • Intel Centrino Processor @ 1.1GHz (Excellent power and battery life)
  • Wireless networking
  • Firewire, 2xUSB 2.0 slots, RJ11 (Network), PC Card slot, and a Mini VGA connector

He replaced the 40GB hard drive with a Hitachi 100GB version. 

Disclaimer: This is meant as documentation for how Chrisko was able to swap the hard drive out of this model laptop with an upgraded unit which better suited his needs.  Neither Chrisko, I, this site, the hosts or anyone else associated with this site and project takes responsibility for any damage that may incur if you choose to modify your laptop.  Doing so may nullify your manufacturers warranty and we are not liable. 

The rest of this article is a step by step How-To written by Chrisko on how he replaced the hard drive in his JVC MP-XP741 which he purchased for under $1000 Euro's at the time of writing. Let's get on to the fun part!

How-to change the internal harddrive of an JVC MP-XP741 Subnotebook by chrisko:

What you need:

 

  • Good nerves.

  • Some electronic screwdrivers.

  • A very good speciality Bit Set (TORX bit TX7)
    I use the brand PROXXON INDUSTRIAL.
  • A replacement harddrive
    I used an Hitachi 100 Gb 5400 rpm drive MODEL HTS541010G9AT00.
  • An electrostatic shield

  • Some Time – I needed 4 hours, hope with this howto you need less.

  • Make a image backup per partition of the internal harddrive with proper tools.

  • Restore the image backups to the replacement harddrive.

  • Optional you can do a ram update too.

Note: this may work also on the JVC MP-XP731 or Asus S200(N) Notebooks, but i dit not test this.

Warning: This how-to is not for hardware beginners !

Warning: No Warranty that this how-to works for you !

Warning: You may loose manufacturers warranty doing this !

Warning: Do it at your own risk, device may be damaged doing this!

Warning: Take care on electrostatic charges, discharge yourself properly at work !


Opening the cover:

 

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1.  Remove second battery. Pull switches 1. to unlock battery.

2.  Open screw and
3.  Remove first battery.

4.  Open the screws

5.  Open the screws with the TORX TX7 bit screwdriver

6.  Remove plate

 

Disconnect Wlan connectors:

 

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7.  Disconnect both Wlan connectors.

8.  Remove tap temporary.

 

Remove keyboard and TFT connectors:

 

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9.  Pull back the three keyboard locks and take out keyboard.

10.  Open keyboard connector and remove cable.

11.  Open mousestick connector and remove cable.
Take away keyboard.

12.  Open first TFT connector and remove cable.

13.  Open second TFT connector and remove cable.

 

Remove top  metal cover:

 

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14.  Remove all screws of the cover and then take the cover out of the notebook.


Remove Top case with TFT screen:

 

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15.  be careful with the four plastic locks on the front of the top case
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16.  Remove also the two speaker connectors and than take away the whole TFT.
Be careful with the Wlan cables too.


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Remove the mainboard and change harddrive:

 

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17.  Disconnect the harddrive and move the metal plate of the old drive to the new one.
be careful with connecting the new harddrive. Remember the exact position of the old drive otherwise a wrong misaligned connection to the ide connector is possible!

18.  Be careful with this – I lost the screw plate of the ide connector. I didn’t care putting it in again because drive is fixed with screws. But look that it doesn’t  fall into the case !