Possible to replace harddrive in this netbook? (without major hacks)

I'm looking for a tablet laptop/netbook. I'm also looking to replace my piece of crap HP Mini (first generation). The HP Mini has a very small 16G SSD that is also very slow. So looking at something that could replace it, I saw this netbook with a tablet screen

I'm a bit phobic of SSDs now though. My HP Mini was completely locked in for an HP SSD (to replace it you had to solder it on to the motherboard!). So I want to make sure that with this Eee PC I'm looking at will let me replace the SSD with a regular harddrive (or different SSD) if I so wish.

So in short, Does anyone know if this netbook can have it's SSD replaced with a standard harddrive?

Earlz

Posted 2010-07-29T05:24:45.627

Reputation: 3 966

Answers

According to this and many other forums is appears that you can remove the battery and replace it, as well as memory pretty easily.

You can remove and replace the hard drive of that particular laptop, however you will be limited to the drive selection that you can replace it with:

Hard Drive - The T91MT comes stock with a 32gig SSD ... The T91MT hard drive uses a PCI mini port to connect - meaning if you want to change the drive in it you are somewhat limited on selection.

Found here

Perhaps they might be similar, but I'm not sure, but I have found a guide of taking apart the eee T91. This is where I found the removal of the T91 but again it's not simplest thing to do.

James Mertz

Posted 2010-07-29T05:24:45.627

Reputation: 24 787

PCI Mini port? what the crap. Why can't manufacturers just follow standards and use SATA or something... ugh. Well, this is definitely the answer though – Earlz – 2010-09-05T00:04:33.123

I looked at the owners manual for that model, it does not appear to have an access door to remove the hard drive, only memory.

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx

Select Eee Family, then Eee PC, then T91MT, hit Search then Windows 7 as the OS when it pops up, then hit search, then click "Manual" in the list, it may take some time to load all the manuals, then scroll down to the English version E5160 and select download China, this will be the owners manual for that model.

I don't think any PC of that screen size will have a removable drive, some of the Toshiba 10" models have easily removable drives.

Moab

Posted 2010-07-29T05:24:45.627

Reputation: 54 203

Well a secondary question is there any similar netbook around the same price with a harddrive.. but basically I'm ok with if it requires a bit of work to replace(unscrewing it and such) but will it void the warranty or will it require any kind of modifications on the inside? – Earlz – 2010-07-29T18:59:11.507

With enough screw drivers you can take apart anything, but I think its got a smaller than normal 2.5 inch hard drive. I cannot confirm this however.

alpha1

Posted 2010-07-29T05:24:45.627

Reputation: 1 638

I beleive that it's an SSD of some kind. – James Mertz – 2010-09-02T04:47:25.027

I'm also pretty sure that it's soldered into the motherboard, but i could be wrong about that as well. – James Mertz – 2010-09-03T15:40:08.577

I haven't seen one yet thats unremoveable, but most you have to remove the entire case or the motherboard, or some other goodie to get to it. – alpha1 – 2010-09-05T04:27:55.517