What's wrong with this Hard drive?

[Heinstar]

I have this laptop NEC Lavie LL750/B and it's made in japan it has 44pins + a few jumper pins(not 100% sure). I ordered the SAMSUNG HM160HC 160GB 2.5" IDE PATA HARD DRIVE HDD and unfortunately it doesn't fit inside my laptop... It had the same pins but the plastic covering on each side the side pin is in the way and the hdd can't go all the way in.
if they both have the same pins shouldn't they fit? Or are they doing this so that I can only buy Hard drive from Lavie?
Should I return the Hard drive?
Here's the pic comparison: http://www.flickr.com/photos/48698505@N04/4520425216/

[EEVIAC]

Google around for Laptop hard drive enclosures...

Just to give you an idea, look here:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=2781&name=2.5

Put the drive in an enclosure and hook it up through USB

[soybean]

According to http://www.itechnews.net/2008/12/23/nec-lavie-ll750-notebook/, your notebook PC came with a 320 GB HD.  So, why did you buy a 160GB HD for it? 

I'm having a hard drive believing the "plastic covering on each side the side pin is in the way and the hdd can't go all the way in."  Perhaps you should take the computer and new hard drive to a shop and ask them to install it or confirm that it won't fit.

[Computer_Commando]

I've never seen anything like that, and I've worked on plenty of laptops and 2.5in drives.  Those plastic things are some kind of guides to insure that the drive pins are perfectly aligned when you push it in place.  It appears but can't see clearly that the NEC has 2 pins vs the Samsung's 4 pins.  Can you confirm 2 or 4 on the Samsung?  Both have the 44 pins which are power and data, the other 4 are jumpers as you surmised.

I doubt the pins can be removed from one drive and installed on the other.  You'll have to examine it very closely.  NEC laptops have always been known for using non-standard components.

[Heinstar]

The reason I ordered the new drive was because my old NEC hdd died so I had to get a new one, but unfortunately according to several posts I posted some say this NEC lavie laptop's hdd are non-standard which could be the reason why it doesn't fit. And the sides of the drives (which should be metal), next to the pins... looks standard on the Samsung, but it looks like notches are on the Toshiba HDD. But i'm sure they have the same number of pins, last I looked the pins looked exactly the same.

[Computer_Commando]

I meant the plastic alignment pins on the ends.  I'm not sure if they can be removed and installed on the other drive.  Probably easier, in the long run, to get a replacement NEC drive.

[Heinstar]

btw my laptop was bought around 2002, and the old hdd had 80GB of space. I'm going to take the hdd that I ordered to the shop and confirm that it won't fit and if it doesn't then hopefully I'll be able to return it.

[Salmon Trout]

You marked this as "solved" on Tech Support Guy, and you appear to have got similar answers on techguy.org.

[Heinstar]

yea this post is solved thanks for the reply guys