Today's daft computer question ....

[TheOstrich]

So, I am dismantling an Elonex ONEt laptop-type computer. It dates from 2008. Master O bought it for Mrs O to help her wordprocessing skills, but it has hardly been used. Mrs O accidentally dropped it whilst decluttering and the battery case hatch burst open, the plastic sheared. We have a proper laptop anyway, so this Elonex is consigned for the dustbin.

Therefore, I (being paranoid) am looking to extract the hard-drive. I have dismantled it, but I cannot see any component resembling a hard-drive.

If I discount the hardware on the circuit board that is obviously linked to an external port, I am left with:

2 x Hynix 830E, which might be RAMs, but why two of them?
1 x Ingenic JZ4730, which googling is a semiconductor
1 x Hanrun HR681680, which I don't believe is anything special
1 x circular CR1220 which helpfully describes itself as a lithium battery (although why it's there I have no idea)
2 x Samsung 825 K9K8G08UDA, which maybe something called a translatet app ( )
various other small inconsequential components of Chinese manufacture, and
something called a SW2 with a prominent red button, which I am not going to press in case I totally destroy half of the north-west Midlands!

Do these Mac style machines actually have a hard-drive, or an I looking for something that doesn't exist?

[Suff]

The specs on the machine reveal themselves...

Hynix is a RAM manufacturer and the specs say that the higher end has 2x128mb dims. For 256mbytes.

The CR 1220 is the backup battery for your non volatile BIOS memory. All PC's have this but they rarely need to be changed nowadays because the power supply keeps it charged when connected. It's one of the reasons laptops and tablets drain their batteries. It also keeps the RTC (real time clock) going so your computer knows the date and time even though it's off the internet.

The specs say the Elonex ONE has flash storage (1 or 2 gig). So you are looking for one or more chips, possibly soldered onto the motherboard.

Digging through the Samsung catalogue for part numbers reveals that the K9K8G08U0M is

1G x 8 Bit / 2G x 8 Bit NAND Flash Memory

NAND flash memory is what is used in a flash hard drive. I saw that some models had 4GB of flash. So you have your hard drive there.

I'm assuming that the chips outlined in RED are where the Samsung chips, note you have two on the back as well. It looks like the long one's are the flash chips. The others may be storage controllers for the flash.






Burning, breaking or blending will resolve your data into it's constituent bits in unassembled parts. Essentially unrecoverable...

The Hanrun HR681680 is your LAN module.

The Ingenic JZ4730 is a media processor which allows the playing of music and video's with low power consumption for Linux devices.

So, there you have it..

[TheOstrich]

That's brilliant, Suff, thank you very much. The pics are pretty much the same as the circuit board I've got in front of me.

The two Samsung chips are positioned where the single black chip is (in the red box) on the top diagram. The other two chips are as shown; they are the Hynix chips.

I'll take an 'ammer to them before disposing in the "small electrical" skip down the tip ....

[Suff]

Of course they are just surface mount chips. A hammer and wood chisel will take them off the board making hammering much easier without mangling the whole thing.

[manxie]

Hehehe Don't be a spoilsport Suff Ossie might fancy a good 'ammering lol

Manxie xx

[TheOstrich]

No, I used a hammer and a screwdriver, Manxie and delicately broke them off ...