(update) Upgrading Laptop's Hard Drive


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any standard 2.5 inch ide(not sata) laptop drive should work. The only thing I am not sure about is some of the safety features of thinkpads. They have a bios level password for the harddrive, I don't think that is a factor, but I am not sure.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136130

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822152032

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Western digital makes a good hardrive, of the two I linked to, I think I would go with the WD.

As to switching them out, you may have to set the jumper on the drive from CS to Master or visa versa. Try it the way it comes to you, if it is not detected in the bios change the jumper. I don't foresee any problems, but it is a computer, who knows :-)

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thanks for the tips, by the way do you think I would need a caddy in order to install the new hard drive? what happens is that, it's my father's old thinkpad which he used for work, and after taking out the hard drive he gave it to me as a gift for school work. I checked the comp using a Gutsy Gibbon live CD and everything seems to be fine I only need to buy a hard drive and install it. I'd just want to know if a caddy is really neccesary or if it's enough with a bare bones hard drive to install.

Edited by intocomputing2
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Good question. I was going to mention that in my last post. Are you sure he took the caddy also? You definitely need it. The caddy makes the harddrive fit securely. Most laptops also use a proprietary connector that bridges the laptop ide pins to the motherboard. I am not sure about the model you have. I will see if I can find anything online.

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I am not so certain that laptop uses a connector piece between the laptop pins and the motherboard. Below is a manual, it does not mention it

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/13n6183.pdf

depending on the screen size of your laptop, you use a different caddy size

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-Thinkpad-R40-R40e-...VQQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-Thinkpad-R40-R40e-...VQQcmdZViewItem

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I am not so certain that laptop uses a connector piece between the laptop pins and the motherboard. Below is a manual, it does not mention it

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/13n6183.pdf

depending on the screen size of your laptop, you use a different caddy size

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-Thinkpad-R40-R40e-...VQQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-Thinkpad-R40-R40e-...VQQcmdZViewItem

hand't even thought about the screen size, thanks shanenin

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  • 4 weeks later...

my apologies for bumping this old thread, but what do you guys think of this one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136159

will it be compatible with my laptop? this would be definetly be my top choice because of the amount of space available

I also found other 2 good candidates

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136114

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822152110

Edited by intocomputing2
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ok an update regarding this topic, I found some info somewhere else and I'd just like to check with you guys if this is true or not:

-One general rule of thumb with hard drives, is that generally the larger it is the faster it is with all other variables being the same.

-Many older computers cannot read HDs larger than 120GB, it is imperative to verify any size limitations in the BIOS before buying.

from this link:

http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/...limitations.htm

"Theoretically, we should be able to address up to 65,536 cylinders (216), address up to 16 heads (24) and address up to 255 sectors (28-1). Therefore, up to 267,386,880 sectors (65,536 x 16 x 255) can be addressed. At 512 bytes per sector, this yields a maximum theoretical capacity of about 136.9 GB.

With LBA addressing, the 28 available address bits (16 + 8 + 4) are viewed as a single LBA number. Since the value zero is included, up to 268,435,456 sectors (216 x 24 x 28) can be addressed for a maximum capacity of about 137.4 GB. The 137-138GB limitation most system builders face today!"

then, why would manufacturers bother to make a 250GB ATA HDD? I don't like the idea of buying this hard drive, for example, and find out it can only recognize the amount of space mentioned above, or does this apply only to old laptops? This laptop has a 2.0 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM, I wanted to install 3 OS and have 1 partition to store and share files.

Edited by intocomputing2
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  • 4 weeks later...
from a user's view the hard drive goes on the left side, lucky for me it wasn't under the keyboard and it was easy to install

A little late but I would just like to input that for upgrading a notebook hard drive I have found the Apricorn EZ upgrade kit to be well worth the cost.

http://www.apricorn.com/products.php?cat_id=52

http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail.php...reg&id=1023

Basically it is an external enclosure for a notebook drive, along with USB connector and a bootable disk which will allow you to clone the old drive to the new so you can just swap the drives and have more space and not have to perform a clean install , reinstall programs and restore your data.

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  • 1 year later...

I want to be like Pete and ring in Fashionable late.

So you don't have to reinstall apps and OS

HDClone Free Edition

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/HDClone_F...dclonefree.html

XXClone freeware

http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/xxclone/xxclone.html

you will need a USB HD enclosure but well worth the money and time you will save not having to reinstall it all.

Preston

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