Thinkpads Forum

Does anyone know if Hitachi have ceased production of 7200rpm ATA Deskstar drives? I have a 60Gb model on my X31, and it goes like the wind.

Hitachi lists 60, 80, and 100 Gb models on its site, but there are none available to order from their online 'shop'. I've also found these drives listed on one or two retailer sites, but nobody with any stock.

I've tried getting hold of some in Germany since January, without any luck Looks as though you may possibly be right.

The production of Hitachi 7K100 has ceased.
7K200 is available.
Alternatives: Seagate Momentus or WD Scorpio


Edit: should have been 7Kx00 instead of 72Kx00

Actually I noticed it as well

Ooooo!

Thanks, I'll see if I can find one

RealBlackStuff wrote:The production of Hitachi 72K100 has ceased.
72K200 is available.
Alternatives: Seagate Momentus or WD Scorpio

No luck.

The 72k200 ref is not recognised in a web search, and the 7k200 is a SATA drive. No luck in listings for Seagate or WD either. But I'll have a look on Hitachi's own site.

I'm running a WD 250MB very comfortably.

Steen wrote:I'm running a WD 250MB very comfortably.

Maybe. But is it a 7200rpm IDE/PATA drive, and if so, when/where did you get it? 2.5" 7200rpm drives were available until a few months ago - I've got one, and my X31 runs noticeably faster as a result - but I can't find any availability now. If you know of a current supply source, I think lots of us would be very grateful for details.

The WD 250 GB is 5400 rpm, but because of platter density it is faster than any 7200 rpm ATA drive you can get right now.

I tried to find one at a reasonable price for a couple of months. But they seem to be a rich guys thing now. You can find them for $150 to $200 or more. I finally decided to go with a 60gb 7200 rpm on my X24. I would certainly have gotten one of the 250gb 5400 rpm drives if I had been willing to pay $100 or more before shelling out that kind of money.

So, yes, no one is currently producing a 2.5 inch 7200 rpm IDE drive. Plenty of choices in SATA however.

qviri wrote:The WD 250 GB is 5400 rpm, but because of platter density it is faster than any 7200 rpm ATA drive you can get right now.

I just looked up the specs and they would seem to disagree. My 2 year old 7200.1 Seagate 100GB is faster. Unless the specs lie.
None of the Seagate 5400 PATA drives are as fast as the Seagate 7200 PATA drives either. This is a real shame. Is there any way to use a SATA drive with an adapter? I wish I had purchased 5 of them at the time now that they have discontinued them without warning.

proaudioguy wrote:

qviri wrote:The WD 250 GB is 5400 rpm, but because of platter density it is faster than any 7200 rpm ATA drive you can get right now.

I just looked up the specs and they would seem to disagree. My 2 year old 7200.1 Seagate 100GB is faster. Unless the specs lie.
None of the Seagate 5400 PATA drives are as fast as the Seagate 7200 PATA drives either. This is a real shame. Is there any way to use a SATA drive with an adapter? I wish I had purchased 5 of them at the time now that they have discontinued them without warning.

Define fast. The big 5400 drives have a faster transfer rate, while the 7200 drives still have the low latency advantage.

There is an Ultrabay sata adapter btw.

proaudioguy wrote:

qviri wrote:The WD 250 GB is 5400 rpm, but because of platter density it is faster than any 7200 rpm ATA drive you can get right now.

I just looked up the specs and they would seem to disagree. My 2 year old 7200.1 Seagate 100GB is faster. Unless the specs lie.

I don't know the specs, and I accept I should have possibly used "as fast" rather than "faster".

Hitachi 7k100 - I believe generally accepted to be the fastest ATA 7200 rpm - http://www.geocities.com/nurfo/pics/hdtune_7k100.png
WD2500BEVE - http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/3672 ... 250kz7.png

The access time difference is about 5%. The WD enjoys a 25% transfer rate advantage at the beginning of the drive, and doubles up the Hitachi by the 100th gigabyte.

Even if the synthetic benchmarks don't tell the whole story (which I accept they may well not), I'd say the WD drive at least equals the Hitachi, and with much more storage capacity to boot. The "it's 7200 rpm so it's faster" story, although admittedly a convenient simplification, needs to go away.

Rotational speed is irrelivent to me. I looked up the specs.
The manufacturer's specs don't agree so how is one to make a judgment when looking to make a purchase? I'd rather have a rotational spec of 0 rpm (SSD) if it were as fast and affordable.

BTW, I read a lot of reviews of that WD drive on Newegg. Apparently the failure rate is high. The price was good so I almost bought 3 of them last night until I read so many bad reviews. Good luck with yours.

The slight speed advantage the hitachi had over the seagate was not worth the extra noise, the shorter warranty, and the lack of warm fuzzy feelings put me over the edge. I've had 3 Hitachi drives fail on me, and they were all IBM factory installed. My Seagate 7200.1 is extremely quiet. I don't even hear the clicking during a defrag. I've had it running for 2 years.

So last night I bit the bullet and bought 3 120GB Seagate drives for $70 each to my door. Too bad they are 5400 RPM. I figured even if I don't need them all right away, I will, and by then they may not be available. Wish I had thought of that before the 7200s went away.