Thinkpads Forum

Presently, I can swap my main WinXP SP3 Operating System hard drive back and forth between my older July 2007 Built emergency spare T61 15.4" T7500 WSXGA+ Nivida NVS 140M ThinkPad and my newer Aug 2008 Built T61p T9300 WSXGA+ Nividia FX570M daily user ThinkPad w/o any problems or extra steps per my testing (just in case of a future emergency ..... "Be Prepared" .... Boy Scout/Eagle Scout Motto and all that stuff).

I have an opportunity to pick up a W500 T9500 15.4" WSXGA+ ATI FireGL V5700 ThinkPad in good working order at a very reasonable price to replace my older emergency spare T61 (instead of replacing it with another T61p built after Aug 1, 2008 as originally planned). I always use my T61p docked (Advanced Mini Dock M/T 2504-10U) with the screen lid closed and an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, so any minor screen or cosmetics issues of the W500 would not be relavent.

I believe I should be able to make the same HDD swap between the W500 and T61p which, except for the ATI vs Nvidia Graphic driver difference, is similar enough to the T61p where the machine would first default to the standard VGA driver and then I'd only have to take the extra step (in an emergency swap) to thoroughly cleanout the old video drivers and then install the new video drivers via System Update.

If this kind of W500 to T61p HDD swap is actually feasible, I'd then probably make the T61p my emergency spare and use the slightly more powerful W500 as my docked main desktop replacement ...... especially since they both use the same Advanced Mini Dock M/T 2504-10U (plus even the same batteries), unlike the newer W510s for instance.

Any comments, advice or issues I've overlooked here?

Thanks

eecon wrote:I believe I should be able to make the same HDD swap between the W500 and T61p

The HAL is XP is fairly basic, so I'd be quite surprised if that was really workable as there are significant hardware platform differences.

Cheers,

Bill B.

bill bolton wrote:The HAL in XP is fairly basic, so I'd be quite surprised if that was really workable as there are significant hardware platform differences.

Cheers,

Bill B.

Hi Bill .... What about using the HAL Force-In method as detailed in MS KB299340?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299340

Any hope there?

Thanks!

bill bolton wrote:The HAL in XP is fairly basic, so I'd be quite surprised if that was really workable as there are significant hardware platform differences.

Cheers,

Bill B.

eecon wrote: Hi Bill .... What about using the HAL Force-In method as detailed in MS KB299340?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299340

Any hope there?

Thanks!

Interesting stuff. I keep wondering why we dont have OSes that keep Hardware (HAL) - Main OS - Applications separate in architecture such that one could take an entire HDD and put it on another piece of Hardware with a separate Hardware Profile and have it run as new. Swap & Switch between the two Hardware profiles as necessary. Kinda like a virtualized OS except 'Specialized Device Drivers'

crashnburn wrote:Interesting stuff. I keep wondering why we dont have OSes that keep Hardware (HAL) - Main OS - Applications separate in architecture such that one could take an entire HDD and put it on another piece of Hardware with a separate Hardware Profile and have it run as new. Swap & Switch between the two Hardware profiles as necessary. Kinda like a virtualized OS except 'Specialized Device Drivers'

'cuz then you'd only need 1 os license for "x" # of machines.
gotta sell licenses to keep the lights burning in Redmond.

but seriously, maybe the os license *should* be tied to a hdd.

sarbin wrote:'cuz then you'd only need 1 os license for "x" # of machines.
gotta sell licenses to keep the lights burning in Redmond.

but seriously, maybe the os license *should* be tied to a hdd.

I and many others would be investing in new hardware yearly if that were the case ...... The only reason we don't is that it is a PITA to migrate to a new machine.

Thus one more needed stimulus package for the economy and hardware mfgs (which would cost the tax payers and U.S. Treasury nothing) is lost to greedy and evil software companies with their army of lawyers and lobbyists.

I don't believe for one second that many (if any) of the "intellectual rights" companies that develop the major software we use and which they so vigorously protect with armies of legal teams pay that much in taxes to Uncle Sam ..... they just move operations and assets overseas and use tax loop holes in order to pay next to nothing in taxes so their chieftain's salaries, stock options and bonuses can keep them on the Forbes 400 List year after year.

I'd have a pair of new fully optioned W520's on order right now if I could just swap in the hard drives, along with many other people I know. Instead, I stay with my 3 to 4 year old T61 series units that are still nicely running WinXP pro and are setup just the way I like them after a couple of years of tinkering. I'd rather invest and enjoy spending my time and hard earned money on classic cars, fine wines, and fast women than waste time migrating to new hardware (because of the tons of new software and time such a process seems to always require ..... and automantic System Migration software stinks, IMHO).

Way too much of my valuable time has been wasted to manually migrate and get my setup just the way I want it (and I really don't want some polite geek-squad guy doing it for me either ..... unless maybe it was a hot babe). Just look back at the all the wasted human toll and suffering brought on to consumers who tried and failed to make V**ta ever work properly.

It's time for a new way of thinking .... one that "shames" planned obsolesence and all those stinking high-tech, hype-spewing, spit-talking greedy hotshot blabbermouth.com entrepreneural A-Holes types seen jaw-boning non-stop on TV business channels or other social and non-social media outlets.

In the meantime ..... I'll vote with my wallet when it comes to new hardware.

As software chieftains stay on the Forbes 400 List, gaining all the while, traditional hardware mfgs lose pricing power, mfg'ing jobs, and repeat customers these days ... what a shame.

Where are all the action heros like Superman, Green Hornet, Batman now when we really need them to put the system right again. Probably strung out and addicted to the latest 3D action games like so many of our youth today, or maybe Contracted-Out by our armed forces to fight in hot dusty places populated by local tribal hot-heads so that Forbes 400 members can get wealthier testing and then selling lots of new High Tech SW and gadgets to our military forces al la our tax dollars.

All in the name of homeland security? Really now? How stupid do they think we the masses are?

"No worries ..... Be happy" say our local and national political/business leaders to these ongoing concerns ...... while they themselves laugh all the way to the bank, just the same as 100 years ago.

Updated Rephrased Post with Better Details of the Procedure:

Oh ..... and BTW, several of the Lenovo Support Forum folks, including Mark Lenovo, just replied to me that it will work because the T61p and W500 are essentially the same except for the mobo, memory and video cards .... just be sure to first disable the Passphrase option (if you are using it ). I don't have the passphrase option enabled because I use a Supv PW to protect my BIOS settings which then automatically disables any ability to use the passphrase option. I don't have to disable my FDE HDD PW because the it's hardware-based encryption keys are stored on the drive itself and not in the laptop's BIOS.

Thus a complete failure to power up is no worries .... simply swap the FDE HDD into your spare box and power it up ..... enter the FDE's PW and let WinXP boot as normal. WinXP will boot with the standard VGA video drivers since the T61p and W500 use different GPU mfgs. Just clean out the old video drivers and reboot. Then use System Update to install the proper drivers. Can do this back and forth all day long.

So, I tried it and it works fine with no special tricks ...... just removed all the Nvidia drivers after the first bootup with the W500 (it booted up with the std VGA drivers just like the Lenovo Forum guys said). Then rebooted again and used System Update to automatically install the new ATI video drivers for the W500.

Note however that this would not have worked in the newer and much more different W510 or W520 series according to Lenovo.

However, I'm not taking back any of my previous ranting about evil software scumbag moguls .... that part still stands.

Wow! What luck

crashnburn wrote:Wow! What luck

Thanks .... BTW, I rephrased some of the procedure to provide more details since your post.

eecon wrote:Thanks .... BTW, I rephrased some of the procedure to provide more details since your post.

Based on this, how well do you think this Swapping would work if I were to try it between my T61 & X61T (Both in signature below)

crashnburn wrote:Based on this, how well do you think this Swapping would work if I were to try it between my T61 & X61T (Both in signature below)

You certainly won't crashnburn on those units using Intel onboard graphics.

Just clone a HDD to test a swap with it .... to be safe disable all BIOS PWs and passphrases.

If to plan to use one as an emergency spare, do not re-enable passphrase as it stores the your HDD PW in system BIOS and if you can't power up the failed machine, then that HDD is locked to the failed HDD. Just use a Power-On PW, or better yet pay an extra $10 ea to buy a new pair of FDE hard drives that provide hardware-based military grade encryption on the fly when you set a HDD PW and the encryption keys are stored on the HDD itself, so you can still swap it out of a failed machine as long as you know it's password. Seagate's versions are called FDE and Hitachi calls their encrypting unit BDE. See the following links:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 69621.html

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and-pri ... d-p/406325

BTW, the passphrase BIOS option is automatically disabled if BIOS senses an FDE drive, or you've set a separate supervisor PW to enter your BIOS.