T42 HD swaP

[cklein]

Today I received my T42P, 1.8G UXGA. It's customized model with minimum configuration: 256MB RAM and 4200RPM 40G HD.

I had a A21P with 850Mhz UXGA, it's perfect except I can not expand its memory anymore.

My first impression is: SLOW!!!!!!
It's so slow that it's slower than my A21P. I know the HD is slower, but I didn't expect such a huge difference.

I ordered 1GB ram on its way, the first I will do is to swap out the HD and add more ram, hopefully the performance will catch up, or else, I would have to return this baby.

And the keyboard is NOT as good as A21P. But I can live with it.

Another thing is the heat. I can feel the heat coming out from the left side of the laptop. I never had such a problem with my A21P. But again, I can with with it.

But the good thing is its appearance. I mean it looks beautiful! Much better than my A21P, and it's light.

Now the real problem, I have using my 60G 7200RPM HD for a long time, and has tons of software on it. When I swap in, the new baby just won't boot.tell me hardware failure. I have WinXP professional on it.

Now, what dod I do? Order a recovery CD? Just just install a new WinXP? GOD, I don't want to do that, which means a a week of my time will spend on installing software.

Is there any easy way to swap out the thing?

Thanks,

Calvin

[Flightvector]

There is absolutely no way that you could just swap that HDD in a hardware process, everything is different with the motherboard and chipset to the wireless card. Windows hardly likes you doing this from under it. You will have to reinstall Windows XP, there is an extremely iffy way to delete everything from the device manager but this is not likely to work at all due to the vast difference in architecture, and would lead to a very unuseable system for the same reason even if it did work. In otherwords, it will take the same amount of work for a very inoptimal setup that is far from the brand new notebook experience you purchased.

I am not surprised that 4200RPM runs like molasses, it may even have less sectors per platter too; the RAM will help with more applications and response, not raw hard drive loading time. Go get some restore CDs and take the plunge, or go buy a new Toshiba 7k60 hard drive.

[yukit]

I have done effectively the same as swapping the disk with my desktop.

I have replaced a MB with completely different chipset. My hard drive could not boot any more, but I was able to boot from my WinXP CD & reinstall (I can't remember if the option was reinstall or upgrade) the OS.

I was willing to start over from scratch, but surprisingly the reinstall repaired all the MB driver issues, & it kept all my settings intact.

It is worth a try.

[JaneL]

>There is absolutely no way that you could just swap that HDD in a hardware process, everything is different with the motherboard and chipset to the wireless card. Windows hardly likes you doing this from under it.
>

I've been doing exactly this for years from a 755CE right on up to my current T23. It takes some tweaking, but it can be done and is far easier than tracking down the install/update disks, CDs, files and registration numbers for everything I use.

I can't remember whether it's the reinstall or the repair option, but one of them will fix everything up just fine.

[cklein]

I guess I will try to use winxp to reinstall?

Actually I was almost ready to wipe out my HD. Is the installed from fresh supposed to be faster than the repaired install?

My RAM is still on my way, [censored], I almost want to go somewhere and grab one now.

How do you guys feel about the keyboard? I feel it's not as smooth as my A21P. I have press a little harder.

Wondering is there anyway to make it more sensitive?


By the way, any idea to have all those fancy applications come with the laptop to be installed on my new HD?

Calvin

[awolfe63]

No recommedation - but running repair from the XP install disk is usually faster than a fresh install - not slower. I have had success with it moving disks between desktops.

[rpwt]

I've been asking almost the same questions on the following thread. I'll let you know what I decide to do, and the outcome thereof.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=3716

[rpwt]

Calvin -

I've become very attached to my A21P over the last 3 years - it has never failed me, period. I had a rule that I wouldn't upgrade until I could get a replacement that was 3-times better in memory, processor speed, and disk capacity. Well, I broke my rule since I had already upgraded the disk to the 60G Travelstar. The T42P looks to be a worthy replacement.

As far as the keyboard - I really don't detect a lot of difference. I do know that my A21P's keys have become a bit 'adapted' to my typing style and may have loosened up after the approximately 347,000 strokes in this period (made-up figure.) For some reason, my 'C' and 'M' key have lost their embossing and others are going that route.

..roger