80GB 7200rpm - do these exist

[zzyss]

Greetings, I'm new to the forum, the usual n00b clauses apply

Anyway, my question is: is there such a beast as an 80GB 7200rpm drive?

My ThinkPad (2373HH5 - its a special model, don't bother looking for it) shipped with a 80GB 4200rpm drive which performs like, like... a real slow thing. It is the limiting factor in practically all my applications (I have 512MB RAM, so paging isn't the problem)

I've been looking at the hitachi drives, and it seems that their 7200rpm series only comes in the 60GB flavour. I'd like to maintain the same capacity, except with increased speed (I'd still keep the current drive in the ultrabay or something).

Is there ever going to be an 80GB 7200rpm drive? Or will I just have to settle for the 5400rpm?

(Oh, one last thing... supposing that I do get another drive, is it possible to copy over EVERYTHING on the drive, including the recovery partition?)

[akerman]

No.

[feamster]

While there currently isn't a 7200rpm 80g drive, if one comes out that is thin enough to fit your tp, then there is software available that will let you copy the complete drive image across. When I replace a laptop drive I usually place the old drive in a usb2 drive enclosure that is barely larger than the drive itself and backup to it.

[Conmee]

Or just get an Ultrabay Slim or Ultrabay 2000 2nd hard drive caddy/case and you'll have even faster backup/recovery. I use my second drive in my ThinkPad to Ghost images disk to disk, as well as backup data. Much faster than USB or Firewire.

[zzyss]

Thanks all for the replies. So does that mean yes, the hidden restore partition can be transferred to the new drive as well?

What about if I "downgrade" to the 60GB 7200rpm drive? How easy would it be then to resize my existing partition, and copy that + hidden partition to the new smaller sized drive?

(Yes, I do intend to get an Ultrabay HD enclosure, so you might want to gear your responses towards that setup)

[Lmax]

Better yet, get two 60GB 7200rpm drives, put one in the main drive bay and one in the ultrabay, then you have 120GB of raw 7200rpm speed!

Max

[JHEM]

Much faster than USB or Firewire.

Actually Dan, if I remember my A+ training correctly, USB2.0 at 480Mbps is MUCH faster than an IDE port.

Regards,

James

[akerman]

Much faster than USB or Firewire.

Actually Dan, if I remember my A+ training correctly, USB2.0 at 480Mbps is MUCH faster than an IDE port.

Regards,

James

What? No... USB is theoretically 480Mpbs - in practical use, speeds are under half that. That's around 30 MB/s - an IDE hard drive can hold a sustained transfer rate upwards of 50 MB/s.

[Lmax]

Is there ever going to be an 80GB 7200rpm drive?

Ever? Yes, Hitachi is most likely working on one, in fact they probably have a prototype for one. When will we see it? I would say later this year, like Christmas, or when the T50 comes around, maybe. I *wish* the 7200rpm option was 100GB right now, but alas it is not, and I have to settle for getting that extra space on my external WD 80GB 7200rpm USB 2 drive. 60GB is a lot but it may not be enough for some.

Max

[taphil]

Much faster than USB or Firewire.

Actually Dan, if I remember my A+ training correctly, USB2.0 at 480Mbps is MUCH faster than an IDE port.

Regards,

James

USB2 is 480mbps (bits) which is 60MB/s (byte). IDE is 100MB/s or 800mbps, so IDE is much faster.

[JHEM]

USB2 is 480mbps (bits) which is 60MB/s (byte). IDE is 100MB/s or 800mbps, so IDE is much faster.

I stand corrected.

Regards,

James