Aftermarket hard drives for the T43...........

[sktn77a]

Yes, I've searched and have also read the sticky but there's so much older information on this, it's hard to sort out the pepper from the fly sh_t! Bottom line is that the new HDD update now works with the Hitachi HTS7210xxG9AT00 series of drives. But is this just for the IBM/Lenovo version of this drive or does it work with the raw Hitachi drive from NewEgg???

Thanks

[richk]

I haven't bought new drives lately. I get used drives one way otr the other. I have always has to upgrade the firmware on Hitachi drives, which is a real pain, because the software works so poorly. I have a list at home of what drives have firmware upgrades on the latest release, but I won't be there until Saturday. I also have some notes on how to patch the drive. If you don't get a better answer by then, send me a private message.

[SteveS]

Just to clarify for everyone, the firmware update program supplied by Lenovo to add the SATA commands to PATA drives and eliminate the 2010 error only works turn-key for IBM/Lenovo drives. Even if your drive model number is on the list of supported drives, the drive PART NUMBER does not match and it will not work without manual intervention.

However, the self booting program is only a script that does some checking and calls the appropriate firmware flashing program which is supplied by the drive manufacturer, not IBM/Lenovo.

For you specific question, there have been a couple of posts on this forum which explain how to flash an after market Hitachi 7200 RPM 100 GB drive. Look near the bottom of the postings on this link:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... &start=330

(Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page, as the origial posting had a typo in the command lines which is corrected a few replies later.)

I have personally used this twice and it worked. However, one time it did not. Here is the caution: The flash program only works with an OEM drive (software version starting with the letter “O”, and it only seems to work if the version is A51A or lower. The drive I bought was a Dell model. You could not tell that from the label, but the firmware version is “DA53A”. It recognized that it was a Dell model drive, but gave an error saying that the drive was not on the supported model list. In this case, the “supported model” list is internal to the program, not the list the top level IBM script uses. Since the program is a binary executable, there is no easy way to hack it to work on this drive.

But I think the general OEM model is still being shipped with version OA51A, which the two step manual process identified in the above link works fine. If you chose a model other than the 100 GB, you will need to modify the commands as needed. Open the file “FW.PRO” , located on the CD-ROM image of the Lenovo updater SW in your favorite word processor and look under “Hitachi” to find the correct burner program for your particular model. Modify the commands as needed.

Note that you will be executing the updater program from a DOS command prompt. If you enter the program name for any of these drive vendor supplied programs at the prompt, and substitute a “?” for the normal argument list, the command help is returned, with a brief explanation of the command arguments. (remember the days of DOS programming?) This can be helpful in trying to update other drives. The Hitachi program for the 100 GB/7200 RPM help lists an argument for “Ignore model match”, but it does not seem to work – it gives an error if you include it.

[sktn77a]

What a royal pain in the_ss!

I think I'll get a T42!