T42p HDD Question

[bin.dong]

I just got a T42p (2372-Q2U). The hard drive is only 60GB, I ordered a 100GB 7200RPM one, I am not sure it will work on my T42p or not? If not, I can cancel my order. Any idea?

[SHoTTa35]

well a 100GB will work but you didn't say which one? It's gonna be tough for us to tell you if you should cancel it if we don't know what you got.

[Johan]

... if you check the thread T42 Upgrade Possibilities and see my post of Fri Jul 20, 2007 (the first issue: Get a 7200 rpm HDD), and follow those links... you'll be able to answer your own question after a little studying! Also perhaps check the thread Confirm info for upgrading hard drive in T42.

In my personal opinion, I would keep a top-of-the-line-T42p, such as the 2373-Q2U (not 2372??) definitively is, and require the seller to provide you with a bigger disk, if this was advertised. Beware that very, very few T42p's of your type (Q1U's, Q2U's and Q4U's) are around... so think twice before returning it! I recently bought a T42p 2373-Q1U via the Marketplace in this forum, but this laptop actually came via eBay and ThinkpadWorld before being sold here (more info in this thread: Buying a 2nd hand T42p - and I am absolutely happy with it!).

Could you perhaps provide a specific link to where you bought it (an auction at eBay - is that perhaps ThinkpadWorld?). Thanks!

Best regards,

Johan

[bin.dong]

I am a contractor with IBM Canada. I got this high end T42p from one of our biggest client company. It's used, top cover got a bit damage. everything else just like new. I paid about $350 for that.

I think this is pretty good deal, that's why I'd like to replace a larger HDD and add more RAM. I am also thinking if the top cover is not expensive, I may get one off eBay.

[Johan]

Wow - that certainly sounds like a very good deal!

If you by any means should have other T42p's offered (e.g. like this, 2373-Q1U or -Q2U!), I am interested in buying one of you. You may PM me any time - thank you very much in advance!

Best regards,

Johan

[bin.dong]

I'll see if they still have one. Actually, we are not supported to buy these machines because they belong to our client. These units should be sold to another contract company to destroy them or do whatever they like. But, one or two should be OK. No one knows and we can get discount for sure.

[bin.dong]

After I posted previous reply, I searched on eBay, there is one on eBay. The price is double what I paid but it's still acceptable. You may wanna check this out:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/IBM-ThinkPad-T42p-CE ... dZViewItem

[Johan]

Thanks very much for this (extremely interesting!) info. The T42p you refer to however was just sold on eBay... The advertisement was quite, well, lets' say "colorful"...

I simply refuse to read what you write about these used T42p's: "These units should be sold to another contract company to destroy them..." WHAT?? What on Earth is going on there? Destroy a functioning (?) ThinkPad, and even a T42p?? I refuse reading anymore of this!!

Anyway, back to the topic: As already said, if you are able (and, of course, willing!) to have a second look to see what might be around - and very preferably at the superb price you first mentioned! - I would still be very interested. From now on, I will be checking my PM every 5 minutes, while hoping for an extremely good offer from you!

... the thing is that my T42p is kind of... well, lonely, actually... and very much miss a mate of the same race! So, here you have the chance of contributing to a technical romance! How's that?

Thanks for the information, in any case. I am now pointing and intensely focusing my interest towards Canada!

Best regards,

Johan

[bin.dong]

Obviously, they never did that. As far as I know they'll sell them at a low price. They can buy these off leased PC (whatever they called) for $10 each. I can get one of those PCs, like P4 M52 PC for only $25, but they'll sell it for about $200. This is how they earn money!


Back to topic. yeah, I just checked eBay again. That one sold! I am also wondering that where the seller got these T42p? Maybe from one of the companies I mentioned above? destroy company? lol...


Anyway, nice to talk to you. I am gonna take off now.

Have a good one

[buglawton]

Hope it's OK for me to ask a related question here about my newly acquired T42: It comes with a 40GB hard drive which is fine for me. When traveling I'd like to leave this drive at home & have a minimal system installed, with no personal data on it, just XP and Web + Email and a few other progs.

So I hit on the idea of buying a cheapish replacement hard drive and installing XP straight from a CD, to make a basic travel system.

My main question is: what type of drive to buy - this item claims to be compatible -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Brand-new-20GB-La ... dZViewItem

(Interface: ATA-6, Form Factor: 2.5" 9.5 x 70 x100 mm)

- is it just a matter of removing old drive (which I did already just to try it) then clipping the T42's plastic cover over the new drive & inserting it?

Second question is about the installation of XP - I assume it will involve backing up & restoring the "Drivers" folder on my current drive but I will research that elsewhere in this Forum.

Thanks!

[Johan]

@ buglawton:

The drive you refer to is OK; T42's will work with a 2.5" PATA (meaning parallel-ATA, also sometimes just called ATA) drive. Beware that a SATA-drives (Serial-ATA) will not work in a T42!

For more information about different HDD's for T42's (and how to make a so-called "image" and/or how to carry out a so-called "cloning" of the original source drive) you may refer to e.g. these threads in this forum: Hard drive upgrade of t42 or How I Cloned My IBM ThinkPad T42 Hard Drive - Step by Step or Confirm info for upgrading hard drive in T42.

If I were you, I would hesitate buying the drive you refer to; no specifications at all about its brand is given... and if you add the (significant!) postage to the price for the drive itself, it ends up way to expensive, comparing to simply buying a new 2.5" HDD (5400 rpm) in whatever PC-store, the very small 20 GB capacity taken into account! Alternatively, check the Marketplace in this forum; there you will almost daily find far better deals! If I were you, I would go for a Seagate Momentus 5400.2 or 5400.3 as they comes with a 5-year warranty and are very low-noise.

If long battery-time is of interest, when "on the move", you may however consider a (slow!) 4200-rpm drive as they typically consume less power compared to 5400 rpm drives (and also compared to the fastest 7200-rpm drives). Check the datasheets for the misc. HDD's!

To make the new drive work: Either make an image or "clone" the source drive, and afterwards remove all that is not needed. Alternatively, use your IBM ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery Media to setup the new drive from scratch (remember, the security backup of the system, seven CD-ROM's in total, which you have hopefully already made yourself long ago!).

PS: Check Hardware removal and installation - ThinkPad T40/p, T41/p, T42/p, T43/p - there you'll find a lot of useful information about disassembling and assembling your ThinkPad. The day may also not be distant before you'll want to know that there exist something called the Hardware Maintenance Manual - ThinkPad T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p - go get it!

Hey; I forgot to say: Welcome to the forum - it is simply the most outstanding (and helpful!) single source of knowledge about ThinkPad's on the internet!

Best regards,

Johan

[buglawton]

Thanks for the great into to my new (refurb) laptop. In the end we decided to get an ibm x32 for travel only rather than a spare drive. The quality of this used x31 is just as good as the t42 just everything is smaller. But I will be taking up some of the tips above to get my t42 fully installed.

One catch with buying a refurb t42 is that Lenovo only g'tee the software/support for 1 month even if the hardware gets 3 years. So I cannot obtain a proper XP restore disk from Lenovo, or maybe only at a prohibitive cost.

Lenovo seem to offer no convenient one-stop method of getting a rebuild done of one's software: This has to be a DIY activity based on things I'll learn from this forum!