Hard disk replacement.

[Dow Jones]

Hello,

I have an 2378-FVU, and like most Thinkpads ( I think), has the IBM hard drive protection to protect the hard disk from shocks.

I do not know how this mechanism works to protect the hard disk, but was wondering if I would lose this protection if I decide to swap out my current hard drive (40GB is tiny) for another off the shelf Hitachi.

I am hoping that the mechanism has nothing to do with the hard drive, and that it merely stops the hard drive when it's running. But IBM is Proprietary everything, so I dunno. Can someone tell me? Thanks!

Peace

[MadeInJapan]

I don't think the HDD has anyting to do with it, but instead, the way the HDD is mounted in the ThinkPad and the area surrounding the drive. Couldn't see how replacing the HDD would matter. To support what I say, if you do a search for "shock resistant" HDD, I don't think you will find anything describing itself as such. If there were these HDD's, then everyone here would also be talking about getting them to replace their current HDD's in even older machines. Anyway, good luck.

[ian]

The HDD protection system is all to do with parking the heads - this is done electonically irrespective of the drive. I changed my 80G for the 7K60 (60G) and the protection works fine - well, I can only go on what the HDD interface tells me as I'm not generally in the habit of chucking my laptop around the place to check things out...

[monty cantsin]

The HDD protection system is all to do with parking the heads

Yes.

- this is done electonically irrespective of the drive.

I'm not really sure. IBM states in its Active Protection System white paper...

"http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-53432

...that "[t]he active protection system functions only with the 2.5" hard disk drive provided by IBM due to special customization" (p. 1). Could only be a marketing trick, but then I remember all the failing drives in early APS-enabled ThinkPads and the critical firmware update that had been released to fix these issues:

http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... PAD-HDFIRM

[ian]

Oooop's - here's hoping it works at least with HITACHI (ex IBM) drives....(like the 7K60 etc)

[Leon]

this is an important issue, as many of us replace drives, and THINK that they have APS.... anyone have anything definitive?

[Dow Jones]

The reason I mention off the shelf Hitachi is because I want to know if I get to keep my HDD protection if I buy a Hitachi drive not from IBM, but from any retailer. Of course, if I purchase an HDD from IBM, I don't think I would have to be concerned with this issue at all if it says it's compatible with T4x.

I am going to do some searches to see if I can find a RETAIL Hitachi that has the same model number as a Hitachi provided by IBM. If I don't find any, I suspect it is possible that IBM has simply used different model numbers for the same drives? And hence, if IBM Active HDD protection possibly requires a "special" drive to operate properly, I would be safer in choosing a Hitachi replacement from my local computer store rather than any other brand?

What I hope is that the active protection simply shuts down the hard drive, and hence, I can use any hard drive I want. Does anyone here know if the heads park automatically on a drive when it powers down?

This discussion can be a very enlightening one.

Peace!

[Dow Jones]

Monty,

Thanks for that link, I did a search on the model number of the T Series' 7200 RPM 60 Gig hard disk, and it looks like I found the same drive on NewEgg.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 020&depa=0

[monty cantsin]

And hence, if IBM Active HDD protection possibly requires a "special" drive to operate properly, I would be safer in choosing a Hitachi replacement from my local computer store rather than any other brand?

I'd think so.

What I hope is that the active protection simply shuts down the hard drive, and hence, I can use any hard drive I want.

It seems to 'work' with any hard drive. Question is: Will the hard drive that is not approved by IBM suffer severe damages in the long run, as it was the case with the original HitachiGST drives in the early APS-ThinkPads that had the firmware bug.

Quick emergency unloads, for instance, which happen when the drive is up and spinning and power fails unexpectedly, belong to the worst events that can happen to hard drives (and they're also counted in the SMART logs). While ordinary mobile hard drives are specified for several hundred thousand ordinary load/unload cycles, "[a]s a rule of thumb, the mechanical stress created by one emergency unload is equivalent to that created by one hundred normal unloads."

http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/ma ... ctl.8.html

Does anyone here know if the heads park automatically on a drive when it powers down?

Yes, sure, the heads unload automatically when the drive is powered off, and also in some power-saving states.

This discussion can be a very enlightening one.

Peace!

Yeah. Em hotep em ma'at!