T42 2373-KA4 changing HD.

[DaveTeu]

Hi,

I've read alot about the capacity of harddisk that our thinkpad can take etc, but I'm not sure whether it differs from models to models.

I'm able to find in my country a Hitachi 5400rpm 8MB 160GB storage hd (http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/hitachi ... 1616j9at00), and I wonder whether it's suitable for use on a T42 2373-KA4.

If I'm able to find a 7200rpm of similar storage (160gb) or larger, is it risky to even try buying and using it on my laptop?

Once I get it, may I just follow the cloning tutorial and just use the software to "duplicate" the OS over to the new harddisk regardless of the difference in size and speed?

Can someone direct/advise me on how may I partition the HD to several drives too? Like 40GB in C:\ 80gb in D:\ 40Gb in E:\ etc.. are there any negative impacts if I do that? And do i duplicate before i partition or after?

All the expertise are appreciated. Thanks in advanced.

[Kyocera]

Never used that big a drive in a T4x series so can't help you there.

Once I get it, may I just follow the cloning tutorial and just use the software to "duplicate" the OS over to the new harddisk regardless of the difference in size and speed?

If you use acronis you don't have to worry about the size/speed difference, Acronis will resize the OS on the smaller disk to fit the space on the larger disk. It will also allow you to point to a specific partition on your new drive if you do partition it prior to cloning.

Can someone direct/advise me on how may I partition the HD to several drives too? Like 40GB in C:\ 80gb in D:\ 40Gb in E:\ etc.. are there any negative impacts if I do that? And do i duplicate before i partition or after?

I use Partition Commander easy to use and takes the guesswork out of cutting up a drive. There probably is some less expensive software out there if you look around some. With Partition Commander you can cut the drive up after you clone it with your new OS. Keep in mind if you do partition your drive after it may affect you recovery partition.

[zdriver]

The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541616J9AT00 will work fine in the T42. Make sure the bios is current on the thinkpad.
Slightly more overhead is the cost for the OS to mount and manage the 3 partitions. Plus the cost of the partitioning software.
Is there a specific reason you need 3 partitions?

[rbena]

I'm able to find in my country a Hitachi 5400rpm 8MB 160GB storage hd (http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/hitachi ... 1616j9at00), and I wonder whether it's suitable for use on a T42 2373-KA4.

I'm using the same Hitachi drive: 160GB 5400 RPM - HTS541616J9AT00. No problem running in either of my T42 notebooks.

Lots of different programs available for partitioning a hard drive. Just google 'hard drive partitioning' and you'll find useful info and tutorials.

Two popular programs for copying the contents of your old hard drive to the new one are Ghost and Acronis TrueImage. Acronis can resize partitions when doing the copy, so it may be more useful to you. Versions 9 and 10 work fine with Windows XP.

[DaveTeu]

The Hitachi Travelstar 5K160 HTS541616J9AT00 will work fine in the T42. Make sure the bios is current on the thinkpad.
Slightly more overhead is the cost for the OS to mount and manage the 3 partitions. Plus the cost of the partitioning software.
Is there a specific reason you need 3 partitions?

I'm intending to install vista on the 2nd partition and use 3rd partition to store my work related files (lots of them), purely for a neater laptop purpose.

I've just bought my 160GB hd and is cloning with Acronis 9.. god.. it's stuck at the IBM boot screen.. the one that says "To interrupt normal startup, press theblue access IBM button".. not sure whether my laptop is screwed already or not...

[Johan]

If I'm able to find a 7200rpm of similar storage (160gb) or larger, is it risky to even try buying and using it on my laptop?

First: HDD's for T42 must be must be of the Parallel ATA (PATA) type. Second: The largest capacity 2.5" PATA 7200 rpm for e.g. T42's are 100 GB; search for Hitachi 7k100 (although they seem to be going out of market) or Seagate Momentus 7200.1 (still being manufactured, and backed by a 5-year warranty). If you pick up an e.g. 100 GB 7200 rpm Seagate 7200.1 (model ST910021A), you may use Seagate's free "DiscWizard" program for the cloning/partitioning - see the thread set up new 160g seagate hard drive for T40.

Alternatively, you may consider getting a 250 GB 5400 rpm Western Digital HDD; they are reprted to be as fast as the older Hitachi 7200 rpm HDD's - see the thread fastest/largest disk i can get for T42P ? (search for WD2500BEVE).

Johan

[Johan]

I've just bought my 160GB hd and is cloning with Acronis 9.. god.. it's stuck at the IBM boot screen.. the one that says "To interrupt normal startup, press theblue access IBM button".. not sure whether my laptop is screwed already or not...

See the thread T42 Windows XP Pro Reinstall - does that perhaps help?

Johan

[DaveTeu]

i'm in the process of "cloning" it, anyone did cloning before? Is the cloning process suppose to stuck at the IBM Think Pad screen?

[Johan]

i'm in the process of "cloning" it, anyone did cloning before?

Cloned, yes - thousands of members have no doubt done that (hint: Try use the Search function and search e.g. for "clone" and many, many hits will come up - such as How I Cloned My IBM ThinkPad T42 Hard Drive - Step by Step).

Is the cloning process suppose to stuck at the IBM Think Pad screen?

No - of course not. Did you carefully read the cloning manual/chapter and follow the cloning instructions?

Johan

[Kyocera]

Hard Drive CLoning FAQ
This is probably the easiest to follow.

[DaveTeu]

Hi All,

Was having some problems cloning the HD

Problem 1) Trial version can only clone in windows.. which brings about problem 2,

Problem 2) Must always remember to change the boot order so your USB HD is not the first in the boot sequence else it will hang at the load up...

problem 3) must follow the thread posted above, and swap your harddisk before you clone else you will get BSOD when window loads.


After resolving all the above, and defragmented my new hd, and chkdsk (though it didn't complete as "CHKDSK CANNOT CONTINUE ON READ ONLY MODE" error occured) on my new hd, eveyrthing is fine and working, until this morning when i tried to play my game as usual, and I keep getting having blue screen (pure blue, no words), den plain black screen, then a restart.

Occasionally I also may get black screen and the comp just hangs there..

is there anything else I need to do to my new hd?

[rbena]

eveyrthing is fine and working, until this morning when i tried to play my game as usual, and I keep getting having blue screen (pure blue, no words), den plain black screen, then a restart.

Occasionally I also may get black screen and the comp just hangs there.

Are your problems only occurring when you play the game, or also during general use of your T42. If they only occur with your game, then it may be a faulty game or heat related.

However, if these problems didn't occur playing your game from your original hard drive, my guess is there are software issues with your new installation.

You'll then want to first check the new hard drive integrity, running Drive Fitness Test or other diagnostic software to see if a problem is identified. If nothing shows up, I would start by reinstalling your OS and seeing if the problems disappear.

If not, you may end up doing a complete reinstall of your new hard drive contents. As you're starting out new, it's worth getting your system working perfectly, and then making a backup copy / image to a second hard drive. This will save lots of time in future reinstalls.

[Kyocera]

I'm not a gamer (used to play solitare) but you may have a Ram or video issue. Check event viewer and see if anything relative to the time the machine crashes is listed.