T41 - HD recommendations ?

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slaz · #1 Post by **slaz** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 11:44 am

Hiya - got a T41 recently ... and I'm loving it. Moved the HD into it from another machine ... its a Hitachi 60GB 7200 rpm - running very nicely, and cool at about 30-32C according to SIW.

But I wouldn't mind a bit more internal storage ... just wondering how a more recent 160GB or so 5400 rpm jobbie would compare performance-wise ?

TIA.

aaa · #2 Post by **aaa** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:24 pm

Good choices include the HM160HC and the WD 250gb.

They are very close performancewise to those old 7200 drives, a link from the HM160HC thread has somebody claiming it's faster, and most of the people in the WD thread agree that the WD is pretty close to 7200 performance.

slaz · #3 Post by **slaz** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:52 pm

Yeah - I suspected as much (about the performance).
Just looked up the WD 250GB - thats pretty cheap, and ebuyer is offering free delivery right now. [Finger hovering over buy it button]

sjthinkpader · #4 Post by **sjthinkpader** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 7:05 pm

Do it quick. PATA production is ending for the mainstream manufacturers.

Fry's still has the WD 160GB PATA for $60. I just bought another one today.

awolfe63 · #5 Post by **awolfe63** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 10:48 pm

aaa wrote:Good choices include the HM160HC and the WD 250gb.

They are very close performancewise to those old 7200 drives, a link from the HM160HC thread has somebody claiming it's faster, and most of the people in the WD thread agree that the WD is pretty close to 7200 performance.

I have used both of these on a T42 and I would recommend them as well. The 250GB seems a little faster to me.

#6 Post by **Johan** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 1:17 am

sjthinkpader wrote:Do it quick. PATA production is ending for the mainstream manufacturers.

I would be very interested if you would kindly elaborate a bit on this postulate - are we talking about cool, confirmed facts here, or is this more some loose rumors??

Thank you for - if possible - pointing to reliable sources confirming the above. If true, I will surely go grab a few PATA HDD's before it is "too late" - because when the 7200 rpm 2.5" PATA's went out of production last year, they disappeared from the market very rapidly. Now, they almost cannot be found! However, since there are several more 5400 rpm PATA manufacturers (than there were 7200 rpm manufacturers), I guess it is perhaps a bit too early to go into panic...

Johan

slaz · #7 Post by **slaz** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 2:28 am

OK - maybe someone with personal experience could post an assessment of the WD 250GB drive wrt heat and noise ?

Comparative/subjective judgement on noise would be good ...

My Hitachi 60GB 7200 drive runs at 30-32C according to SIW - which is nice- wouldn't want anything running too much warmer than that ....

TIA

#8 Post by **Johan** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 3:31 am

slaz wrote:OK - maybe someone with personal experience could post an assessment of the WD 250GB drive wrt heat and noise?

There are a lot of user reviews for this HDD at Newegg's site - and probably also at other similar sites. The Western Digital "Scorpio" HDD's have often been reeported to have some amount of "clicking noise", but in relation to this there is good news - as mentioned in the thread Having quite a bit of difficulties cloning my new HD (see the port of Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:57 am) where there is a very interesting link pointing to Western Digital Knowledge Base saying this:

Question/problem
Why does the WD Scorpio 2.5" hard drive make clicking noises when installed in a laptop computer? During normal operation, a WD Scorpio 2.5" hard drive will make a clicking noise when attempting to enter into power-saver or standby mode.

Cause:
This issue is caused by a system initiated power management command being interpreted incorrectly by the hard drive.

Resolution:
There is a WD Scorpio 2.5" hard drive optimization utility available to resolve this issue. Please follow the directions below to download and run the utility.

If anybody has downloaded and "upgraded" their WD Scorpio laptop HDD with this utility, and this has had any effect on the clicking noise, I'd like to hear how significant this improvement is?

Johan

#9 Post by **Harryc** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 3:52 am

Ah, a timely post. I just ordered a WD Scorpio 250GB . I am interested in how well (or not) this WD utility works as well.

suba · #10 Post by **suba** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 6:11 am

Just bought some HGST160GB PATA drives from Dabs at good prices.....

db130 · #11 Post by **db130** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 10:23 am

I've had the WD 250G Scorpio installed in my T40 for about a month now. I have not heard this clicking noise at all. In fact, the noise level is comparable if not better than the 40G 4200rpm Hitachi unit that it replaced.

slaz · #12 Post by **slaz** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:49 am

Just bought some HGST160GB PATA drives from Dabs at good prices.....

Yeup - I followed suit - ordered - one last night. I'm inclined to go for Hitachi rather than WD somehow. Lots of stories of premature demise of the WD drives - running hot - don't like that ..... (my WD 3.5" disks - now de-commisioned - run bloody hot also)

160GB should do me for quite some time I reckon.
(Mind you I said that in 1987 when I bought my first HD - 20MB - "Strewth - I'll never fill all that !!" )

5p33d0 · #13 Post by **5p33d0** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 11:19 am

How do I get the T40 to boot from the 250gb WD scorpio?

I have Re-imaged to the wd 250 my main hd a hitachi 80 gb.
but when I try to boot i get I get cable error message.

I know there Is a BIOS setting but i am not sure.

Please point me into the right direction, I do not know the term to search for

#14 Post by **Harryc** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 11:32 am

Cable error? I've never heard of this error on a Thinkpad. What machine is this, what software did you use to create and move the image from the old drive to the new? How did you physically do it..to a USB external drive? Second HDD adapter? Clone kit?

#15 Post by **richk** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 1:03 pm

I'm guessing the drive is not seated correctly. I assume you know the printing goes down.

5p33d0 · #16 Post by **5p33d0** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 1:29 pm

Should have mentioned this in my previous post, sorry:

I used DriveImageXML thrugh the ultrabay adapter. Cuz I didnt want to make a bootable cd for a different copy tool.
DriveImageXML works with windows running - it can copy partitions or drives sector by sector.

It worked great...but I could not boot. While the Old Hitachi boots fine.
The WD 250 drive is new.

the check cable error is from the Intel Boot loader..
the HD fails some media check and it tells me to check cable.

I just tried the mbrfix through windows cd. It said it finished, but I could not boot.

Machine is a T40 with a dothan 1.7; 2gb ram

I am now using a different copy tool EASEUS Disk Copy through a usb to ide adapter. Hope it works.

Any suggestions?

#17 Post by **Harryc** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 1:36 pm

I agree with Rich, It sounds like the drive is not installed all the way into the bay, or it is upside down.

5p33d0 · #18 Post by **5p33d0** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 1:41 pm

Yep, i insert it with the printed side down and the IBM cage side up
the same way my Hitachi is inserted.
- i do not think one can insert it another way and not damage pins.
-- I'll check it again when this copy finishes imaging

I think my issue here is i didnt run the fixboot C: command in recovery console

5p33d0 · #19 Post by **5p33d0** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 3:02 pm

{update}
The Easeus tool worked.
Lesson learned:
use a tool that shuts down the machine to clone it

awolfe63 · #20 Post by **awolfe63** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 9:46 pm

I think that's right. MBR never works right otherwise. Trueimage is probably the exception.

The only other thing I've done that works is to do a clean XP install on the bare disk then clone over it. That seems to get the MBR right.

sjthinkpader · #21 Post by **sjthinkpader** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 1:26 am

Johan wrote:
sjthinkpader wrote:Do it quick. PATA production is ending for the mainstream manufacturers.
I would be very interested if you would kindly elaborate a bit on this postulate - are we talking about cool, confirmed facts here, or is this more some loose rumors??

Thank you for - if possible - pointing to reliable sources confirming the above. If true, I will surely go grab a few PATA HDD's before it is "too late" - because when the 7200 rpm 2.5" PATA's went out of production last year, they disappeared from the market very rapidly. Now, they almost cannot be found! However, since there are several more 5400 rpm PATA manufacturers (than there were 7200 rpm manufacturers), I guess it is perhaps a bit too early to go into panic...

Johan

No, no rumors. Just look at what is on the shelves in stores. There are no more PATA Fujitsu drives at the local Fry's. There are only WD PATA and only 160GB and above.

If you look thru newegg.com, there are 10 ATA-6 in 48 items listed. One 250GB version from WD, 2 160GB, 3 120GB, 4 80GB. All the 80GB drives are probably EOL stock.

There are fewer and fewer new products for PATA. There hasn't been any new laptops shipped with PATA for 2 years. After market simply cannot sustain production for long.

slaz · #22 Post by **slaz** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 2:46 pm

the check cable error is from the Intel Boot loader..
the HD fails some media check and it tells me to check cable.

That error message has nothing to do the HD interface ... your laptop - in the (apparent) absence of a HD to boot from - is trying to boot from LAN ...

5p33d0 · #23 Post by **5p33d0** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 3:54 pm

Thanks, I realized why Intel boot loader sounded familiar:).
Like I said a different clone tool resolved the issue.

slaz wrote:
That error message has nothing to do the HD interface ... your laptop - in the (apparent) absence of a HD to boot from - is trying to boot from LAN ...

T41 - HD recommendations ?

T41 - HD recommendations ?

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