T41p-how far can I upgrade the stock HDD and optical drives?

[s2kdriver80]

I have the 2373-GGU T41p with 60GB 7200RPM HDD and a CD (writeable)/DVD (not writeable) optical drive.

I'm going to be keeping this T41p and wondering to what extent I can upgrade these two drives. For example, how large of a HDD can I install on my laptop without having issues? Can I install a better optical drive, like one that can write DVDs as well?

I guess I would have to get ones not endorsed by IBM/Lenovo, right? If I called them up, they'd probably recommend only the stock drives. What do I have to look for, in order to ensure compatibility with my system?

Thanks.

[Harryc]

You can run the largest 2.5" IDE laptop hard drive available in a T41p. Currently that is 320GB. As far as the optical drive, you can run an Ultrabay Slim CDRW/DVDRW Multiburner.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 55186.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136345

[s2kdriver80]

You can run the largest 2.5" IDE laptop hard drive available in a T41p. Currently that is 320GB. As far as the optical drive, you can run an Ultrabay Slim CDRW/DVDRW Multiburner.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 55186.html
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136345

Thanks Harry.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/UltraBay_ ... urner_Plus

Is that the same burner? Your link has p/n 73P3294 whereas the the p/n in my link is 73P3342 - they both say ultrabay multiburner and they both claim each works on the T41p. Do you know if that's a slight variation of the same product, or is it literally identical?

Also, it seems like all PATA/IDE 2.5" drives nowadays spin no faster than 5400rpm. My stock 60gb drive spins at 7200rpm, but I suppose the much larger capacity is a worthy tradeoff to a slightly slower drive.

[Harryc]

Yes that linked drive is also an Ultrabay slim and it will work in your machine. If you do a bit of research I think you'll find that modern 5400rpm large capacity drives are as fast as older 7200rpm drives from a few years ago.

[s2kdriver80]

Yes that linked drive is also an Ultrabay slim and it will work in your machine. If you do a bit of research I think you'll find that modern 5400rpm large capacity drives are as fast as older 7200rpm drives from a few years ago.

Cool thanks - that's good to know. And since PATA/IDE technology is phasing out, I take it the choices are limited, right? I haven't heard great things about recent WD drives. Are all laptop hard drives on the same tier in terms of general reliability or are some brands more dependable?

Also, I have a question regarding the recovery CDs IBM gave me to load up the new larger hard drive. Would I have issues, since those recovery CDs might assume I have the stock hard drive? I'm just asking since I imagine the image might contain hardware data and drivers specific to the original configuration that IBM put on my T41p and so when I load the CDs onto the new hard drive, the recovery process might be expecting the exact same HDD the system came with, and thus cause conflicts and crashes. And lastly, since the recovery CDs have XP SP2 on it, the 137gb limit is no longer there and I can have a single C: drive with all 320gb, right? Or should I split the drives into say C: 137gb and D: 183gb, anyway? Thanks.

[Harryc]

There are no driver conflicts and the recovery CD's will work on any drive. Also there is no 137GB limit for XP SP1 or later. As far as recommendations, your choices are limited. I'd say a Western Digital Scorpio Blue would do nicely.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... name=ATA-6
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303013

[s2kdriver80]

There are no driver conflicts and the recovery CD's will work on any drive. Also there is no 137GB limit for XP SP1 or later. As far as recommendations, your choices are limited. I'd say a Western Digital Scorpio Blue would do nicely.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... name=ATA-6
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/303013

Thank you again.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136379
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136345

Those are both Scorpio Blue 320gb drives. The second link says bare drive - do you know what the difference is? Also, in the second link, one of the reviewers were claiming that even though XP allows you to use more than 137gb, to make the first partition 137 and a second partition for the rest. This was why I was confused and asked the question before regarding C: 137 and D: 183, but I guess he didn't know what he was talking about.

[Harryc]

I haven't read the comments, but I'd assume that person has an older laptop/BIOS. If you flash to the latest BIOS for your machine you won't have a problem. A 'bare' drive from Newegg comes wrapped in bubble wrap and with no retail box or documentation. They generally carry the same warranty as a retail drive.
In this case the retail drive has - Manufacturer Limited Warranty period (parts): 3 years
The bare drive has - Manufacturer Limited Warranty period (parts): 3 years

[s2kdriver80]

Cool - thanks for your help.