Transferring XP HD between similar Thinkpads

[mark-ibmtp]

This is indirectly related to my first post on T43p sudden power loss. To get back in business as soon as possible, I am looking at the option of getting a similar T43, and moving the hard drive from the sick patient to a (hopefully) healthier one.

It will probably not be practical, to find an identically configured T43. If I find one that is quite similar, but has some configuration differences (for example, missing the built-in Bluetooth), how will XP react to booting up in a different chassis?

If anyone has any advice concerning how much difference can be tolerated -- and especially, which things are important to keep the same -- this could be very helpful to me. Are there things I should be especially on guard about, such as different models or makes of devices (WiFi, etc.) between very similar Thinkpad models?

Thanks!

[ajkula66]

You can swap the drives between ATi-based T43/p units 24/7/365 and it will work.

Wireless drivers are the only thing that might be different between any two units.

[mark-ibmtp]

Thanks, George!

For anyone who may be interested, I just picked up a replacement Thinkpad. The old one (shuts down spontaneously) is a T43p 2687DUU. The new one (it was expensive, but looks like it was never used) is a T43 2687D4U -- I'm using it to post this reply

Along with the T43, I bought a new HD the same size as that on the T43p, both to be safe and to have a spare. I used the Linux dd command (from an Ubuntu live CD) to make a byte-for-byte clone to the new drive, and swapped it into the new T43. It booted up absolutely without troubles. There were a couple of Windows "new hardware found" dialogs for a different style CD/DVD drive, and a different configuration of the Bluetooth interface. To my surprise, even my fingerprint login worked -- I guess the fingerprint data isn't stored on the security chip for Win login Everything is running absolutely normally -- the only difference, is that I don't have the annoying problems of the old T43p (including several dirty smudges in the LCD layers).

Two great things about this swap:

1) I'm a software engineer, and I have a LOT of packages and drivers installed. To reconstitute everything on a new system probably costs me 1.5 weeks of hard work. The procedure I did (including backing everything up to an external HD) took only a few hours, and I can resume seamlessly.

2) I considered biting the bullet and getting a "modern new" notebook. At my local shop, there must have been about 30 models -- and EVERY ONE OF THEM has the same display resolution (I think it was 1280 X 768). I don't like wide-display notebooks (for me, the ergonomics of the 15" T4x machines is ideal), and I need more vertical pixels than that! All of my notebooks are SXGA+ (1400 X 1050), except I have on order a T43p UXGA (1600 X 1200). For software development, vertical pixels matter, and 768 of them is just not acceptable.

For me, the old Thinkpads are a much better bang for the buck than anything new.