Want to Upgrade T30 HDD to Hitachi 7K100 80 GB

[Kaka]

Hi All,

I am a newbie and need guidance from Experienced folks.

Here is the plan:

I want to upgrade 20 Gb HDD in my T30-2366 to a HITACHI TRAVELSTAR 7K100 80GB ATA-6 2.5IN 7200RPM HDD.

Now while browsing the site, I found out that It's not that simple of putting in the new HDD and bang you are ready to go.

I would appreciate if any member guides me about the specific procedure I need to follow to do the upgrade.

Thanks

Kaka

[john215]

I put a travelstar 100gig/7200rpm in my T30. It would have been a simple pop in except for the fact that I didn't have a floppy drive for the win XP boot disks. Once I got a floppy drive, $10 on eBay, it was easy.

[schen]

Mostly, you don't have to have a FDD, just set the boot device to CD or DVD and put your disk in there. That is, if you want a clean load. Otherwise you can simply use something like Acronis or Ghost and image the new disk, then swap the HDDs.

[Kaka]

John,

Well, other people on forum are talking about firmware upgrade on Retail HDD's found on ebay. I am planning to buy one from ebay as well since IBM is too expensive. If you got any time, can you pl. explain the upgrade procedure you followed and exact model of your HDD and from where you bought it.

Thanks

Kaka

[john215]

I bought my HItachi Travelstar E7K100, model # HTE721010G9AT00, from newegg.com. I don't remember exactly how much I paid, but they're going for $175 now. That's for the OEM drive. I strongly recommend newegg. They have great pricing, fast shipping, and great customer service. If you like eBay, they also accept paypal on newegg.

The physical install is straightforward, and you can dowload detailed instructions from IBM's website in pdf format. Just remove one screw from under the soundcard jacks. Remove the cover with the soundcard jacks. The drive is attached to the back of the jacks. Take out the old drive. Install the new drive. Voila.

I had the newest BIOS version, until I sent my T30 to IBM to fix the memory issue and they put on an older version. I think I have version 2.08 on there now, it used to be 2.09. I set my CD as the first option to boot from, but now luck initially. I tried to use various boot CDs and tried to make my own using instructions off the net to pack the SP2 file with the CD drivers. Nothing worked. I tried to use various utility disks, like MaxBlast. Nadda. I had to use the setup floppy disks. Then it was easy as pie. Install floppies 1-6, install CD, bing, bang, boom. Up and runnin'.

My T30 is model 2366-44U

[Kaka]

John,

Thanks a lot, much appreciated. I am planning to buy a 7k100 100 gb 7200 rpm hitachi.
I am planning to GHOST the existing hard drive and then unghost on new drive.
I was wondering there is IBM service Partition, Is there some way to ghost that only, 'cause I am interested only in Win XP image.

Thanks

Kaka