Thinkpads Forum

I just wanted to double check before ordering, either of these hard drives will work at optimal speed in a T60 right?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822146228
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822146053

Also, if I get that (I'm leaning towards the Hitachi, thoughts?) and this http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/store ... 8425228378
(Thinkpad 2nd HDD Adapter for Ultrabay Slim) I can then put the 5400rpm drive that came with the computer in that adapter and it's hot swappable with my CD drive, correct?

As soon as I get my computer will I be able to make a restore CD off the current 5400rpm drive, then stick the 7200 in there and use that restore CD to make it exactly as if the laptop came with a 7200 installed?
Thanks,
Richard

I don't know the answer, but I wanted to add an additional question, as the person who answers the first will likely also know the answer to this:

Is the "airbag" protection hardware based, such that buying third party drives will not work with the APS, or is it software based such that any hard drive should work with it?

cxls wrote:I don't know the answer, but I wanted to add an additional question, as the person who answers the first will likely also know the answer to this:

Is the "airbag" protection hardware based, such that buying third party drives will not work with the APS, or is it software based such that any hard drive should work with it?

Ooo good question, I'd pony up the extra cash to buy a 60gb 7200 drive (even though it's considerably more expensive than a non thinkpad 7200 100gb drive) from Lenovo if going outside Lenovo meant I no longer had the airbag - well either I'd pony up the extra cash or just live with the 5400 for a while

They should both work, I've got a hitachi 100GB 7200RPM drive in my T60.

But the HHD adapter on you link is PATA only, you want the SATA model, because your HDD has a SATA interface

http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/store ... 8425101139

kimx wrote:They should both work, I've got a hitachi 100GB 7200RPM drive in my T60.

But the HHD adapter on you link is PATA only, you want the SATA model, because your HDD has a SATA interface

I see. Once in that adapter is the drive hot swappable (i.e. can I swap between CD drive and HDD adapter without first shutting off the laptop)? Also, do you know the answer to the airbag question?
Thanks,
Richard

As far as I know there's no fysical difference between the two drives that I have, other than the specs.

As for the airbag question, I'm not quite sure what is meant by that, but any drive protection is buld into the thinkpad, not the HDD.

And yes the HDD will be hot swappable in the adapter. At leat mine is

kimx wrote:As far as I know there's no fysical difference between the two drives that I have, other than the specs.

As for the airbag question, I'm not quite sure what is meant by that, but any drive protection is buld into the thinkpad, not the HDD.

And yes the HDD will be hot swappable in the adapter. At leat mine is

The airbag is two parts: 1 - the shock mounting of the hard drive 2 - the thing that stops the hard drive from spinning when it senses a fall. It sounds like these are features of the laptop and not the hard drive, cool!

ok, now I understand you, the shock mounting and the accelerometer is a part of the laptop not the HDD.

Cool, Hitachi ordered (will arrive Tuesday) and ultrabay adapter ordered (will ship in 3-4 weeks). Luckily I won't need the adapter for a little while.

FYI...Page Computer is selling the sata adapter for a few dollars less and it's apparently in stock. Page ships quickly and I have found them reliable. I will be ordering one today.
http://www.pagecomputers.com/store/prod ... Fid=957371

steveg47 wrote:FYI...Page Computer is selling the sata adapter for a few dollars less and it's apparently in stock. Page ships quickly and I have found them reliable. I will be ordering one today.
http://www.pagecomputers.com/store/prod ... Fid=957371

I saw that but I passed because I then saw this
http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1830.html

Thanks for the heads up on Page. Last time I ordered from them was about a year ago. They were quick and I encountered no problems nor did a number of other techs in my dept who ordered from them. Not too worried though, if they have soured since then, it's only $50 dollars and I can always put a hold on payment with my credit card company if I encounter difficulties. I'll report back my experience with Page if anyone is interested.

And I got it in 2 days, free shipping but taxed (of course). The selling price was $43 because I ordered it from a Lenovo site for MasterCard users (that gives discounts to anyone--you don't even need to pay with a MasterCard).

The adapter works great in the T60's media bay or in the media bay of my Advanced Dock. I can boot from the drive when it is in the T60's bay but I can't boot from it when it is in the Dock's bay. (That's how the hardware is designed.)

As other posters have ntoed, the anti-shock protection in the T60 is not a function of the HDD itself. There are two things involved: the rubber "rails" that hold the HDD itself (to cushion it a bit) and the hardware accelerometer that is on the T60's motherboard. The software will park the drive when too much motion is sensed by the chip (the feature is configurable as to its sensitivity by a ThinkVantage applet).

I will point out that the HDD that you put into the SATA adapter will not have the rubber "rails" (that is, the drive just slips into the adapter and is held (rather loosely) by a fold-down bar. Only the internal HDD has the rubber rails.

wallybear wrote:And I got it in 2 days, free shipping but taxed (of course). The selling price was $43 because I ordered it from a Lenovo site for MasterCard users (that gives discounts to anyone--you don't even need to pay with a MasterCard).

What site might that be?

Well, I said I would report back my ordering experience with PageComputers. Ordered the Serial ATA Hard Drive Adapter(pn 40Y9725) last Saturday and received it today. Service was very quick and they answered my inquiries within minutes. I would definitely order from them again. The price was 39.31 and shipping via Fedex Ground was 8.48 and no sales tax
Now if only Lenovo would ship my T60P

I wonder what's up with their resellerratings? Well...mine shipped yesterday and I'm supposed to have it Tuesday...quick enough for me ($53 shipped...I wonder if Lenovo is ever going to consider keeping a stock of non-configureable products in the US, it seems like that would probably be cheaper than shipping an individual product from overseas through import each time.

This seems like a good place to ask... do you suppose it will be possible to install a hybrid drive in the T60? It should be the same form factor, and I'm assuming it will use a compatible interface, so there shouldn't be a problem, right?

I'm not sure, does replacing the hard drive yourself void the warranty? What if I get a Lenovo technician to do it? I'd really like to improve my battery life by using one of these, when they come out.

As long as the hybrid drive has a SATA interface, it should go just fine. The only problem is that you *might* very well not notice any improvement to Windows as XP might not use the Flash area in it or would not otherwise be optimized to do so; yet that is primarily would be a rare driver issue, if it manifests at all.

No, it doesn't void your warranty to install a new HDD; the HDD is a customer-replaceable/field replaceable unit (FRU) and buying a new one to replace the one you have is fine as long as it is compatible with the Thinkpad.

Not quite sure about the battery life improvement as, first off, HDDs use little power (unless you use your HDD *alot*) and will barely dent power consumption ratings if they are properly managed in terms of power; there are a variety of tools that will help save power more so on a regular HDD as opposed to buying a new expense Hybrid unit to gain the same, or worse, power savings. There have been threads here that discuss the pros and cons of hybrid and pure flash based primary drives in Thinkpads. You might want to look into some of them if you feel you would like to know more about the practical implementations of hybrid drives in Thinkpads.

HTH