Thinkpads Forum

I am considering to buy a Western Digital 320GB. I was originally planning to get Hitachi 500GB, but it turned out the new Hitachi 400GB/500GB drives will be 12.5mm instead of 9.5mm, which will most likely make these drives incompatible with T60 I have. Thus, I decided to get a drive that currently has the largest capacity (WD 320GB) although I am not a big fan of WD (I prefer Hitachi or Seagate). The reviews at Newegg.com are predominantly positive.

However, I couldn't find a report anywhere that someone was successfully able to install this drive on a ThinkPad. So, I am wondering if anyone has an experience with this drive. Most importantly, this is a SATA 3.0G drive (not SATA 150). I believe SATA 3.0 will automatically down speed to SATA 150 if a PC does not support it, but I've also heard that it could cause a problem if BIOS does not support it. I would appreciate if you could share your experience and/or insight.

Thanks.

Yes, it will work fine.

drblue wrote:Thus, I decided to get a drive that currently has the largest capacity (WD 320GB) although I am not a big fan of WD...

Toshiba also manufacture a 320GB 2.5" 5400rpm SATA HDD.

Yup. I have that very drive and it works great in my T60p.

Crunch,

Great. That's what I wanted to hear. Thanks.

Peak2Peak,

Does Toshiba sell this separately? I don't seem to be able to find this drive sold separately. Do they use this exclusively with their laptops? Maybe I didn't search thoroughly enough.

Here's a place that sells the Toshiba, but expensive, and out of stock at the moment. About $300 U.S.:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... e=10007406
I've bought from them before.

The WD 320gb 2.5" can be had cheaper (at least in U.S.) especially if you buy it inside an enclosure. Right now it's about $170 at amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010TZR44/
(Amazon prices can change quickly though.)

I've had one Toshiba 2.5" 40GB and one WD Scorpio 2.5" 80GB, and the Toshiba was much louder. But different models will vary, and so will individual drives. (Some people have had clicking problems with Scorpio drives.)

Here are drives on www.newegg.com with reviews....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... name=320GB

maybe,but you shoukld update your BIOS to the latest version(now is ver2.20)

eyestrain,

It appears paying extra $100+ for Toshiba does not seem to be a good idea, especially because WD 320GB has received good user/professional reviews in many popular sites.

Buying an external drive is an excellent idea. The price is even cheaper, and I can probably use the enclosure with my old drive. The question is if the drive inside an external enclosure is the same drive that is sold separately as a laptop drive. Do you think they are the same drive?

Thanks.

drblue wrote:The question is if the drive inside an external enclosure is the same drive that is sold separately as a laptop drive. Do you think they are the same drive?

Can't be sure, but I'd be surprised if they are different.

Almost all modern 2.5" drives I've heard of in the last few years are described as 9.5mm or 9mm (not sure if the .5 is left off sometimes, or if some really are .5 thinner) and I'm pretty sure that there's a maximum of two platters in a 9.5mm drive.

It hasn't been all that long since 2.5" drives became available with 160GB per platter. So, there's no such thing yet as a 1 platter 320GB 2.5". And there hasn't been a long time for WD to come out with new versions of the same configuration.

And, I really doubt there's a PATA version of this drive.

I'm not an expert on this though... if you're lucky, you might find a post somewhere on what model # people have found when opening up the enclosure. I've seen posts on that for other enclosures over the years, sometimes at "hot deals" or "slick deals" forums on various sites. Since drives are often cheaper inside an enclosure, it seems like a common thing to do.

You could also take a quick look at the WD site to make sure there's only one 2.5" 320GB model listed.

One downside to opening the enclosure: I've heard this might void the drive's warranty. Not sure if that's true or an urban legend.

drblue wrote:The question is if the drive inside an external enclosure is the same drive that is sold separately as a laptop drive. Do you think they are the same drive?

Same drive. Regarding warranty, might be an issue except if there was a problem you could always send it back in the enclosure, so just don't lose/sell the enclosure.

dfumento & eyestrain,

Thank you for the info. It appears it is a smart move to get an external drive. I will order one right away!

drblue wrote:Crunch,

Great. That's what I wanted to hear. Thanks.

also to eyestrain...2.5" (U.S.)= 9.5mm (metric/int'l). The additional .5m is merely left out at times out of laziness or lack of knowledge on the part of the author.

drblue: I'm not sure if this would be a viable alternative for you. I'm currently using 300GB in two drives, one of which (the 200GB one) is in the main HD slot, whereas the additional one (currently 100GB) is in the Ultrabay slot. I hardly ever use my DVDRW drive, but I can still hot-swap the 2nd drive and the burner when I need to, which is virtually never. Do you burn a lot of DVD's, and/or CD's? If not, you can have up to 500GB (2x250GB) in Hitchai drives (albeit at 5,400rpm, not yet in 7,200rpm) in your Thinkpad without having to go external. I got this Ultrabay HDD bay fairly recently, and I am loving it.

The Ultrabay is SATA as well by the way, so it works at the SAME SPEED as the main HD slot. Solid state hard drives are next for me...

Hope this helps!

Crunch wrote:also to eyestrain...2.5" (U.S.)= 9.5mm (metric/int'l). The additional .5m is merely left out at times out of laziness or lack of knowledge on the part of the author.

Thanks, thats what I suspected. (For most modern 2.5" drives, anyway--there was a post about a new 3 platter Hitachi 2.5" that's 12.5mm thick.)

An update to an earlier post of mine: it looks like there will soon be a 3 platter drive that fits in the now standard 9.5mm:
http://www.samsung.com/us/business/semi ... ews_id=892
500GB, supposedly in first half of 2008.

eyestrain wrote:Almost all modern 2.5" drives I've heard of in the last few years are described as 9.5mm ...

FYI
The Fujitsu Hornet J100H 250GB SATA (MHX2250BT) and 300GB SATA (MHX2300BT) have 12.5 mm:
http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/HDD/mh ... -70402.pdf

drblue: I'm not sure if this would be a viable alternative for you. I'm currently using 300GB in two drives, one of which (the 200GB one) is in the main HD slot, whereas the additional one (currently 100GB) is in the Ultrabay slot. I hardly ever use my DVDRW drive, but I can still hot-swap the 2nd drive and the burner when I need to, which is virtually never. Do you burn a lot of DVD's, and/or CD's? If not, you can have up to 500GB (2x250GB) in Hitchai drives (albeit at 5,400rpm, not yet in 7,200rpm) in your Thinkpad without having to go external. I got this Ultrabay HDD bay fairly recently, and I am loving it.

I do have an ultrabay adapter, which I am using with one of my old drive. I use it as a backup drive (compressed data files). Although I don't use the burner much, I am not comfortable with putting my important data in a removable drive (=ultrabay) because it always carries a higher risk of data corruption (however small the chance is, the chance is slightly higher than the fixed drive). Thus, I am trying to stay away from the two drive configuration.

I think I can live with 320GB for the next few months at least. I will probably have to upgrade my laptop within the next year, and I am sure there will be 500GB-750GB 9.5mm drives available by then.

Thanks.

I have a WD Scorpio 320GB (WD3200BEVT) on a T60p. After cloning with the Acronis software it did not work, however I formatted the disk with windows setup and it worked fine.

Same drive. Regarding warranty, might be an issue except if there was a problem you could always send it back in the enclosure, so just don't lose/sell the enclosure.

Following your advice, I bought WD 320GB. It worked flawlessly with my T60. Now I am considering to get another because I am quite happy with this drive.

Both dfumento and eystrain suggested that this drive is same as the drive that comes in the Passport external drive. It was tempting to buy a Passport drive because it is cheaper (although not that much), and I can use the external enclosure. However, I didn't bought the Passport external drive for two reasons: (1) in other sites, users noted that they are NOT the same drive (the drive in a Passport is PATA, but not SATA); and (2) the tech support person at WD also told me that it is PATA (and is different from the laptop drive).

So, I have some conflicting information here. Did anyone actually buy the external Passport drive and successfully use it with a laptop with SATA interface? Thanks!!!



[/quote]