Thinkpads Forum

Hi guys,

Will this (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6822148374) harddrive fit my laptop? I've read some horror stories but I'm not quite sure if they apply to me though (I plan to use it as my main drive).

Thanks!

(edit: I've been searching and Seagate doesnt have a compatability tool )

Also... If this isn't a good drive, what do you recommend? (I live in Canada)

... What about this? http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6822136280

If you don't want to pay through the nose for a good SSD, I'd generally recommend a single-platter 5400rpm drive. But you should really state what it is you want out of the drive if you want good advice... depending on your priorities, the drive you selected might well be the best choice.

I don't know for sure if this drive is compatible with your laptop. I don't see why it wouldn't be but you never know...

HFat wrote:If you don't want to pay through the nose for a good SSD, I'd generally recommend a single-platter 5400rpm drive. But you should really state what it is you want out of the drive if you want good advice... depending on your priorities, the drive you selected might well be the best choice.

I don't know for sure if this drive is compatible with your laptop. I don't see why it wouldn't be but you never know...

Big storage and performance (haha isn't that what we all want?)

I'd prefer 500gb though 320 might suffice. Are there any single-platter 5400rpm drives you recommend?

I care more for reliability and noise. If you want speed and capacity, a large 7200rpm seems like it would be the right choice.

If you want the very best, you should perhaps hit a forum who has more collective storage expertise (though this forum is probably the best place for compatibility inquiries). I would also stay away from drives about which there are too many horror stories.

That sounds like a newer version of my Momentus 5400.6 (?) a 500GB Seagate 5400rpm that was all they had in 500GB two months ago. Replacing the 7200.whatever 320GB drive I had put in last year.

I can tell you that I've found *no* performance difference in real world use, or in the Vista Experience ratings, between a 5400 and a 7200rpm Momentus drive.

But it did take Seagate *four* drives to get one good one shipped to me, and even with their "48 hour prepaid hot swap" that took a month overall to get done. Frankly, I'd be scared to recommend or buy a Seagate 500GB drive right now, it looks like they are having some qc problems. (And I'm a long-time Seagate fan.)

Among the current selection, what do you guys think of WD Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 5400 RPM 500 GB drive? the prices of the selection are pretty much around $90

WD Scorpios are amongst the best (if not THE best) of the current crop.
Since your T61 takes SATA, it would be a perfect fit (and my choice if I were in the market).
If you want to put an unbreakable password on the hard disk, then the Hitachi should be your choice.

2think wrote:Among the current selection, what do you guys think of WD Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 5400 RPM 500 GB drive? the prices of the selection are pretty much around $90

I have two in my XPS M1730... and am thinking about getting another to use as a second HDD in my T60p. I have had no problems with them, although I've never run any specific benchmarks.

will1087 wrote:Hi guys,

Will this (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6822148374) harddrive fit my laptop? I've read some horror stories but I'm not quite sure if they apply to me though (I plan to use it as my main drive).

Thanks!

(edit: I've been searching and Seagate doesnt have a compatability tool )

Also... If this isn't a good drive, what do you recommend? (I live in Canada)

... What about this? http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6822136280

The seagate drive will fit with no issues. I have two of these --one in my t60p and one in my t61. They are quiet and very reliable. They also carry a three year warranty.

Be very careful about Seagate drives purchased from Newegg.

I already did that dance with them. Newegg (US) claimed the drives have a full retail warranty. Seagate (US) stands by their long-standing policy, which is that OEM drives have no warranty from Seagate except for the specific warranty sold to the OEM source.

The only way to verify the particular warranty on a drive, is to give Seagate the serial number of the drive. Newegg refuses to supply serial numbers, and has no record of any direct warranty. So according to Seagate--these OEM drives from Newegg probably have no warranty at all, beyond Newegg's 30-day return policy.

The normal warranty and support terms for any OEM computer part are something negotiated between the maker and the OEM seller, and they are usually a large part of the reason for a lower OEM price. Along with cheaper packaging, different support, and different warranties.

There are other folks selling Seagate OEM drives with varying warranties, from one to three years for "they're all the same" drives. I don't care what Newegg says about the warranty, if Seagate says they won't be providing one, that's the last word, to me.

hellosailor wrote:Be very careful about Seagate drives purchased from Newegg.

Thanks for the heads up. Has anybody had any problems getting WD to fulfill 3 yr parts and labor support on newegg sold WD Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 5400 RPM 500 GB drive?

Same precaution, with any "OEM" drive sold from any source. Every drive maker has pretty much the same OEM policies. An OEM drive has no cables, no docs, no rails, no jumpers, no warranty, no pretty box--unless the OEM contract called for them. If the vendor promises a warranty, get that in writing and confirm it by running the serial number of the drive with the manufacturer. That's the only way to be sure.

SOME OEM drives, from some sources, sold in all sorts of places, will carry a full retail warranty. others won't. Without an express written warranty, or a serial number to verify, it is hard to take it on trust--regardless of the vendor.

Heck, WD will sell you a "retail" drive with a 3 year warranty, but if you buy it in their own branded Passport Elite package, they'll give you five years on the same drive. And zero if you open it up, or remove it from their case.

Interesting info about the OEM warranty crap-shoot ..... I've never had warranty length issues with OEM drives. However I've never bought an actual HD from Newegg, even though I've bought many other items from them without any problems.

Maybe it is Seagate that's the problem here rather than Newegg or other OEM sellers of hard drives??

I just checked my four 7200 RPM 320GB OEM Hitachi TravelStar 7K320 BDE units (P/Ns 0A57527 with Bulk Disk Encryption) at the Hitachi Support Site by S/N and all four units show 3 years on their warranties .... Purchased two through Buy.com, one through Provantage and one through CDW (as I recall off the top of my head).

I also checked on a 3.5" WD 1TB Caviar Black Series OEM HD purchased via Dell Online and Western Digital's website shows it to have 5 years on the warranty .... just like it's retail boxed twin that I bought from Fry's live and in person.

AFAIK, the OEM warranty "problem" has existed with every drive (and part) vendor in the industry. Drive makers have been playing war with warranty terms in recent years as margins and market have gone away. Once upon a time, they all stretched to 3-5 years without any difficulty, then most dropped to 1-2-3 years, then customers [censored] loadly and warranties have grown again. Sometimes.

But no, this is not a Seagate problem. As I said, even WD still sells some drives retail wit a 3-year warranty, but OEM under their own enclosure/product they'll up the identical drive to 5 years!

They know very well what "incentive" is.

hellosailor wrote:But no, this is not a Seagate problem. As I said, even WD still sells some drives retail wit a 3-year warranty, but OEM under their own enclosure/product they'll up the identical drive to 5 years!

Okay .... I just checked all my "bare" OEM drives (about a dozen) from WD and Hitachi and they have full 3 to 5 year retail warranties listed on their website warranty check pages. Unfortunately, all my current Seagates were purchased as Retail Boxed, so I could not check any OEM Seagates.

I also phoned WD's and Hitachi's warranty customer service departments and they confirmed the warranty lengths.

I bought all of those OEM HDDs from various vendors and all were advertised and sold to me as bare OEM drives (not in enclosures, etc).

Maybe I'm just dumb lucky, or maybe everyone else is unlucky ..... If it's indeed luck on my part, I should probably buy a few Lotto tickets this week while I'm on a roll.

Well, we're down to what, three? companies actually making hard drives? From what used to be 10? 12?

hellosailor wrote:Well, we're down to what, three? companies actually making hard drives? From what used to be 10? 12?

Besides WD, Seagate/Maxtor and Hitachi, what about Fujitsu? I wonder if they are still manufacturing HDDs?

just picked up one WD scorpio Black WD3200BEKT 320 GB 7200 RPM bare OEM hard drive from NewEgg and just like eecon said, WD warranty lookup said it was covered for 5 years.

I'm running the 500GB 7200.4 in my T61p with no issues. It's very quiet and it's actually faster than the Seagate 250GB in my desktop computer. I've never had a Seagate drive fail on me. However, if it does fail, Seagate is the parent company of i365 data recovery services. Instead of doing a warranty replacement like WD or Hitachi would, they can actually get your data back first.

"However, if it does fail, Seagate is the parent company of i365 data recovery services. Instead of doing a warranty replacement like WD or Hitachi would, they can actually get your data back first."

Except, the warranty covers simple replacement or repair, NOT data recovery. Sure, i365 can recover data, but you can expect to spend over $1000 for "simple" data replacement on a drive 1/4 of that size. From your choice of reputable vendors, in or out of warranty.

AFAIK the last time a drive maker of any kind included a data recovery warranty, it was Polaroid, the original Polaroid, for their 5-1/4" floppies using their own in-house service. Hard drives? AFAIK no one, ever. If you can find a written warranty that includes data recovery, please do post a link to it!

hellosailor wrote:"However, if it does fail, Seagate is the parent company of i365 data recovery services. Instead of doing a warranty replacement like WD or Hitachi would, they can actually get your data back first."

Except, the warranty covers simple replacement or repair, NOT data recovery. Sure, i365 can recover data, but you can expect to spend over $1000 for "simple" data replacement on a drive 1/4 of that size. From your choice of reputable vendors, in or out of warranty.

AFAIK the last time a drive maker of any kind included a data recovery warranty, it was Polaroid, the original Polaroid, for their 5-1/4" floppies using their own in-house service. Hard drives? AFAIK no one, ever. If you can find a written warranty that includes data recovery, please do post a link to it!

It does not state it in the warranty. However, I do know a few people that have sent drives in for replacement/repair due to manufacturer defects, and they offered data recovery services if needed. For most cases, I was told they offer a discount on data recovery to Seagate customers. Their customer service is top notch and the best I have ever dealt with.

you are crazy to even consider STX drives. Low QC, high rate of defect after installation therefore you are incurring high operating risk of downtime and potantial data loss.