Thinkpads Forum

Hi,
My T60 came with a 60GB drive which Id like to replace with a 500GB model.
Ive read some past topics here and the steps seem to be:
1- Buy new HDD
2- Transfer/Clone OS image with Acronis (Ive used Acronis many times for TIB images, just not cloning)
3- Then it should work

My questions are:

1 - Is there a detailed tutorial about doing this on an T60 using Acronis?

2 -
To (temporarily) hold the 2nd HDD, would this thing be good - OR - should I get an external enclosure?
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?s ... HERMALTAKE


3 -
If worst-case would I need some official IBM rescue discs or anything? Ive already made some Acronis images of my machine, one minute after it arrived, and then again after I installed my stuff on it. I have made an Acronis bootable start-up disc too, to access my OSimage.

Are the recovery/rescue discs good to have? Or do they just contain drives I could find myself on the IBM website - Because I really dont want to pay 45USD for some discs...

Many thanks for the help and comments!

Do yourself a big favor and forget external USB enclosures for the operation you have in mind. Get any of the adapters shown in the link below (as long as it is SATA, it does not matter if the listing states T40 or T60), move the existing drive from the main drive bay to the adapter, place the adapter in the CD-ROM bay of the T60, place the new drive in the main drive bay, and clone.
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=%28Len ... &_osacat=0
Good luck!

If you're going to go with an UltraBay adapter as suggested by EOMtp, you may want to consider using the old drive later in the adapter as a second HDD. In that case you want to get the an adapter for T6x because it has a different bezel than the one for T4x series (the T4x one is curved, T6x is not). An adapter with curved bezel will work in T6x but it will look odd (if you're into aesthetics).

Very good ideas guys thanks, I think Im going to go that route!

I don't think Id use my cd/dvd unit much anyways.

I will look for a T60 specific model for sure to get the smooth fit. Thanks again.

JohnB2000 wrote:Hi,
My T60 came with a 60GB drive which Id like to replace with a 500GB model.
Ive read some past topics here and the steps seem to be:
1- Buy new HDD
2- Transfer/Clone OS image with Acronis (Ive used Acronis many times for TIB images, just not cloning)
3- Then it should work

My questions are:

1 - Is there a detailed tutorial about doing this on an T60 using Acronis?


Many thanks for the help and comments!

Recently I did cloning of my old stock Hitach 160GB to new WD Scorpio Black 320 GB with Acronis. It;s very easy, just chlidlish
The cloning tool is in tool menu, you will be guided step by step in a very detailed way in the process... I went for option when I was able to resize the original partitions.... everything went smooth and easy. But just in case don't got for deleting partitions from old disk... if the new cloned one fails somehow to boot, you still have the original HDD to repeat cloning. If succedeed, you may delete partitions from old disk and make a new setting if you wish.
Fo cloning I did buy a cheap external 2.5 inch USB HDD case... works great
GL

Yacek wrote: Many thanks for the help and comments!

Recently I did cloning of my old stock Hitach 160GB to new WD Scorpio Black 320 GB with Acronis. It;s very easy, just chlidlish
The cloning tool is in tool menu, you will be guided step by step in a very detailed way in the process... I went for option when I was able to resize the original partitions.... everything went smooth and easy. But just in case don't got for deleting partitions from old disk... if the new cloned one fails somehow to boot, you still have the original HDD to repeat cloning. If succedeed, you may delete partitions from old disk and make a new setting if you wish.
Fo cloning I did buy a cheap external 2.5 inch USB HDD case... works great
GL[/quote]

Great good to hear that your upgrade went smoothly!

So to confirm:

I place the new/blank HDD in the current ThinkPad bay spot, and the old OS/Data drive in the enclosure/extra bay.
Then the machine wont boot since the OS drive is now the empty drive, but I boot with the Acronis boot disc and clone the old to the new right? Are these the basic steps?

Many thanks!

JohnB2000 wrote: So to confirm:

I place the new/blank HDD in the current ThinkPad bay spot, and the old OS/Data drive in the enclosure/extra bay.
Then the machine wont boot since the OS drive is now the empty drive, but I boot with the Acronis boot disc and clone the old to the new right? Are these the basic steps?

Many thanks!

Yes, precisely.

JohnB2000 wrote:
Great good to hear that your upgrade went smoothly!

So to confirm:

I place the new/blank HDD in the current ThinkPad bay spot, and the old OS/Data drive in the enclosure/extra bay.
Then the machine wont boot since the OS drive is now the empty drive, but I boot with the Acronis boot disc and clone the old to the new right? Are these the basic steps?

Many thanks!

I did it other way.

I left the old drive in factory compound and the new one placed in external 2.5inch HDD case (USB) (so I did not have to create Acronis boot CD).
Acronis detected USB drive properly and then the cloning process was very easy. After finishing, I did replace the old drive with a new one in factory compound.... that's all. For a week or two I did nottouch the old drive in case that new HDD is having any troubles, but it was not the case so I made the old HDD as an external backup/archive device.

Yacek wrote:I did it other way. ...

You were one of the lucky ones! Connecting the target (new) drive to a USB interface will not always generate a working bootable cloned drive. There are several reasons for this, but what matters for this discussion is to note that the only guarantee of generating a working bootable clone 100% of the time is by placing the target (new) drive is in the primary drive bay.

Hi, John,

I installed a new drive in my T61p using Acronis True Image Home edition. I tried it both ways - with the Acronis boot disc and the new drive in an external adapter and running it in Windows with the new drive in the Ultrabay.

In both cases, it took about 41 minutes to transfer the image and the drive was bootable.

I wrote about it, and you can read my step-by-step here:

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hard ... 16043.aspx

And you might want to save your old drive to use in an external enclosure. True Image Home is also an excellent backup utility. I wrote about that, too, and you can find the link on the second page of the article above.

I hope this helps.

Lamar

EOMtp wrote:Get any of the adapters shown in the link below
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=%28Len ... &_osacat=0

Aloha! Thank you very much for this link. However, i remember when i did this awhile back, i had to also purchase the small cage that screws onto the drive which in turn sits in this caddy. I actually had to get this from ebay as Lenovo sales didn't have a clue, but i can't for the life of me remember where and what it was actually called.
Could you help refresh my memory?

Thanks

for all the hardware (HDD caddy, 2nd HDD adapter, etc.) go to newmodeUS by clicking in the banner bar at the top of the page..

BillMorrow wrote:for all the hardware (HDD caddy, 2nd HDD adapter, etc.) go to newmodeUS by clicking in the banner bar at the top of the page..

Thanks Bill! Most interesting... they are both called hard drive caddys, but no specific part no.? It appears to be mandatory to properly secure the drive in the Ultrabay.

Edit: Looks like this provider's PN is "TP-60." but i wonder what the fru # is if any?

Thanks for the source. When i order the extra Ultrabay from L*novo with the TPad, imagine my surprise when this didn't come with it.

SafeHarbor wrote:Hi, John,

I installed a new drive in my T61p using Acronis True Image Home edition. I tried it both ways - with the Acronis boot disc and the new drive in an external adapter and running it in Windows with the new drive in the Ultrabay.

In both cases, it took about 41 minutes to transfer the image and the drive was bootable.

I wrote about it, and you can read my step-by-step here:

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hard ... 16043.aspx

And you might want to save your old drive to use in an external enclosure. True Image Home is also an excellent backup utility. I wrote about that, too, and you can find the link on the second page of the article above.

I hope this helps.

Lamar

Hi Lamar,

That really helps a lot, thanks for doing the writeup, really helpful I appreciate it!

I do use Acronis its great software, I use it to image my drives as back-up, but have never tried the clone feature.

Im going to buy both an external HDD and an internal bay adapter and think about what to do when they arrive.

Vantec sells a nice little aluminum enclosure for $15, so its pretty cheap.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as ... 6817392019

Thanks again.

one last remark..
you do not strictly NEED the HDD caddy (thats the metal plate with the tape) to use the drive either IN a thinkpad or in a thinkpad via the ultrabay 2nd HDD adapter..
in the drive bey you can attach a piece of masking (or similar) tape to the drive so you can get it out..

i have done that many times..
but you will need those rubber bumpers on the drive while in the drive bay and they DO stay on the drive more securly with the HDD caddy..