Thinkpads Forum

My laptop has 80GB hard disk and after Windows 7 installation, I have only 18GB free space left.

I am planning to upgrade to atleast 160GB hard disk. Please could you recommend some inexpensive internal hard drive for T61 (7658-CTO).

My Laptop came with 2GB RAM and 80GB Hard Disk 5400.

I have had absolutely no issues with the Hitachi 7k320.
I paid around $70 at CompUSA. I have two. One has Windows XP, the other has Windows 7.
They run cool as well.

It depends on your needs. If you are after storage and performance but do not care so much about noise and power consumption, the 7200RPM drives should be your choice. It seems that the best option is Hitachi. But you should consider WD Scorpio Black (some complain about vibration) or Seagate's Momentus 7200.4
If, on the other hand, you care just to increase storage then WD Scorpio Blue may be your best option. They are cheap and easy to find. As a matter of fact I just upgraded to Scorpio Blue and so far no major complains. It runs reasonably cool and quiet.

Definitely NOT the WD Scorpio Black!
With the exception of the Toshibas and the 500GB Seagate, any disk from this selection should please you:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... 5400%20RPM

RealBlackStuff wrote:Definitely NOT the WD Scorpio Black!
With the exception of the Toshibas and the 500GB Seagate, any disk from this selection should please you:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... 5400%20RPM

Thanks for the link.

Is this any good? - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148375

They're all about the same performance wise if you ask me. I've had good luck with my 7200.4. It has been a solid performer while running cool and quiet.

I've just dropped one of these in,

Seagate Momentus 500 GB SATA 2.5 Inch 7200 RPM Version 4 Laptop Internal Hard Drive ST9500420AS

with no problems.

Best 100$ I've ever spent.

For me Seagate 7200.4 was too noisy. I used it for a week and sold.

I think noise levels can vary from one drive to the next, even amongst the same models. My Seagate is very quiet.

We got a new hard drive for my T60 years ago. It's a Hitachi (same brand and type that was originally installed... it even looked the same on the outside). The old one was 5400 rpm and 80 GB, the new one is 7200 rpm and 200 GB. You cannot possibly imagine what a difference this made in performance. I reinstall my OS once a year anyway but this upgrade made my laptop much, much faster, and the hard drive is very quiet.

I am looking to upgrade the Seagate 160GB 7200RPM in my T61, and i saw the Western Digital WD3200BEKT somewhere.

It has great speeds (83MB/s read max)
Look here: http://tweakers.net/ext/i/productsurvey/7877/6675.png for a HD Tune screenshot of this drive.
Image is from a product review on gathering.tweakers.net (Dutch site about computer hardware)

Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 or Fujitsu MHZ2320BJ.

There are nvh or performance problems with all the others. 7K320 is good, but the 7K500 is bound to be better.

Thanks for all your advise. I ordered seagate 7200 250GB. I will be receiving it today. will post the performance once I install it.

May I know what is the best and easy way to copy the image into the new hard drive?

The most popular app for that seems to be Acronis TrueImage.

Since you ordered a Seagate drive you can get a free copy of DiscWizard from Seagate's website. It's a Seagate branded version of True Image.

Thank you all for your advise.

I copied the image into the new hard drive and it runs pretty quiet and see a big jump in performance. no hangs so far.