Thinkpads Forum

I have a T60 that has a 40 gig hard drive. I'm thinking of upgrading it to a 160 gig hard drive and wanted to know what the best way was. I don't have a DVD-R optical drive, so I would need to do the method where my stock hard drive was backed up via the new drive in an enclosure.

I see that Newegg sells Lenovo laptop drives at good prices, but are there better choices out there? How do I check to make sure the hard drive is compatible with my machine?

Also, what do you think of this kit for upgrading hard drives?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductRe ... 6817155602

It seems to get mixed reviews and some people specifically mention that they had trouble with the software when trying to upgrade a Lenovo/Thinkpad due to the hard drive partition? Also I've read comments elsewhere about Lenovo drives not fitting in the enclosure? Any solution for these problems?

I apologize if I seem clueless here but I'm no computer expert. I have upgraded the RAM on my thinkpad one time a few years back with no issues though...is replacing the hard drive something I can do myself or should I avoid doing that and take it to someone else instead?

Thanks.

I upgraded mine from an 80GB to a 320GB without any trouble - the hardware swap is very simple, one screw, 5 minutes work. Just be sure that you get a SATA drive, not the older PATA type, and that its the standard 2.5" laptop drive. You can also go with a higher-speed drive such as a 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm, and get a bit of a performance boost. Battery run time may be slightly less, though. The drives are standard SATA drives and you can buy them from any computer parts shop.

The T60 Hardware Maintenance Manual (available from Lenovo's website) describes specifically how to make the swap, but its very simple - make sure the power is off - remove the battery and AC adapter if you aren't sure. Undo one screw, use a small flat screwdriver to pop up the little cover, carefully pull out the old drive and stick in the new one. Put the cover back on and the screw back in.

The more difficult part is how to move your files from one drive to the other. Here is what I would do:
1. back up your personal files to some other media (DVD, USB thumb drive, external hard drive). Ensure you have install disks for any program software (e.g. word processing, games, etc.)
2. make a set of "recovery disks" following IBM's instructions for creating them. This is a copy of the "factory settings" that are stored on a hidden partition on your current drive.
3. swap out the old drive for the new one.
4. reload the factory settings using the recovery disks, on to the new hard drive
5. install any program software you need.
6. restore your personal files.

This is a bit of work but you'll have a "clean" windows installation and your computer will likely run faster. It is a good way to get rid of 'junk' that has accumulated in the Windows registry over time, as well as programs you no longer use. Note that with this method, you won't have the recovery partition on the new drive - you'll have to rely on the recovery disks that you made.

The alternative is to get access to a desktop computer that supports at least 3 SATA drives, install both drives in that computer and use software (Ghost, Partition Magic, etc.) to clone the contents of one drive to the other. I've never done that so I can't tell you how well that would work.

In my case I was changing to a different operating system so I had to go with the 'from scratch' installation. I still retained the option of swapping the old drive back in at any point - the operating system, data, and recovery partition still exist on it, even when its removed from the laptop.

Unfortunately, I don't have a DVD drive on my laptop...so I would have to make the recovery disks via CDrom, which is insane with almost 40 gigs of data. I don't have a suitable external drive either and I'd rather avoid doing it that way since that would mean buying one.

I know people have installed hard drives by first copying the old drive to the new drive with an enclosure...that's what I'd like more specific advice on how to do.

Thanks.

Newegg sells a Seagate 7200 RPM - 500GB 9.5mm SATA drive...Seagate will give you the cloneing software for free as a download from http://www.seagate.com. It is very simple to clone the 40GB to the 500GB via a USB enclosure.

Oh, you have the DVD/CDRW combo drive. I would still recommend making recovery disks *for the factory-settings backup partition* - that will only take about 5 CD's if I remember rightly. It is cheap insurance. If you don't have those, and the drive dies, then you've lost the operating system as well as all the thinkpad-specific software that comes with the computer. But I agree, a CDRW isn't practical for backing up your programs and data, even a DVD/RW wouldn't be great.

I'd also recommend getting an external drive for ongoing backups, if your data is important to you - but its your call. Hard drives can last a very long time - I have seen them run over 15 years - but anything beyond 3 years you're on borrowed time, and when they do decide to pooch you get little or no warning, just the dreaded "HARD DISK FAILURE" message, or "No hard drive detected". Not fun.

patient_ot wrote:Unfortunately, I don't have a DVD drive on my laptop...so I would have to make the recovery disks via CDrom, which is insane with almost 40 gigs of data. I don't have a suitable external drive either and I'd rather avoid doing it that way since that would mean buying one.

I know people have installed hard drives by first copying the old drive to the new drive with an enclosure...that's what I'd like more specific advice on how to do.

Thanks.

Is it possible to make recovery disks of just the partition? How would I do that? I definitely do not want to make recovery CDroms of the entire drive.

I've thought about buying a big external drive for backups but it seems like externals drives crap out and die without warning all the time because most of them do not have fans and slightest shock can screw them up. I'd rather not waste money on something like that. I may look into a online backup service after I upgrade my hard drive, but for right now I really want to upgrade the internal drive.

My laptop is about 4 years old, so that's another reason why I want to upgrade the hard drive.

Still looking for advice on how to do this using the method explained above.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Yes, making a set of recovery discs of *just the factory software and settings* is a highly recommended process for all computers built with a recovery partition rather than system discs (which is pretty much all computers nowadays). The instructions are provided with the computer's documentation - usually it is a program built into the computer's BIOS or embedded in the hardware somewhere. This is true for most laptops, not just the IBM family, and most consumer-grade desktops now, too.

... I just looked for some time through the Setup Guide and the HMM, finding instructions on how to USE the discs but not how to make them. Finally I just searched the Lenovo site and found the instructions here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-70804. I think this is what you're looking for. I did my recovery set (Windows XP) with one CD and one DVD, but I had the option of using 5 CD's instead. Hope that helps!!

Hi patient... and a belated welcome to the forum!
You've been very "patient" waiting for an answer to your question. I hope I can help you out. As stated above, you can use any 2.5" wide SATA hard drive to replace your current drive. The Apricorn kit you linked to in your first post should work well. I got a similar item from them several years ago to upgrade a hard drive and it went perfectly. Along with the drive case and cable(s), the kit includes a software CD that will help you clone your current drive to the new one. For best results, take your 40 GB drive out of your T60 and install it into the case. Then install the new drive into your T60. Connect the USB cable from the case to the T60 and boot from the software CD (it is a bootable CD). You will be presented with choices including "Clone Disk". Choose that option and the software should take care of everything for you. Make sure you choose the correct drive for source and destination. The reason some people have trouble with the cloning operation is that they try to clone from the original drive while it's still installed in the ThinkPad. This usually doesn't work. There are threads around here that explain why this is so, if you want to know more. There are also threads that tell more about the cloning process, etc. Use the search function above if you want to look.

After the cloning process is finished, use your new drive for a few days to make sure all files are present and everything works. Then you can wipe the old drive and use it for backup. The software on the CD has a backup option. As for the recovery disks, if you haven't made them, it would be a good idea to do so. They allow you to return your ThinkPad to factory contents in a disaster or if you want to sell/give away your ThinkPad. You could use Rescue and Recovery to backup the T60 but I think the EZ Gig software in the kit will work better. Best of luck! Please let us know how it turns out or if you have more questions.

How to upgrade a harddisk:

1. Buy a new HDD
2. Buy an external 2.5" HDD enclosure (your link looks fine)
3. Download/buy a harddisk clone software, I recommend Acronis True Image Home
4. Install the clone software and make a boot cd/dvd
5. Leave the boot cd/dvd in the dvd drive
6. Turn off your computer
7. Place your new blank HDD in your laptop and your old HDD in the external enclosure
8. Connect the enclosure to the laptop
9. Turn on your computer and boot into your cd/dvd
10. Choose Disk imaging and apply the appropriate settings

I hope this helps. Upgrading a harddrive is really a breeze. You don't have to be a computer expert to complete this successfully.

Update:

I was able to successfully clone the drive and get the new drive installed last night. So far, it is working okay.

Apricorn's software was a breeze and I used the instructions on their website which describe what you guys are saying...on a thinkpad, you have to install the new hard drive first, then clone from the old drive hooked up through USB and the enclosure.

One snafu I ran into is that the enclosure doesn't really work with a Lenovo HDD! The Lenovo HDD is a little too wide to fit into the enclosure as is. The enclosure has a metal chassis attached to the inside circuit board using two screws. I'm assuming this is for easy removal and also so the HDD doesn't rest directly on the circuit board while use. The problem is you have to remove the chassis by unscrewing it from the board in order to get the Lenovo drive to connect to the SATA connectors. I was able to do this and get the drive connected and then use it to successfully clone my HDD, but I'm not sure if it would work for long term use this way. Also, the back plastic faceplate of the enclosure will not go back on after you remove the metal chassis, so I had to just leave it off while cloning. Personally I think this is a very bad design...if Apricorn's aim was to make an enclosure that would work with any 2.5 SATA drive they really screwed up here.