What to expect when upgrading HDD

[carves]

Hi all,

After 3 years using my T61 and after got my motherboard replaced for burned out GPU card, I thought it is time to upgrade my HDD to a better and faster ones.

The current HDD installed right now is a Hitachi 256GB @ 5,400 rpm drive.

I'm looking to get either the
- Seagate Momentus XT drives, or
- an SSD drive (have not yet decide brand name)

Now are there stuff that I need to be watching out when swapping new HDD into the T61 ?
Can I just install Windows XP Sp3 normally or would I be needing special things ?
Can I just moved the HDD caddy from the old one to the new drive ?

Any inside, inputs, HDD suggestions, or other gotchas that I need to be ready for would be very much appreciated.

Regards,
Ben

[billp117]

Nothing special is required...the Seagate drive should work just fine. Prices are very good for 7200 RPM 320GB or larger drives.

You could possibly consider upgrading to Windows 7...but if you are happy with Windows XP that is fine also.

Good luck...

[ZaZ]

Swapping drives is pretty easy on the T61 and you can reuse the caddy for the new drive.
If you use a SSD, the XP CD if that's what you're using to install XP, won't align the SSD properly for best performance. You'll need to put the SSD into another PC and align it using diskpart or both Vista and Windows 7 installation discs will properly align the partition. If you can get one of those you can use it to make the partition, then install XP.

[avoelp]

I've just replaced the 80 GB HD that came with my 4-year old T61p with a Momentus XT 500 GB drive. The OS is XP Prof. Works great - very quiet and much faster than the original HD. >Gives you great value for money.

Andreas

[carves]

Hi all,

Forgive for the late reply do to some business trip I had.

Anyway, thank you so much for the inputs.
Will get the drive and install it right away after I got it.

Regards,
Ben