Thinkpads Forum

Can someone tell me a large (500gb or more) drive that will defintely work in a t61p?
The t61p is SATA I. Large drives are SATA II or III.

Unfortunately, many people say that the Seagate Momentus line works at first but it is not a good drive. What else is there?

Hitachis are good but NOT SATA I. However, Hitachi has a Feature Tool utility that can adjust the drive down to SATA I. Does this sound like a good idea?

I also read that there is a BIOS I can download that will make t61p compatible with SATA II. Is this real? Safe?

I run XP 32 SP3. Machine is a video editing work station.

Thanks.

The BIOS hack is safe, I've installed it in my T61 and X61s without any problem. Check up this forum.

I assume that with "expansion bay" you mean the ultrabay adapter that goes where the optical drive is. In this case any 9.5mm drive will work. I've even read people claiming that they could fit a 12.5mm drive in it, although being tight.

DNL wrote:Hitachis are good but NOT SATA I. However, Hitachi has a Feature Tool utility that can adjust the drive down to SATA I. Does this sound like a good idea?

All SATA II or III drives should be backward compatible with SATA I. The 1TB Samsung 5400RPM seems like a good choice if you need space.