Thinkpads Forum

Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 7200-rpm, 200GB 2.5-inch hard drive

I currently have a 100GB 7200RPM drive in my X61 and I love it, but I could use more capacity. Is this drive compatible with the X61? Are there any downsides to swapping it out?

If I can swap it out, what is the procedure?

Thanks!

Yes, it will work. Several forum members have reported success in using the 7K200. Power consumption is less, noise appears to be about the same, so aside from price, there are no notable downsides. The procedure is quite straightforward and documented (large pdf file) here under section 1020 "Hard Disk Drive".

What is the easiest / best way to clone my 100GB drive to a new 200GB?

Can I then simply install the cloned drive & start up? I am using Vista Ultimate.

Thanks!

cnyprecast wrote:What is the easiest / best way to clone my 100GB drive to a new 200GB?

Can I then simply install the cloned drive & start up? I am using Vista Ultimate.

Thanks!

Gotta love Asia. I ordered my new 200Gb HDD and will buy my laptop soon here in Asia. The Lenovo sales dude said he will install it for me provided I bring the new HDD to him and buy the Laptop from him. Talk about service

I am wondering exactly what parts/software I need to clone my 100GB drive to a new 200GB drive?

Also, once I have what I need, what specific steps do I take to accomplish it?

My goal is to be able to then install the new 200GB drive and just boot up normally. Is this possible?

Thanks!

Under ThinkVantage group, there is this Create Recovery Media. Under this, choose Recovery Disks. It will allows you to make a set (2 disk) of Recovery media. Once created, you can replace the drive, then boot from these Recovery Disks, It will bring everything back to factory state, even creating a hidden recovery partition in your new harddrive.

Thanks phongdt,

Does this back up my apps & data as well?

If not, is there a way that I can just clone the drive and have it work?

Thanks,

No, the recovery disks do not save your apps and data - they only restore your machine to factory state.

You can close your disk using software like Acronis TrueImage. If you do clone the HD then you won't need to do anything, it should just boot up and work.

If you are running Vista, before cloning your drive, run the following commands at a command prompt:

BCDEDIT /set {bootmgr} device boot
BCDEDIT /set {default} device boot
BCDEDIT /set {default} osdevice boot

Otherwise the new disk will not boot ...

Thanks for the tips.

One additional question: What is the best way to physically connect the new drive to the old drive before the cloning operation?

Thanks!

I think the easiest and simpliest way is to get a external USB SATA HDD Box for your new harddrive. Connect thru any USB port, do the cloning, then swap.

I just slapped one of these drives into my x61s today. I used the recovery media (2 disc) that I created. It restored my laptop back to factory state. It went perfectly.

Now that I have received my new 200Gb HDD I am debating whether to install Windows Vista or Windows XP on my new X61. What do you guys think? Anyone having any problems with their Windows Vista on their X61? How good does Windows XP run on the X61 with a 2.2 CPU and 2 GB of RAM as well compared to the same specs with Windows Vista?

1. I am using Vista Ultimate on my X61. I am very happy with it so far. I really have not seen the issues that others have complained about. I am running the maximum RAM in my X61, which helps.

2. I installed the Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 7200-rpm, 200GB 2.5-inch hard drive in my X61 last week. It installed easily, and it runs great. It seems a bit faster than the 100GB drive (cache?) and I have all the room that I need.

cnyprecast wrote:1. I am using Vista Ultimate on my X61. I am very happy with it so far. I really have not seen the issues that others have complained about. I am running the maximum RAM in my X61, which helps.

2. I installed the Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 7200-rpm, 200GB 2.5-inch hard drive in my X61 last week. It installed easily, and it runs great. It seems a bit faster than the 100GB drive (cache?) and I have all the room that I need.

I just checked my new HDD that just arrived and it the 7K200 but is the one with 1.5GB transfer rate and not the 3.0GB transfer rate. I am looking to buy another 7K200 but will be careful when ordering this time. Be careful if you are ordering from NEWEGG as they will ship you the one with 1.5GB transfer rate and not the one with 3.0GB transfer rate.

cnyprecast wrote:1. I am using Vista Ultimate on my X61. I am very happy with it so far. I really have not seen the issues that others have complained about. I am running the maximum RAM in my X61, which helps.

2. I installed the Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 7200-rpm, 200GB 2.5-inch hard drive in my X61 last week. It installed easily, and it runs great. It seems a bit faster than the 100GB drive (cache?) and I have all the room that I need.

Not all are 3GB/S transfer rate.. Double the difference is quite a bit
http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/e ... 2eac4f0a0/

If your item number ends with A00 then you got the slower HDD
http://www.xpcgear.com/0a50940.html
Most everyone is selling the slower one out there including NEWEGG.

It doesn't really matter, the A00s are Sata 1.5GB/s and the A300s are Sata 3.0GB/s. However, I believe the X61/s/t models only have Sata 1.5GBs supporting chipsets anyways, so what does it matter?

Does somebody else know whether X61 T/s support 3 GB interface or not? I just ordered the HDD and hope that it DOES, as the HDD on order is 3 GB transfer rate

Antioch wrote:It doesn't really matter, the A00s are Sata 1.5GB/s and the A300s are Sata 3.0GB/s. However, I believe the X61/s/t models only have Sata 1.5GBs supporting chipsets anyways, so what does it matter?

Are you sure about that? Do you have more info on this? I think I am starting to lean more towards a SSD with 64GB now after reading this from notebookreview.com
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3914

I'm not sure. The Tabook says that all units ship with SATA 150, but that the machines have the following chipset:

ICH8M-Enhanced I/O Controller Hub (SATA300, ATA-100 EIDE,
PCI Express x1, PCI bus, USB, LPC interface, [Bluetooth], [fi ngerprint]) / PCI bus (Ricoh® R5C847 Cardbus/1394/Multicard) /
LPC bus (PC87385 Super I/O, Atmel® 97SC3203 TPM)

So, there is support, but that doesn't mean it's available. I mean, there are no EIDE connectors in the machine, are there? As a side note, I believe the chipset supports up to 800MHz DDR2 RAM, but the BIOS limits it to 667MHz.

If you care to actually read through the entire data sheet, it says that there are 2 types of interfaces available for this drive. One is a Sata 3 Gb/sec, and the other is a 1.5 Gb/sec. This in no way implies that the drive is capable of delivering this data rate, only that the interface is compatible with the specified standard. In fact, other than that, there are no other differences in the drives or their specifications. The media transfer rate for both versions of the 200GB drives is the same- 876 Mbits/sec, max - well below the spec'd interface data rate. That being the case, there's no point in buying a 3 Gb/sec version of the drive.

Since we know both from the tabook and from the part numbers on the drives being delivered with the x61 series 7200 rpm drives that the interface is 1.5 Gb/sec, and we don't know for sure that the chipset or BIOS supports 3 Gb/sec interface, and that there is no advantage to having the 3 Gb/sec interface (this may only be an advantage if you have a chipset that supports 3 Gb/sec, but is not backwards compatible with the 1.5 Gb/sec) then the smart thing for you to do is to buy what we know for sure works- the 1.5 Gb/sec.
edit: see below... according to the Hitachi 7K200 Compatibility Guide, both 3 Gb/s and 1.5 Gb/s drives are compatible with the X60 and X60S...

BTW, I don't think the 3 Gb/s version is even available yet... it wasn't the last time I looked into it a short time ago.
-----------
Just found this on Hitachi's website...
Compatibility Summary, specifically lists X60 & X60s.
This document is for both the 3 Gb/s & 1.5 Gb/s drives:
http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib. ... 00_com.pdf

Data Sheet:
http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib. ... K200DS.pdf

Install Guide:
http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib. ... 200_IG.pdf


Link to SATA-to-USB & eSATA 2.5" 9.5mm enclosure:
http://www.usbgear.com/computer_cable_d ... C131%2C161