Thinkpads Forum

Currently running a 100G 7200 seagate. Would like to know what you guys are using or suggest using in the area of 250G or up. Any issues going bigger in an X60?

I don't want to get to wrapped about density vs rotational speed, cache vs density, rotational speed vs cache, etc. Just a good, solid, large, fast, quiet, cool, cheap, longlasting, drive that's guaranteed forever

Got some paypal balance sitting there burning a hole in my virtual pocket.

Seriously though,
Thanks for any suggestions.

If I were to upgrade the drive in my X60s today I'd go for the HITACHI Travelstar 5K500.B for reliability and low power consumption. Low running temps are reported as well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822145257

I suppose the only penalty for going above 250GB would be cost. I've had good luck with Seagates of late. If you ask me they all perform about the same even if the benchmarks are better or worse for a particular drive. 7200RPM drives are a bit quicker, but even some of the 5400RPM drives I've seen recently are pretty good. The WD Black at the moment scores the best in the benchmarks. The Hitachi 5k500 sips the power and runs quiet if that's what you're after. Last forever? When was the last time I used a drive until the warranty ran out? I can't remember. I always upgrade to something bigger before the warranty expires.

Fred wrote:Last forever? When was the last time I used a drive until the warranty ran out? I can't remember. I always upgrade to something bigger before the warranty expires.

Yeah, that was me attempt at humor I swap drives out a lot too running different OS's so premature failure is something I think about too..

The 500G5400 looks good and the price is right, but I might just go for the 250 7200.

Ever heard of this: http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Pr ... u=10155057

Typing this on my X32 fitted with a 160GB/5400 WD. Absolutely quiet and vibration free.

Have just fitted a WD 320GB/7200 to my X61 and can feel a small amount of vibration in the wristrest May have to look for a different drive.

Harryc wrote:If I were to upgrade the drive in my X60s today I'd go for the HITACHI Travelstar 5K500.B for reliability and low power consumption. Low running temps are reported as well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822145257

I concur with the above recommendation. Just installed the 250 Gbyte version (currently $55 with free shipping at NewEgg) in my X61s and did a fresh install of windows 7 Ultimate. No regrets.

Read about all the possibles and decided on Seagate 250 I'll see how it works out.

fasterbybike wrote:Have just fitted a WD 320GB/7200 to my X61 and can feel a small amount of vibration in the wristrest May have to look for a different drive.

After reading this I did dig a little and found some others with similar reviews. Perhaps in a bigger form factor laptop it wouldn't be noticeable. Hopefully the 250 will be "whisper quiet" and "smooth".

Just installed the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 250GB, 7200rpm, (16MB) dual booting XP & Vista. It is very nice so far, quick, quiet, cool. I did notice it vibrates a little more when I had it in the enclosure cloning it but in the machine I can't feel the vibration.

I hope it lasts for a while.

I picked up a Seagate 320GB 7200rpm with 16 meg cache at Frys for around $90. and it made a big difference over the Seagate 80GB 7200 I had in there. They make a 500GB with the same specs for about $109. Had I seen that one at Frys I would have grabbed it instead.

Of course 3 weeks later I bought a W700 with dual SSDs and moved one of those to the tablet. It just made sense to get rid of moving parts in the tablet, but wouldn't be necessary for an X60. It's every bit as fast as that seagate, but obviously a lot more expensive.

A friend who has a X60 with a 60GB HDD overseas wants to upgrade his HDD. If I get a hold of the recovery disks, can I just install the new HDD into the machine and make sure the BIOS is set on reading the USB/CD-ROM drive first? I will be taking all the hardware over and doing the install there. What potential problems should I look for on installing the new HDD? Are these HDDs plug and play out of the box?

I will also buy this adapter

http://www.buy.com/prod/usb-2-0-to-sata ... 84248.html

and run his old HDD as a second drive after the clean install and move files around during the transition?

Just installed two WD 320gb Scorpio Black (7200, 16mb) in my X60s and my brother's HP nc6400 - running excellent, very nice upgrade from Toshiba 5400 60gb and Hitachi 7k100 80gb. I didn't want to go Seagate route, since the new 7200.4 Momentus is having some major issues with reliability (I do have 120gb 7200.3 and that one runs great for almost 2 years).
So far, I haven't been able to notice any drastic thermal difference between my previous Toshiba 5400 60gb and the new WD, but both WD and Tohiba run SIGNIFICANTLY cooler than Hitachi 7k100 80gb (which gets to the point where you can't hold it in your hands) - ok, it's much older... just wanted to mention... WD Scorpio Black gets my vote.

I took a chance and installed a Seagate 320GB 7200RPM drive in my X61 (upgraded from Hitachi 160GB 5400RPM). The speed increase is very noticeable, I just hope the drive lasts!

I'm running a Seagate Momentus 5400.6 (ST9500325AS) 500GB drive in my X60T.

I actually ran into some blue screen error problems with the drive. Others have too. See:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=75400
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkVantag ... /m-p/96920

I ended up changing a setting in my BIOS to set my SATA to "compatibility" mode or something, and that, along with the removal of the Active Protection system, seems finally to have eliminated all my blue screens. I simultaneously updated the Atheros network card adapter, and it is remotely possible that was the problem, not the other things. But now that everything is working as it should, I'm not inclined to continue fiddling.

Once I got it working, this Seagate drive has been great: fast, quiet, etc.

But I can't recommend it for any X series Thinkpad.

Phil.

pkiff wrote:...I actually ran into some blue screen error problems with the drive....I ended up changing a setting in my BIOS to set my SATA to "compatibility" mode...

I'm running Linux so no BSOD, no HDAPS, and AHCI/NCQ support out of the box.

fasterbybike wrote:Have just fitted a WD 320GB/7200 to my X61 and can feel a small amount of vibration in the wristrest May have to look for a different drive.

I've upgraded my X60 with WD Blue 320GB/5400 (one platter rev) and there is a also small vibration. I think it's normal for WD. I have chosen WD because it's quiet both in idle and seek and the 5400 rpm version should stay cooler than 7200 rpm drive.

i am running a 250GB WD Black (7200RPM) drive in my X60. it works flawlessly. no weird vibrations or anything that i notice. its pretty quiet, quieter than some Seagate and other mobile WD drives i have had. and its fast! oh boy is it fast.

i am also running Active Protection System on default settings. this laptop goes in the car with me alot and with Winamp playing MP3s, with it set up like an iPod pretty much (cache to RAM any playlist item <32 megabytes) it has been running like a dream. APS and Winamp in this config get along quite well.

the drive is about 4 months old i think, and its holding up well. and you gotta love that 5 year warranty on all WD Black drives

wolf wrote: with it set up like an iPod pretty much (cache to RAM any playlist item <32 megabytes)

Could you explain this to me and pretend like I'm dumb, because on this subject I am.

Seagate just launched the Momentus XT, combining 7200RPM and 4GB of SLC flash, starting at $113 for the 250GB model. Basically a 7200.4 with SLC flash as cache.

WD's Scorpio Black is still the fastest pure spindling HDD through, quite an achievement given it's almost 2-year old.

http://www.storagereview.com/seagate_momentus_xt_review

What is the impact on performance? I have the OEM Samsung 128meg SSD installed. Is the new Seagate faster?

See the benchmarks and decide yourself... : )

I don't think it can beat a modern SSD in terms of performance. But when you figure in the price......

Cheers.

... still, don't forget that the benefits of SSDs transcend mere speed -- SSDs provide total safety from g-force shock/damage.

I just installed a WD Blue 160GB. It is a lot quieter than the 100GB 7200 rpm Hitachi it came with especially during seek. Also transfer speeds are faster except for burst being slightly slower.

Should I try to install the Thinkpad Active Protection? Some people say it works some say it doesn't. Is it even necessary? Do hard drives have a similar system at hardware level?

Should I try to install the Thinkpad Active Protection? <-- Yes.
Is it even necessary? <-- Yes (in the same sense that backups are necessary).
Do hard drives have a similar system at hardware level? <-- This is hardware (assisted by software). Yes, some drives (not all) have similar feature supported by their firmware.

Seems to be working.

My X60 has a Samsung HM500JI, which was working before in my ex HP NC4400 with no issues. The drive is silent and fast enough for all applications I run. It has plenty of space too I can recommend it!

proaudioguy wrote:What is the impact on performance? I have the OEM Samsung 128meg SSD installed. Is the new Seagate faster?

Almost no chance, the point of such hybrids is to try to get some ssd speed while having the capacity of the platter drive. It is a compromise. It has to constantly try to guess what it should put on the 4GB ssd portion, 4GB just isnt' enough. Maybe someday when hybrid drives have 16-32GB of dedicated flash partition so you can install your apps/os for speed, this will be just as fast. Until then it is sort of in the middle. good solution if you need more space than sdd can be affordable.