Thinkpads Forum

The original 500GB drive is feeling cramped, and I'd like to move up to a 1TB drive. Recommendations, please?

I think in this day and age it doesn't matter. I would take Seagate Momentus, but only because it is the brand I hate the least...

I would suggest an external 3.5" hard disk with USB-3 or eSATA, and with its own power supply.
They can go up to 4TB.
Also, 3.5" HDs are a lot sturdier than 2.5" HDs.
And they are very good for making backups...

I do need to replace the internal drive--it seems to be dying. Already have a 3TB external. Thanks.

I'd buy any xTB drive and use it in an ultrabay caddy. Then buy a nice speedy SSD like Samsung Pro, Toshiba, Kingston HyperX or any brand of your choice for the internal bay.

My 2 cents...

Or if you don't need a WWAN card and SATA 2 is fast enough for you, you can get an mSATA card and two other harddrives.

I would avoid Kingston, OCZ and other "small" brands. There are better options: Samsung, SanDisk, Intel, Crucial, ... If you buy one of those, you know what you're getting. With Kingston, OCZ,... there are some reliability issues and sometimes new batches contain different memory chips than the previous one.

(Also check this: http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=918 ...it is about MicroSD cards but I wouldn't touch Kingston with a wooden stick. And Kingston is still a reputable brand... )

Tasurinchi wrote:I'd buy any xTB drive and use it in an ultrabay caddy. Then buy a nice speedy SSD like Samsung Pro, Toshiba, Kingston HyperX or any brand of your choice for the internal bay.

My 2 cents...

Get mSata SSD and keep a normal HDD in the 2.5" bay.

I would get HGST Travelstar 7K1000; a 2.5" 7200rpm 1TB drive. Also happens to be the fastest 2.5" normal HDD

I use a Crucial 240GB Msata SSD for my Win8.1 Ent. install. It mounts where the wwlan card would go. I use a 1TB SSHD in drive bay. I boot to OS in like 4 sec. I changed all the default file locations and all installed programs to this drive. This setup has given me the fastest responding system i've ever used. I have a NexStar 8TB(2-Seagate 4TB) USB 3.0 Ext. array for general storage. The array will go in power saving mode frequently and does take about 5 sec to spin drives back up. Never had this issue with Esata, but 3.0 is faster. As far as brands go, Having had a computer store for 14 years, i have found that Seagate makes the best, most reliable drives with the best warranty. I only buy Seagate myself if purchasing new drives and try to buy when getting used drives for customers, but price usually wins. So, if i had to give my personal preference on top three brands, It would be Seagate, Samsung(also makes momentus drives), Hitachi(Travelstar). For SSD, i have only used Crucial, Seagate and Intel drives and have had 0 issues with any. Hope this info helps you decide.


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W520: I7-2760QM, 32GB, Crucial 240GB SSD(OS); Seagate 1TB SSHD (Default Files Location), Docked with NexStar 8TB Ext. Array.
W500: T9800, 8GB, 500GB SSHD
T510: I7-640M, 8GB, 1TB Samsung
T410: I5-560M, 8GB, Seagate 500GB
R500: T9800, 8GB, Seagate 320GB

holoman5 wrote:Never had this issue with Esata, but 3.0 is faster.

That's not true. Especially not for external SATA HDD's.