Thinkpads Forum

I want to buy a W700 but I don't have a lot of money to burn, so I want to buy the hard drives from somewhere else..

*Warning, I'm a complete newbie with laptops, so don't laugh at my questions *

1. How is it hard to change the hard drives? also do I have to take the laptop apart?

2. If I swap the original one and add an additional one I would have to reinstall Windows Vista.. does the laptop come with a Vista cd?

3. What else can I change? so I can save money (ie: RAM)

Anyone here know?

To change the driver requires removing one screw and then sliding out the drive, and changing the rails and caddy from the old to the new drive. So 5 screws total, 4 on the drive holding the caddy to the drive.


Before you swapped drives. You have to create a rescue & recovery disk that will serve as your vista cd install disk.

Then you can either clone your drive, using some clone software, or simply install the drive and run the rescure & recovery cd to recreate the factory install

RAM is cheaper if you buy at at as accessory.

The cheapest is to wait and use a a 15% or 20% coupon when they become available. Note you can use one after you buy, if it is within 21 days.

Adding or removing the hard drive is very simple. You may want to study the W700 Hardware Maintenance Manual for this. I would recommend to buy a second hard drive caddy so that you can use two drives. In terms of RAM you should configure your order with a single 2 GB module and buy another one separately. This saves about $70.

Thanks, I was wondering is it possible to swap the processor too?