Is the R51 a hard drive compatible upgrade for Thinkpad T30

[T30alive]

I have been looking at the Thinkpad R51 wondering if I can simply plug my T30 hard drive into this machine and be able to function. Mainly the video card is the same Radeon 7500, but the processor is a Pentium III derivative vs. Pentium 4.

Basically I don't want to build a new laptop, but simply want to port my PATA hard drive to a better model.

If anyone has done this, without having to reinstall all there S/W, please let me know?

Moderator edit: Moved thread from (initially, incorrectly) being posted in the "ThinkPad Utility Work Area"

[dr_st]

Assuming you have WinXP on your drive (which is most likely), the issue that is almost sure to arise is due to different IDE controllers, as the laptops use a different southbridge (ICH3-M vs ICH4-M). XP is notoriously finicky when being moved between different IDE controllers, to the point that it will most likely refuse to boot.

There are ways around it - using something like sysprep one can inject the necessary drivers, and there are other tricks, like installing a generic IDE controller before switching, etc, etc.

I have to confess that although I know the theory, and know of people who have done so, I have never done it in person myself, so I do not know all the exact steps. It may or may not be simpler than just reinstalling the OS - that would depend on how much software you have installed with it.