A20m HD Replacement

[naryb69]

Hi,
A newby here. I have a good, working IBM Thinkpad A20m with a 6 gig HD, 256 Meg running Windows 2000 Professional.

I would like to put a bigger hard drive in it.

The removal of the Thinkpad HD was easy with just one screw and you pull. And I picked up a Hitachi 30 Gig HD on ebay for $10 so I'm looking to do this on the cheap.

Only problem is the Hitachi is a bit smaller than the old drive and there is a difference with where it plugs into the PC. On the old drive there is some plastic around the pins while on the Hitachi there is no plastic. Looks as if the pins are the same.

So can I use the Hitachi? Or do I need a drive specific to the Thinkpad?

[BeemerBiker]

I had the same problem and had to whittle down the two plastic stubs at the edges of the connector. they were stopping the disk from seating properly. Pair up the two disks so you can tell how much to scrape off.

[naryb69]

Thanks my problem is the opposite. The old (n the PC HD) has the plastic around the pins.

The new does not. I don't need to remove.

When I hold them together the new one is a bit smaller. Most of which is because of the lack of plastic.

[dsvochak]

Only problem is the Hitachi is a bit smaller than the old drive and there is a difference with where it plugs into the PC. On the old drive there is some plastic around the pins while on the Hitachi there is no plastic. Looks as if the pins are the same.

When you say "smaller" do you mean thinner?

It could be the difference between a 12.5mm drive and a 9.5mm drive. I had a similar problem with a 560Z. In order to make the new drive fit without rattling I had to "peel" the plastic filler piece off the old drive and "whittle" some as BeemerBiker suggested.

[tfflivemb2]

Are you referring to the thickness of the drive? (ie. 9mm instead of a 12mm drive)

If so, this shouldn't matter as the pins usually reside on the bottom of the drive, as it slides into the laptop.

The newer drives are just much smaller, for different types of laptops, like my M300. I can't use a 12mm on my M300...too thick.

Note: While I haven't actually worked on an A series, this appears to be the case with the 600 and T series that I have worked on.

[naryb69]

I will pull the old one out and measure it against the new one. If you are saying the old is 12 mm and the new is 9.5 it would make sense since the old was a bit larger.

I'll see if I can slide the new one in by hand and make it connect. With my machine A20 the old HD was screwed into the cover so it came out that way. Since there was a difference in size it was something I didn't want to force.

Needless to say I will have to add something to pull the new one out if it doesn't work.

[tfflivemb2]

To make this easier, remove the hard drive caddy from the old drive and put the new one in it.

This will aid in sliding the drive in and out...AND it will help line the drive up for you.