R51e and SATA Harddrive

[denisky]

Hi guys..

I have an R51e which came with only 40GB of HDD. It is a PATA type HDD. I am going to replace the HDD with SATA type HDD, but I don't know whether the R51e supports it or not. I did a search in google and this forum, and also ltwbook.pdf, but nothing has cleared up my concerns.

Could anyone help me clearing this up?

[Brad]

PATA are not compatible with SATA drives so you can only use PATA drives in your R51e.

Brad

[denisky]

thanks brad for your reply... but a couple minutes ago I read in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad, it says that

...The R51e and the R52, both based on the T43 system board, are the first R-series notebook to utilize DDR2-memory and include a SATA-controller, however uses only PATA-harddrives...

What does this mean?

[Brad]

The T43 series sports a PATA to SATA bridge.

Probably so they could take advantage of SATA chipset compatibility and still use the older PATA drives.

Brad

[aaa]

To be clear, it means that they still take only PATA drives in the primary bay, and on top of that you have to deal with the 2010 error.

[holdenburg]

Hi...

I spent extra money on a PATA 7200rpm and it runs very quick.
If your looking for an increase in performance this is one item you can upgrade. Normally most r51's will have the slower 5400rpm drive unless you pick up a unit that was ordered with the 7200rpm drive (upgrade).

SATA is the newer connection in most all laptops and the main hard drive bay on the R51 will not work with a SATA drive due to the PATA connection.

H.

[experttease]

Hi...

I spent extra money on a PATA 7200rpm and it runs very quick.
If your looking for an increase in performance this is one item you can upgrade. Normally most r51's will have the slower 5400rpm drive unless you pick up a unit that was ordered with the 7200rpm drive (upgrade).

SATA is the newer connection in most all laptops and the main hard drive bay on the R51 will not work with a SATA drive due to the PATA connection.

H.

I want to upgrade my R51's 40GB drive to a faster 7200rpm drive, so, assuming mine is also PATA, do you know of a drive in particular I could use? I haven't been able to find one, perhaps they are all discontinued.


edit: would I be able to connect an EIDE hard drive to my R51? the Hitachi drive I have in there says ATA/IDE on it.

[BeeJayEmm]

Yes, your R51 uses a PATA/EIDE hard drive in the primary bay. PATA, IDE, ATA, EIDE all mean the same thing. 7200 rpm PATA drives have indeed been discontinued as noted here in other threads. If you really want one, try eBay but be prepared for sticker shock. Others here have reported satisfaction with larger 5400 rpm drives (120 GB and up), feeling that the higher platter density almost makes up for the slower rotation. In real world use, you probably won't notice the difference. Hitachi and Seagate have good reputations, with Seagate having the longer warranty (5 years vs. 3 for Hitachi). Others have had good luck with Fujitsu. I have one of each in a laptop and have no complaints about any of them.

[sarbin]

I want to upgrade my R51's 40GB drive to a faster 7200rpm drive, so, assuming mine is also PATA, do you know of a drive in particular I could use? I haven't been able to find one, perhaps they are all discontinued.

edit: would I be able to connect an EIDE hard drive to my R51? the Hitachi drive I have in there says ATA/IDE on it.

post a "wtb" in the marketplace. someone may have a 7200rpm drive available.