Thinkpad A30p, what new hard drive should I buy?

[dejola]

I have a Thinkpad A30p with a dead hard drive. I'd like to buy a new hard drive for this A30p but would like recommendadtions on which one to get which will be most compatible, i.e. require the least amount of tinkering to install. By tinkering I mean messing with the BIOS. I know how to physically remove the dead hard drive and install the new one. I'd like to get a fairly large capacity hard drive, maybe 120 to 250 GBs. Will such a drive work in the A30p?

Your recommendations will be very much appreciated.

Thanks.

[RealBlackStuff]

Any ATA/IDE/EIDE/PATA (all the same) hard disk up to 320GB will work (2.5" wide, 9mm high), as long as it is not SATA.

[dejola]

So I went ahead and bought a 160GB Western Digital IDE drive from Newegg. Took the old drive out and inserted the new drive. I set boot order to CD and placed a disk containing UBUNTU 9.10 in the drive. Unbuntu menu appeared and I selected thge option to install Unbuntu on the new hard drive. Nothing happened. Figured I was doing something wrong so I dropped into to my local computer store and asked the owner to see if he could have better luck. Same result. He seems to think that perhaps the Thinkpad A30p won't take a 160GB drive.

One thing I noticed is that the new drive is a tad thinner that the IBM TravelStar drive that it replaced.

Before I send this 160GB drive back to NewEgg I'd appreciate any advice concerning this issue.

Thanks.

[Adda]

Your new drive shouldn't cause any trouble, so this is a bit odd.
What happens if you try installing Windows?
Are you using the latest BIOS/embedded controller versions?

Also if you get it to install Ubuntu 9.10 take a look at this thread:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=85771

[dejola]

So, having a problem loading Ubuntu 9.10 I have now installed Slax LiveCD on the Thinkpad A30p and in fact am writing this on that machine. It was suggested to me that I check to see if a hard drive could be found using Slax. I clicked on System and them Storage Media. All that showed up was Floppy drive (with icon of a floppy disk) and Slax (with icon of a CD). Is it a fact that if my new hard drive was being recognized it, too, would appear?

How on earth can I tell if this new 160GB hard drive is properly installed?

Thanks.

[billp117]

I use Seagate tools for my hard drive initializtion. You need to have a Seagate drive plugged into your system (any Seagate drive...I keep one handy with a USB cable) and then the tools can be used to initialize and format the HD. http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/

WD has similar tools but I am used to using the Seagate tools. It will also alow you to clone your disk to a new drive. Good luck.

[dejola]

I've never before installed a new hard drive in a notebook computer. I was led to believe that no initializationm or formatting was necessary. I thought that in the process of installing an operating system that stuff was taken care of. Do I physically have to do something to the drive before I try to install an operating system?

[ajkula66]

No you don't.

To check whether the drive is "seen" go into BIOS>Startup>Boot and click on the hard drive, it should give you the whole name of it.

You do have it secured in the caddy with all four screws, no jumpers on the pins, and with the label facing up, correct? You are using the HD cover to aim it properly inside the bay, correct?

[dejola]

It's academic now. I decided to try and install Windows XP. Put the XP in the CD tray and off it went without a hitch. The new drive was recognized and Windows XP Service Pack 3 is installed and working fine.

Thanks for all your help. I'll stick with XP for the time being.