Thinkpads Forum

I've recently aquired a 770ED and now have it running quite well with XP Pro and a couple of 128mb sticks, however, after getting all of the programs on it that I want, I have little disk space left. It currently has a 8gb drive, can I fit a larger drive in there, if so what are my options in drives ? If not, what are my alternatives ?

Thanks for any help.

If you have the newest bios installed....the answer is easy....ANY SIZE YOU WANT...!!!....go for a 7200 RPM Hitachi if want to see another big speed boost....yours is a 4200 RPM right now...

Later....

Greg St.L

The 770ED will hold any standard 2.5 inch laptop drive, including ones that are 9mm, 12mm, or 17mm high. I don't think there is a size limit, unless you are not using the latest BIOS. I have used a 32GB drive in a 770E running Windows 98SE without trouble.

To swap the drive, all you have to do is open up the "caddy" that holds your current drive (use a regular small Phillips screwdriver and unscrew the 4 screws around the edges and the 2 screws on either side of the plug). Pull the top off and you'll see a regular 2.5 inch hard drive (17mm high) attached to a regular IDE cable inside. Simply replace that hard drive with another one the size you want.

Phil.

Cool, sounds easy and I do have the latest BIOS.

I had the drive apart once already just to take a look. So if I put a new drive in it, what's the best way to get my stuff off of my old drive onto the new one without reinstalling everything ?


7200 RPM Hitachi ? Got a model number, source ?

Well,i'm in Canada...but here's where I get most of my stuff...

Here's a 40GB

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.ph ... cid=HD.517

Here's a 60GB

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.ph ... cid=HD.517

Prices are in Canadian....so would be cheaper for americans paying in U.S funds...!!!..

Have fun....

Greg St.L

Will this work ?



eBay # 6797250381

pkiff wrote: I have used a 32GB drive in a 770E running Windows 98SE without trouble.
Phil.

Very interesting. I have this exact same combination. This was my only reason for joining this forum. Just last night I looked up my 770E BIOS (IDET38WW) on the internet and found nothing newer. And the best I could find about HD size was that it permitted 8.1 gb.

Could it be that there is a newer 770E BIOS than this? Not on IBM that I could find. Or can you flash the machine with a BIOS update from a non-770E model?

There is no newer BIOS, and a BIOS from another machine will not work. At least, I wouldn't try it in any of my machines. You're likely to end up with a paperweight.

You can use a utility to enable use of a larger drive, or just make your first partition 8GB or smaller. The BIOS has to load the first part of your OS, and the BIOS can only use the first 8GB of the drive. Once that loads, your OS can bypass the BIOS and access the drive directly.

I would just make an 8GB partition and install my OS on that, then another partition for the rest of the drive.

While it's certainly possible to make one large partition, that is risky. If the OS gets updated (not likely for Win98 any more) or restored from backup, the kernel file(s) could end up beyond the first 8GB, and your OS wouldn't load. Not too likely, but still a risk.

JimL wrote:And the best I could find about HD size was that it permitted 8.1 gb.

Where did you get this information? I think it is wrong. There should be no real limit on HD size using a 770E/ED with the latest BIOS (the same one you've got) -- at least up to 100GB anyways.

Have you tried a large drive and found that it won't work?

Phil.

whizkid wrote: You can use a utility to enable use of a larger drive, or just make your first partition 8GB or smaller. The BIOS has to load the first part of your OS, and the BIOS can only use the first 8GB of the drive. Once that loads, your OS can bypass the BIOS and access the drive directly.

Where and under what name might I find this utility?

whizkid wrote: I would just make an 8GB partition and install my OS on that, then another partition for the rest of the drive.

Well, given that my primary concern at present it preserving a 5 gb system that seems very stable, I suppose a partition big enough to clone that should do fine, right? The rest can be data or whatever.

JimL wrote:

whizkid wrote: You can use a utility to enable use of a larger drive, or just make your first partition 8GB or smaller. The BIOS has to load the first part of your OS, and the BIOS can only use the first 8GB of the drive. Once that loads, your OS can bypass the BIOS and access the drive directly.

Where and under what name might I find this utility?

Here is one place. Software Translation Drivers

I would pay heed to pkiff's words. Looking (again) at TWBOOK, the 770E/ED has a PII, uses the 440BX chipset, and that should take any drive up to 137GB without problems.

whizkid wrote:I would pay heed to pkiff's words. Looking (again) at TWBOOK, the 770E/ED has a PII, uses the 440BX chipset, and that should take any drive up to 137GB without problems.

I plan to go ahead and buy a larger HD, but obviously chips are just part of the picture.

Thanks

Wow that was a lot of great info, thanks guys.