Thinkpads Forum

Hi,
I would like to extend the life of an IBM Thinkpad570 2644-3AU by increasing the disk performance and capacity. Since the RAM is maxed out at around 192MB, I would like to install a larger + faster drive. I was thinking about purchasing the Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 7200RPM 60GB.
Does anyone know whether I can configure the thinkpad to run off of this harddrive? Hitachi mentioned potential BIOS limitations. If so can I work around those with a newer bios or install a 40GB 7200RPM drive (that you may have already installed)?

-Thanks for your help
Albert

Ps: Hitachi Tech support reply was:
The 7K60 drive will work in the Thinkpad, but most likely you will run
into a BIOS limitation. You will need to contact IBM for the latest BIOS
revision. If the BIOS cannot support a 60GB drive, then you will need
3rd party software to make the drive work in the laptop (such as Ontrack's
Disk Manager). Otherwise the drive will physically fit and work in the
laptop.

Make sure you have the latest BIOS installed and it will work just fine.

Regards,

James

albertm wrote:Hi,
I would like to extend the life of an IBM Thinkpad570 2644-3AU by increasing the disk performance and capacity. Since the RAM is maxed out at around 192MB, I would like to install a larger + faster drive. I was thinking about purchasing the Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 7200RPM 60GB.
Does anyone know whether I can configure the thinkpad to run off of this harddrive? Hitachi mentioned potential BIOS limitations. If so can I work around those with a newer bios or install a 40GB 7200RPM drive (that you may have already installed)?

Capacity shouldn't be a problem. I've got a Travelstar 80GN 80GB running in such a machine (has the latest BIOS) without any problems.

And, no, the memory is not maxed out at 192MB. Unofficially the 570 will also accept the 256MB sticks for the 570E, for instance. That means, it will work with the so-called low-density sticks (those with a total of 16chips on it) intended for systems that are based on the i440BX chipset, like the 600/E/X series, X20, T20, A20 etc. These modules are quite expensive, though.