Thinkpads Forum

I'd like to replace my ancient original HD (4GB!) with a new one. Capacity isn't an issue maybe 20-40 GB would be fine. Can anyone recommend an online vendor with good prices and service? I'd also like to buy a kit to clone all the files and operating system from the old disk.

Is it necessary that the new HD say "Thinkpad 600 compatible"? Or would a generic drive do, and if so what by what name would this drive be designated (SCSI?). Are the dimensions on all such drives pretty much standard.

I understand that I will also need a new HD caddy for the Thinkpad 600 in any case.

Thank you very much for any suggestions!

Any 2.5", laptop/notebook hard drive will work as long as it is called IDE, EIDE, ATA, or PATA (Parallel ATA). Not sure if there were any SCSI drives made in a laptop form-factor but you also need to stay away from SATA, or Serial ATA drives as well. The SATA drives are popular these days and lower priced (per GB) than the older PATA drives but they cannot be used in your 600 system. Two standard heights were available: 12.5/12.7mm and 9.5mm. Both will fit inside the 600 drive bay but you may have to remove a tab on the hard drive cover in order to fit the 12mm high drives. It's a blue tab which slides/snaps out from the cover. That tab is meant to steady the thinner 9.5mm drive and keep it from bouncing up and down inside the bay. The thicker 12mm drives are mainly obsolete now. Any brand new laptop drive you buy today will be 9.5mm high.

As far as online vendors, I've have pretty good luck with newegg.com. When it comes to cloning the drive however, I do not have any experience with pre-fabbed "kits". The method I use relies an Ultrabay hard drive adapter and a Ghost floppy boot disk. With the 600 series, that means you must have an Ultraslimbay HD adapter and an externally connected floppy drive (using the port on the right side of the system). If you have those pieces already, then it's just a matter of finding a clone program that can be booted off a floppy. Most likely any kit to do the cloning will use an external hard drive case, connected to the laptop via a USB cable. The clone program could be loaded on your existing hard drive or booted from CD.

You may or may not need an additional caddy for the new hard drive. If you go the route of using an Ultrabay HD adapter, then it's recommended that you have a caddy attached to the drive when you install it inside the adapter. It's mainly there to prevent the bottom side of the hard drive from shorting out against the metal (usually) tray that's on the bottom of the Ultrabay adapter. In a pinch, you can line the inside of the adapter with a piece of paper and that will prevent any shorts. After the cloning, then simply remove the caddy off your existing 4GB drive and place it on the new one. If you use a kit which has an external hard drive case, then no caddy should be needed.

You should poke around in the Marketplace here. That is a very small drive you are looking for, and I purchased a couple like that from persons here. They were economical and worked well. ... JDH

Thank you both very much for your suggestions.