T42 parts on T43 ? (keyboard, harddisk)

[fschwep]

My T42 is getting a bit long in the teeth, its screen is slowly dimming and I expect it to die on my pretty soon. I am looking to replace it with a machine from the same generation but with slightly better specs - for instance, a 1400x1050 flexview screen. Many T43s and T43p have those screens, but I need to move the keyboard from the T42 over as I have a language-specific one that is fairly rare (Dutch), and I have a nice 250 MB Western Digital Scorpio IDE/PATA harddisk loaded with software and data that I want to move over into a 'new' machine as well. So my choices are limited - no use looking into a T6x series for instance. I found my 'ideal' machine on eBay, a 14" T42p with the 1400x1050 flexview, FireGL video and 2.1 GHz CPU but the seller does not react so I am looking into T43 machines.
What I want t know is whether a keyboard from a 14-inch T42 will fit a 14-inch T43 and if the WD harddrive may pose problems on the T43.
(I know I should be able to find the FRU part numbers on the Lenovo support pages but as many know those pages are difficult to access lately, so I thought someone on the form might already have done this.)
Thanks.

[RealBlackStuff]

Within the same size (either all 14.1" or all 15"), all parts are swappable.
However, a T42 HD with Windows will not run in a T43, because the motherboard-hardware (specifically the HAL) is too different. You'd need to reinstall, or find another way...

[Raceboy]

Just FYI, there is no 14" LCD available that is IPS FlexView, only 15" and 12".

[fschwep]

Just FYI, there is no 14" LCD available that is IPS FlexView, only 15" and 12".

Maybe that's why the seller does not react... Maybe it's not a Flexview, I just assumed it was because it was specified as having 1400x1050 pixel resolution with a 128 MB FireGL graphics card and a 2.1 GHz CPU. I'd love to have a T42 with such fast specs and a higher-than-average resolution screen - it's easy to find a standard one with the usual Radeon 7500, XVGA 1024x768 LCD and a 40 GB harddisk, they are out there by the dozens on eBay and I actually have one just like that as a spare sitting in a bag with XP Pro and vital office software installed just in case my workhorse T42 suddenly goes belly-up.

Shame a T43 will not work instantly with a Windows install from a T42. Would that mean that the machine would start up in standard VGA or safe mode, after which one could find and install the proper drivers, or that it won't start at all?
Reinstalling is at best a time-consuming process (when one has the sort of software load I use - it took me several days fulltime to do a clean install on a new large harddisk) and a hassle if one does not have a set of recovery disks, which is usually the case when buying a second-hand machine. I don't have a virgin set of Windows install disks, only various sets of recovery disks for T42, R51/52 and X3x series. That is one of the main reasons why I am looking for a T4x series and not say a T6x...

[RealBlackStuff]

No guarantee but you could try this.
Download the proper T43 drivers for video, audio, Intel chipset, modem, bluetooth, wifi card, TPM, fingerprint reader and store them on your T42 HD (don't install them yet).
Take an image of your T42 HD.
Then boot and go into device manager and uninstall all the above system drivers.
Put the HD in the T43 and cross all your extremities.

[Adda]

You can move any Windows XP installation between pretty much any set of computers.
It may not boot at first, giving blue screen and such, if it does, boot from a Windows XP install CD and choose to repair the installation on the drive.
When done, it should boot, then it's just a matter of removing old drivers and installing the right ones, I have moved drives/installs between many different and incompatible ThinkPads this way.
It is a bit messy and a reinstall is recommended over this method any day, but it can be done.

[fschwep]

I finally found another seller offering a properly spec'ed T42p with a 1400x1050 screen (2373-CTO, pretty heavy custom specs) and managed to get it for less than the one I tried to buy earlier, so no need for a T43 and changing drivers, RAM type etc.

Anyway, thanks for the comments guys, they were helpful.