Maximum IDE drive capacity for ThinkPad T42

[RolfThinkPad]

Hi,

Does anyone know if there are limits to the maximum hard disk capacity the BIOS can cope with on a T42?

I ask because new IDE Western Digital laptop hard drives are available in 80, 160, 250 and 320GB. This is great news for easy replacement of the existing 40GB drive.

Thanks in advance.

[RealBlackStuff]

Max. IDE drive size in 2.5" is 320GB.
Nobody produces anything larger.

[RolfThinkPad]

Yes, I noticed that.

But I need to know if the BIOS in a T42 will recognise up to 320GB.

[ajkula66]

Yes it will.

[Johan]

Rolf:

At least one T4x-user has reported booting off an internal 500 GB SATA (!) drive, mounted in the UltraBay, so the T4x BIOS is apparently able to cope with internal-larger-than-320 GB drives; see the thread Empty primary bay causes boot timeout from SATA UltraBay for more information (this thread which is pointed from the sticky GUIDE: Make your T4x *FAST* by replacing the HDD with a SSD!). Notice however that if booting off a SATA drive in the UltraBay, there is an approx 30 sec. unavoidable boot-delay.

UPDATE (of. Dec. 13, 2012) to this post: I have receantly learned that this is a way to avoid the above-mentioned "unavoidable" boot-delay; see halfways down in the sticky GUIDE: Make your T4x *FAST* by replacing the HDD with a SSD!

As to using a 320 GB PATA/IDE HDD in the main HDD bay (in a T42), as a bootable drive, there's no problem at all doing that; many T4x-users have doing so (incl. I).

A hint: If you get a new Western Digital PATA/IDE HDD to replace your existing small/old PATA drive, note that you may download the free WD Tool --> Acronis True Image WD Edition Software and use it to clone your old HDD onto the new HDD (another hint; in such case, do place the new drive i nthe internal HDD bay, and place the small, old, original drive either i nan UltraBay caddy, or in an USB-enclosure, and hence clone "from-outside-and-in").

Johan

[turboscrew]

I thought that the maximum internal drive that plain T42 (no "p") BIOS can handle is 160G.
Then again...
http://www.laptopinventory.com/ModelDet ... 20GB)/1243

[Neil]

Hmm...that "500GB" drive on the laptop inventory web page doesn't give any specs, but the picture is of a WD3200BEVT, which is a 320GB hard drive. Which takes us back to what RBS wrote:

Max. IDE drive size in 2.5" is 320GB.
Nobody produces anything larger.

[ajkula66]

FYI, the BIOS is the same for all pre-T43 T4x machines, there is no difference between "p" and standard units in that respect.

[fschwep]

In addition to the excellent answer from Rolf I can add that the Western Digital version of Acronis also allows you to clone from in to out. I installed a WD Scorpio 250 GB PATA/IDE in the main drive bay of my T42, did a fresh restore of the IBM factory installation and from there a fresh install of Windows plus servicepacks and all my software on that (after seven years this seemed like a good idea!), cleaned it up thoroughly with utility software (registry cleaned and post-installation crud removed), and then I used Acronis to clone the C: drive to another WD Scorpio, this time a 320 GB PATA/IDE, attached using a USB-IDE adapter. That drive then went into another Thinkpad, an X31 subnotebook, in which it worked without a hitch.
The WD Scorpios are an excellent solution to get a lot more storage in your old T42. They are also a lot faster than the original 40 GB drives, as several times more data passes the read/write head per revolution, even though the drives are 'only' 5400 rpm.

So by all means get one of those large drives. I'd go for the largest you can get, one never has too much storage space.

[cadillacmike68]

Be careful when ordering a WD 320GB drive.

Make SURE its IDE. I ordered one from Amazon that said IDE, but not only was it SATA is was a WDC Scorpia Black which was Never made in IDE. I would have kept it, except that the 320GB IDEs cost twice what a 320GB SATA drive costs - Heck I got a new Hitachi 500GB SATA for less than the 320 would have cost me. Amazon took it back though so that was ok.

Hitachi is now owned by WDC for better or worse.

[RolfThinkPad]

I think on balance I'll get the WD 250GB, as it is only 5% more expensive than the 160GB. There is a too big a price hike for the 320GB. 160GB is far more than I need, so 250GB will be massive.

I find that the more space I have, the lazier I get re. data management! - I just keep adding clutter until the disk gets nearly full. Then after some data management, I find that I have deleted huge amounts of useless data and the disk is only about 1/4 full!

By the way, these laptop PATA drives from WD are in their "Blue" class.

I have asked WD, but they avoided the question: Are their any internal differences between 160, 250 and 320 drives? I am a fan of less moving parts, and was wondering how these are inside. The tech specs say that the 250 and 320 use considerably more power in "standby" and "sleep" mode than the 80, 120 and 160 - why is this? (I'm a battery Maximiser).

[cadillacmike68]

I think on balance I'll get the WD 250GB, as it is only 5% more expensive than the 160GB. There is a too big a price hike for the 320GB. 160GB is far more than I need, so 250GB will be massive.

I find that the more space I have, the lazier I get re. data management! - I just keep adding clutter until the disk gets nearly full. Then after some data management, I find that I have deleted huge amounts of useless data and the disk is only about 1/4 full!

By the way, these laptop PATA drives from WD are in their "Blue" class.

I have asked WD, but they avoided the question: Are their any internal differences between 160, 250 and 320 drives? I am a fan of less moving parts, and was wondering how these are inside. The tech specs say that the 250 and 320 use considerably more power in "standby" and "sleep" mode than the 80, 120 and 160 - why is this? (I'm a battery Maximiser).

I happen to have all three sizes (160, 250 and 320) of WDC 5400 RPM Scorpio drives.

But I'm not taking them apart to examine the internals.

[Tim82]

Be careful when ordering a WD 320GB drive.

Make SURE its IDE. I ordered one from Amazon that said IDE, but not only was it SATA is was a WDC Scorpia Black which was Never made in IDE. I would have kept it, except that the 320GB IDEs cost twice what a 320GB SATA drive costs - Heck I got a new Hitachi 500GB SATA for less than the 320 would have cost me. Amazon took it back though so that was ok.

Hitachi is now owned by WDC for better or worse.

The model name of the WD 320 GB IDE/PATA HDD is WD3200BEVE. If you look for that exactly, you can avoid misunderstandings. I put one in my girlfriend's T42p and it's really good, the best and most reliable IDE notebook HDD I've seen so far. (I had some experience with Samsung, Hitachi and other WD models in the past.)

[DaKKS]

Just wanted to chime in, biggest i tried was an 750gb sata drive in a partially disassembled t42. I was unable to boot off it (i believe the adapter was faulty) but i showed up in bios.

It was a temporary fix while diagnosing a dodgy t42. Just threw it in. I dont belive there is a limit to what the bios can take. But 500gb (320 for mortals) is the practical limit.

[systemBuilder]

I have a 320GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue PATA drive in a PATA caddy and use it all the time in all of our T42's and T42p's. Be careful when ordering a 320GB PATA Drive. Our was $90 but ever since the Thailand earthquake, if you're paying less than about $120, you're probably buying a SATA drive.

[helicopter]

Hello,

I found this thread and wanted to resurrect it to ask some follow-up questions.

When I was investigating the Western Digital WD3200BEVE 320 Mb, some people (randomly) reported that it produced more vibration than the stock drive. My T42 has a Fujitsu that has also been virtually free of vibration and very quiet.

Does anyone have any experience with vibration/noise in replacement 2.5" IDE drives in T4x machines and have some insight into which brands are better than others?

I'm now going to read the thread about SS drives and see what the possibilities are there.

Thanks.

[ajkula66]

Does anyone have any experience with vibration/noise in replacement 2.5" IDE drives in T4x machines and have some insight into which brands are better than others?

I liked Samsung HM160HC a lot. The best IDE laptop drive IMO. WD 250/320 if you need the capacity, but they are quite audible in my experience.

I'm now going to read the thread about SS drives and see what the possibilities are there.

Likely your best bet, IMO...mSATA SSD + an adapter.

Happy upgrading.

[RealBlackStuff]

I have such a brand new Samsung HM160HC for sale, $65 incl. shipping within USA.
PM me if interested.

[helicopter]

Thanks for the suggestions. I would have performed either of the upgrades based on your suggestions, but now the machine will not boot (black screen, Z light illuminates, fan spins, but can't get into BIOS.) This is the second time this has happened. The first time, back in 2009, I bought a motherboard (from ajkula66-- thank you again!), which ran successfully for many years, but I guess something may have failed. I don't have the time at the moment to go through all the steps of trying to check the memory, boot from floppies, etc. I salvaged the hard drive, though, so I have my data. This may be the end of my T42 experience, running a machine I had since 2005. The machine needs a lot of other things... so I may need to buy a new one.