T21 - Newer hard drive compatibility?

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Plinko · #1 Post by **Plinko** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 2:39 am

I own a used T21 Thinkpad and have a strong emotional attachment to it. I could easily just purchase a newer, cheaper laptop off of NewEgg, but I loves my current notebook. So when my hard drive recently failed, well, that sucked.

The easy thing to do would be to buy another harddrive of the same model. But they're old, slow, and craptastic. I'm a bit new to notebook upgrades, so I'm not sure how things work necessarily in terms of compatibility.

Can I grab an IDE notebook harddrive, say... this one ... and just stick it in there? Or do I have to specifically find one made by IBM for the Thinkpad series?

verktyg · #2 Post by **verktyg** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:34 am

I'd recommend a 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM drive with at least 8MBs of cache. You will notice a very nice increase in performance over your old drive.

Plinko · #3 Post by **Plinko** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:39 am

Well, I wasn't sure if my aged systemboard could handle it, which is why I thought I'd start small. However, if there are no qualms in terms of compatibility, I may just take your advice.

JonathanW · #4 Post by **JonathanW** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 6:45 am

Absolutely, a 'state of the art' 7200rpm, 8Mb, 60Gb disk is spinning happily in my ageing T21! Go for it - it really is just a 'drop in' replacement.

Jonathan

Plinko · #5 Post by **Plinko** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 11:14 am

Sweet! Woo, now I'm excited~ Thanks for the replies

Plinko · #6 Post by **Plinko** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 11:45 am

Okay, since you already own a T21, mind if I ask how long your battery lasts for you, on average?

verktyg · #7 Post by **verktyg** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 1:54 pm

Plinko wrote:Well, I wasn't sure if my aged systemboard could handle it, which is why I thought I'd start small. However, if there are no qualms in terms of compatibility, I may just take your advice.

A year and a half ago, I installed an Hitachi 7K60 60g 7200 RPM 8MB cache HDD in my T20. I was thinking of replacing the T20 because it ran like a slug. There was a world of difference in performance. It booted 25% faster than the old 4200 RPM HDD and programs loaded in less than half the time. It was like a 200MHz CPU increase!

There was a minor hit in battery life but the T20 was never a star in that category anyway.

Recently, I pulled the Hitachi 7K60 out of the T20 and put it in my X31. I installed a Toshiba 40g 5400 RPM 16MB cache HDD in the T20. The Toshiba runs just about as fast as the Hitachi 7K60 but it's not as quiet.

Plinko · #8 Post by **Plinko** » Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:11 am

Hey guys. Yesterday my new hard drive (and a 256 chip of memory) arrived and is now installed in my Thinkpad. The difference in performance is amazing. Thank you so much.

T21 - Newer hard drive compatibility?

T21 - Newer hard drive compatibility?

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