T42 hard drive upgrade procedure

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humbads · #1 Post by **humbads** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 4:56 pm

My new T42 just came in today. I chose the lowest end model due to my limited budget and because I will use my (fast) desktop PC as my main computer and this laptop will function as a satellite PC.

Now my desktop has RAID-0 with two 10k rpm Raptor drives, so the laptop's single 4200 rpm drive seems like molasses to me. Before I even purchased, I thought I would upgrade the hard drive to a 7200 rpm. The package didn't come with any CDs (which I knew before I purchased). How would I go about getting IBM's preloaded XP Pro image onto a new hard drive? I'd also appreciate to know if performing such an upgrade lowered battery life for anyone.

Thanks,
Shailesh

awolfe63 · #2 Post by **awolfe63** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 5:17 pm

The "official" way is to burn a set of recovery CD's using the selection in the Access IBM menu - then use those to create the new drive.

Other's have proposed alternatives - I think using Norton Ghost or Partition Magic.

Steve007 · #3 Post by **Steve007** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 5:55 pm

awolfe63 wrote:The "official" way is to burn a set of recovery CD's using the selection in the Access IBM menu

Which option is this? I had a quick look in Access IBM but couldn't see what you describe. It'd be handy to have this backed up on CD or DVD.....

awolfe63 · #4 Post by **awolfe63** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 6:00 pm

Look in the program menu in the access IBM folder. Pick Create Recovery Disks

BTW - I have heard that this only works on T42s

Leeper · #5 Post by **Leeper** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 6:17 pm

Call IBM support and request a set of recovery CDs be sent to you. They will be send them 2-day air for free. This will work if you system is still under warrenty

sktn77a · #6 Post by **sktn77a** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 7:29 pm

Actually, they will only send them free for 30 days. After that, it's $30!

#7 Post by **jdhurst** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 8:19 pm

awolfe63 wrote:Look in the program menu in the access IBM folder. Pick Create Recovery Disks

BTW - I have heard that this only works on T42s

That option is not on my T41 (as your post suggests). I guess IBM got so many requests, they provided a customer capability.
... JDHurst

humbads · #8 Post by **humbads** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 9:49 am

Thanks for all the replies. I was able to find the documentation and software for creating recovery disks. The program can only burn to CD or a USB disk. The docs didn't say how many disks are needed or how big the USB disk has to be, a major oversight. I also couldn't find any ISOs in the ibm support folders. My T42 doesn't have a CD burner anyway, so I will call IBM support for the CDs.

muffd · #9 Post by **muffd** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 10:58 am

IBM should not give you a problem with your request for the recovery cds. I was a little over my 30 day period but got a pretty cool CSR that was very helpful.
As far as the hard drive, you can't go wrong here. There is a special right now I saw on www.bensbargains.net. My coworker bought his for 130 or so. Sucks because I just paid 200 3 weeks ago! Battery life is still pretty good for what I am doing so I don't think that should be a major setback for you.

humbads · #10 Post by **humbads** » Fri Sep 24, 2004 1:08 pm

IBM support is sending the Recovery CDs.

Startup (max. peak) 4.7W 5.5 W
Seek (average) 2.3W 2.6 W
Read (average) 2.0W 2.5 W
Write (average) 2.1W 2.5 W
Performance idle (average) 1.85W 2.0 W
Active idle (average) 0.85W 1.3 W
Low power idle (average) 0.65W 0.85 W
Standby (average) 0.25W 0.25 W
Sleep 0.1W 0.1 W
Power consumption efficiency (watts/GB) 0.022 0.014

Source Hitachi:
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/7k60/7k60.htm http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/80gn/80gn.htm

The first number is the power consumption of the 4200 rpm 30GB drive, and the second number is the power consumption of 7200 rpm 60GB drive. As you can see, the biggest difference is in the active idle mode, where the 7200 drive uses 50% more power.

So it will lower battery life, but probably not by much overall. On the other hand, it will take much less time to boot up and load programs, so in the lost battery time, I can get more work done.

Note, Dell is selling both the more expensive E7K60 and a lesser expensive 7K60 model. The E7K60 has ABLE power management feature disabled and is meant for blade servers, not laptops.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hddt/dlocator ... endocument

humbads · #11 Post by **humbads** » Tue Sep 28, 2004 1:05 am

Received the seven recovery CDs and one rescue CD today.

Raindrop · #12 Post by **Raindrop** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 10:07 am

Even though I am not fortunate enough to have ended up with a T42 ( got a replacment T40 instead) I am curious if I can install the 60gig 7200 RPM instead of the 80 gig that came in my machine. IBM is sending out the recovercy CDs for my machine and it is my intention to buy the APRICORN enclosure and software for my Thinkpad. Need to buy an additional Harddrive and wondered about buying the 7200rpm 60 gig to go in the machine and using the current 80 gig 4200 rpm in the enclosure. Is this a viable option, and what are the downsides or obstacles to doing so???

Thanks for any input or advice.

~Greg

sktn77a · #13 Post by **sktn77a** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 10:19 am

Yes you can use the 60Gb 7200rpm drive. Just install it and use the recovery CDs to load the OS, etc. Just get a $15 2.5" external USB 2.0 enclosure from pricewatch.com for your 80Gb drive - will work great as a data drive!

Piece of cake!

humbads · #14 Post by **humbads** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 10:27 am

I highly recommend getting a portable USB 2.0 enclosure. I have one that replaced a 256MB flash disk, and I find it extremely useful for my work. I recommend the NexStar NST-250U2, which is very fast and cheap. I wrote a review of it recently here:

http://www.somacon.com/docs/nexstar_usb ... review.php

humbads · #15 Post by **humbads** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 3:19 pm

I received the 60GB 7200 drive from Dell (only $141 incl. ship + tax!) today. Weirdly, I also got an email today saying that the item was backordered, but when I went down to my front door, there was the package! Replacing the hard drive took half an hour, because I was being careful. I followed the manual. Installing the eight restore/recovery CDs took over two hours. It is mostly automated, but you have to babysit it to change the CDs and click a few dialogs. Once it boots into Windows the first time, it goes through and automatically installs all the drivers, taking another hour or two. I was overall impressed by the smoothness of the restore to factory configuration process, especially since it is installing what looks like hundreds of drivers and programs.

Now I'm installing SP2. It will take the rest of today to install all my applications. The 60GB 7200 drive is close to twice as fast as the 30GB 4200 rpm drive, and I can already feel the system is quicker and more responsive. I think its well worth going through this hassle for a faster drive, as I'll have a faster computer over the next 2-3 years that I use the laptop.

fred · #16 Post by **fred** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 4:41 pm

humbads which hard drive did u get? is the 60 gig a replacement for the 30 gig?

humbads · #17 Post by **humbads** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 5:38 pm

The 60GB is a replacement for the 30GB drive. I'm debating whether to keep the 30GB as a spare or sell it on ebay, since I already have a separate 40GB portable USB drive. I got the drive from dell.com, they have a 20% off special--may be on backorder by now though. Note the original 30GB drive is also a Hitachi Travelstar.

(from newegg.com)
Hitachi 60GB 7200RPM Notebook Hard Drive, Model HTS726060M9AT00 PART# 08K0939, OEM Drive Only
Specifications:
Capacity: 60GB
Average Seek Time: 10 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM
Interface: IDE ULTRA ATA-6
Features: 9.5mm high, 7200 RPM, 2.5-inch mobile hard disk drive
Manufacturer Warranty: 3 years

T42 hard drive upgrade procedure

T42 hard drive upgrade procedure

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