T40 and non-IBM drives?

Message

Geoff_AZ · #1 Post by **Geoff_AZ** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:03 pm

Hi all -- can't get my T40 to boot. It gets to the stage just after the XP splash screen (with progress bar) and then hangs with a blank screen before the Verifying Security Chip splash.

I can boot in safe mode w/o networking, but so far a system restore isn't working. (I suspect a driver issue with the Cisco Aironet Wireless 802.11b.)

I'm thinking of starting fresh and would like to go grab a new HDD locally, which limits my options. Down the street I can get W/D or Hitachi drives.

Is the T40 Type 2373 affected by the non-IBM disc bios problem? http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_w ... hard_disks seems to say no.

Also, this is a standard IDE interface, correct? Any recommendation on speed? Would 7200rpm be bad for battery life and heat? (The others are 5400 and cheaper.)

Thanks for any help!

#2 Post by **Harryc** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:10 pm

Get the fastest and largest 2.5" IDE laptop drive that you can afford and install it. Battery life will not be impacted in a significant way by running a 7200rpm drive. No worries about the BIOS error on a T40.

Affected Models

The "Error 2010" issue exists only on the following models:

* ThinkPad T43, T43p
* ThinkPad R52
* ThinkPad X41, X41 Tablet

pianowizard · #3 Post by **pianowizard** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:18 pm

Geoff_AZ wrote:I'm thinking of starting fresh and would like to go grab a new HDD locally, which limits my options.

What's wrong with online sources? Have you tried newegg.com? They have the best reputation and the most competitive prices, and ship extremely fast even with their cheapest shipping options. I bought a 100GB 7200rpm PATA drive from them last week for $95 shipped, and received it the following day.

Geoff_AZ · #4 Post by **Geoff_AZ** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:28 pm

Thanks for the advice! I'm also pricing New Egg. Reason to buy local is to have it NOW!

Looks like the Hitachi 100GB, 7200 RPM model is the winner.

pianowizard · #5 Post by **pianowizard** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:45 pm

Geoff_AZ wrote:Looks like the Hitachi 100GB, 7200 RPM model is the winner.

I like the Seagate more, which comes with 5 years of warranty. The Hitachi has only 1.

Geoff_AZ · #6 Post by **Geoff_AZ** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:50 pm

5 years is nice, though I'll surely have a new laptop by then. The Hitachi available locally has a 3-year warranty.

wearetheborg · #7 Post by **wearetheborg** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 4:59 pm

Why cant you just reinstall XP on the current drive ?

Geoff_AZ · #8 Post by **Geoff_AZ** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 5:18 pm

I finally got XP on this HDD working using system restore (it was Access Connections' fault, it seems). I thought a more roomy, faster HDD would be nice for dual-booting Linux, and this seemed like a good excuse. Also, I could mount the current drive in an external case to pull data from instead of restoring from backups. (Though most of my data is available over the network, Strongspace via SftpDrive.)

wearetheborg · #9 Post by **wearetheborg** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 5:25 pm

7200 drives are a bit expensive. Pick up a 5400 rpm drive, I dont think the speed difference is that much (ie not sure they're worth the extra $$$). They're going on ebay $40 for 80GB.

#10 Post by **bill bolton** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 6:54 pm

wearetheborg wrote:I dont think the speed difference is that much

Clearly you haven't actually compared a 7200 rpm and 5400 rpm disk in the same machine!

wearetheborg · #11 Post by **wearetheborg** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 7:36 pm

bill bolton wrote:
wearetheborg wrote:I dont think the speed difference is that much
Clearly you haven't actually compared a 7200 rpm and 5400 rpm disk in the same machine!

Since you appear to have done so, why dont you provide us with some concrete numbers ?

Here is an interesting comparison:
http://www.storagereview.com/articles/2 ... page=0%2C0

#12 Post by **bill bolton** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 7:51 pm

wearetheborg wrote:Since you appear to have done so, why dont you provide us with some concrete numbers ?

Overall snappiness of performance is very noticeably faster for any real world, disk bound activities. You'd know this if you had actually done it yourself.

There are many threads on this on this site attesting to this for those who bother to look.

wearetheborg · #13 Post by **wearetheborg** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 7:58 pm

Sure it may be noticeably faster, but how much faster ?
Is a 30% disk access improvement worth the price premium they are commanding ?

#14 Post by **bill bolton** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 8:06 pm

wearetheborg wrote:Sure it may be noticeably faster, but how much faster ?

Fast enough that many users here have reported very favourably on 7200 rpm drives favourable impacts on the performance of their ThinkPads and consider 7200 rpm drives good value for money.

wearetheborg · #15 Post by **wearetheborg** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 8:09 pm

Well now you have one user who thinks 7200 drives may not be all that great.

T40 and non-IBM drives?

T40 and non-IBM drives?

Re: T40 and non-IBM drives?

Re: T40 and non-IBM drives?

Who is online