2nd Internal HDD on T42p Question

[gbrandel]

Hi,

I recently installed a second internal hdd (Hitachi 5K80, 80GB model) in the media bay of my T42p (2373KYU). This hdd was alright for a couple days but has now begun to periodically stop rendering the drive inaccessible. After trying to spin up the drive for about 5 minutes (you can hear the hdd trying to start – it starts spinning up then stops, starts spinning up then stops, and on and on) Windows XP will report a problem reading the drive and will disable the drive. I have tried reseating the hdd in the media bay hdd tray to no avail. Yesterday, I tried taking the problematic hdd out of the laptop and installed it in a desktop computer where it has been operating under heavy load without problems for the better part of two days. I have also run the Hitachi supplied hdd diagnostic program on this drive (while in the desktop pc) and that program reports no problems with the drive. I’m thinking that this could be a thermal problem. I have run MobileMeter with both hdds installed and neither disk ever gets warmer than 40 deg. C. under load. The operational max as listed by Hitachi is 55 deg. C. on both hdds in this laptop. My other (primary) hdd is the factory shipped Hitachi 7K60, 60GB model (no problems whatever with that disk). So, I’m interested to know how many other T42 owners are running a second internal hdd and whether or not they have experienced any difficulties with this configuration.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Regards,

Griffith
Madison, WI.