Fried Harddrive, replacement?

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seth1991 · #1 Post by **seth1991** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:01 pm

I have an IBM Thinkpad T40p (2373) that I bought refurbished Christmas of last year. The hard drive for a while had been clicking and yesterday, when a small object fell on the area directly above the hard drive from a considerable distance, the drive finally failed. Now I am in need of a new drive as quickly as possible. I would like to do it myself as I am fairly knowledgeable with computers, however I have never replaced a laptop hard drive. I removed the drive and found that it is a Fujitsu MHR2040AT 40GB drive. I found another on the internet at this website: (http://www.memorysuppliers.com/fuj40at4 ... elid=FROOG). Will this work directly upon replacement into the system? I understand that I will have to format it and reinstall all of my software, etc. However, I read on other sites that with the installation of outside hard drives, the BIOS may need reflashing. I was wondering if this would be necessary as the drive essentially would be the exact same as the drive I removed, correct?
I very much appreciate any feedback! I would like to get my computer back up and running ASAP and I greatly appreciate your help!

makai · #2 Post by **makai** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:13 pm

Yes, the drive will work... however the drive you're considering is WAY OVERPRICED! WAY OVERPRICED!!

Check Newegg.com for compatible drives. Any ATA-6 (PATA) drive will work in your T40. You can get a 160gb for about the same price as the drive you linked.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... e=5400+RPM

Good luck!

Brad · #3 Post by **Brad** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 9:20 pm

You won't need to reflash. Your T40p has no issue with any PATA drive you choose.

If you have the recovery CD's you would be back to loading all your software after a system recovery in an hour or two.

Oh...welcome to the forum!

Brad

seth1991 · #4 Post by **seth1991** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:51 am

Wow! Thanks for the responses guys, I really appreciate it!
Now I am seriously looking into a major hdd size upgrade since I have some flexibility with the price. I am looking at this drive, a HITACHI Travelstar 5K160 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822146200). Is there any limit to the hdd size by IBM? 160GB would be amazing if possible. Would this work in my laptop just dropping it in and booting up to format it?

Thanks again!

Brad · #5 Post by **Brad** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 9:58 am

No, there is no limit. Any PATA drive will work of any size.

Brad

seth1991 · #6 Post by **seth1991** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 12:12 pm

Great! So the above stated drive in my second post should work?

ajkula66 · #7 Post by **ajkula66** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 12:18 pm

Yes it will work.

seth1991 · #8 Post by **seth1991** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 3:24 pm

Thanks everybody, the Thinkpad is now back up and running with a 160GB Hitachi Travelstar under the hood and Ubuntu 8.04.
Thanks again!

makai · #9 Post by **makai** » Wed Jun 18, 2008 4:28 pm

Great to hear you've succeeded! Enjoy your new hard drive!!!

Fried Harddrive, replacement?

Fried Harddrive, replacement?

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