IBM R51E: Formatting New Hard Drive

[KATNIP]

Hello,

I have a IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad R51e that has a 40GB hard drive. I'll soon be at the capacity limit and I'm going to upgrade the internal hard drive to an 80GB.

My laptop is under warranty until May 2009, will it void the warranty because I'm not buying the hard drive directly from IBM? (IBM's price is $261.00 compared to my purchase of a Hitachi Travelstar 80GB 5700rpm PATA interface for $47.00)

Prior to installing the 80GB hard drive I hope someone can help me with some of these questions.

The Windows XP Pro was factory installed by IBM/Lenovo. Will it recognize the program to install it?

Will all of my Product Recovery CDs still work with formatting the new hard drive back to the Factory Default setting?

Will I need to create any additional disk that I may need prior to restoring to Factory Default setting?

I have read about problems of hidden partition and password issues. I did try to research the issues, but the more I read the more my head started spinning.

I'd truly appreciate any knowledge that any of you may offer.

Sincerely,
Kat

[Johan]

Welcome to the forum, Kat!

As to your questions:

My laptop is under warranty until May 2009, will it void the warranty because I'm not buying the hard drive directly from IBM? (IBM's price is $261.00 compared to my purchase of a Hitachi Travelstar 80GB 5700rpm PATA interface for $47.00)

Answer: No - you won't void your warranty if buying and mounting a HDD yourself! The HDD in a Thinkpad is a so-called "CRU" (Customer Replacable Unit) which mean that you can replace the HDD as often you wish, and to whatever type (capacity) and with no impact on warranty (unless of course you use an obviously wrong type of harddrive!). R51e's uses PATA-drives (Parallel-ATA) which also sometimes are called IDE or just ATA. You may verify that the HDD in your R51e is a CRU through the System service parts - ThinkPad R50e, R51e, R52. Then, the answer to the question you haven't asked (yet?); how do you swap the HDD? Easy! (once you know!). Go get the Hardware Maintenance Manual - ThinkPad R50e, R51e, R52 and/or see Hardware removal and installation - ThinkPad R50/e/p, R51/e, R52 (with movie index!) - both of which can be found via R51e site.

IBM really would like you to buy a HDD from them, because IBM like big, expensive BMW's and Mercedes Benz, and they really need some customers to pay for all this.. which is why they put an "IBM" label on a HDD made by e.g. Hitachi, and sell it three times more expensive compared what it can be found for on e.g. Newegg. You money, your decision who should get the BMW: Yourself or the CEO's at IBM?

Prior to installing the 80GB hard drive I hope someone can help me with some of these questions: The Windows XP Pro was factory installed by IBM/Lenovo. Will it recognize the program to install it? Will all of my Product Recovery CDs still work with formatting the new hard drive back to the Factory Default setting? Will I need to create any additional disk that I may need prior to restoring to Factory Default setting?

Answer: Make yourself a set of the Rescue and Recovery media. Use quality media (Verbatim or the like). Mount your new HDD, and put the old on the shelf. Read FAQ "How to use Recovery CD Disc Set" and perhaps also the threads R&R only boots after restored to factory settings pointing to T42 - Why is this happening after Rescue and Recovery. Boot from the first Recovery CD (which is bootable), and then follow the instructions. After completing this process, the contents of your new HDD is exactly as the contents was on the old, when you received it: Simply restored to factory state. Update the drivers using the System Update tool.

I have read about problems of hidden partition and password issues. I did try to research the issues, but the more I read the more my head started spinning.

It is not clear what you refer to here; what passwords are you talking about? The Windows logon password is first defined in the "restore to factory contents" process, so you don't need to warry about that. If you have a BIOS password set, that's (of course) independent of what HDD you use.

What new HDD to get? If of interest, e.g. check the recent threads Hitachi website - 7K100, 100 GB PATA HD is unavailable and Is PATA dead? which suggest that the newer 5400 rpm PATA's are almost as fast as the (a bit older, very-hard-to-find-today) 7200 rpm drives. Check the 5400 rpm 2.5" PATA HDD selection at e.g. Newegg here. Note cuctomer feedback at Newegg and other sites.

Hint: Consider getting a Seagate Momentus 5400.3 PATA HDD (e.g. 80 GB, 120 GB or 160 GB, cost only $60, $65 and $70m, respectively, at Newegg), because in such case you can use the free program from Seagate, Disc Wizard to simply "clone" the old HDD onto the new... and in this case you don't need any CD-ROM's (but you should certainly make them, in any case!). Many people, incl. I, make use of the program "Acronis True Image" (ATI) for the purpose of cloning disks. While you may download a fully functional (although time-limited, but fully suitable for your "one-time need") version of ATI from their homepage, Seagate has in made available a free version (although slightly limited at a few points) of Acronis True Image through their program "Discwizard" - read more in the thread How to create bootable restore disk? (see the post by RealBlackStuff of Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:22 am). I haven't tried this Seagate-version of ATI, but I suggest you browse the above thread.

OK, I'll better leave it here, but just go ahead, Kat - I'm completely confident that you can do it!

Update: I have to admit that I don't know much about R51e's, but I just stumbled across the thread R51e and SATA Harddrive which amongst other things says:

...The R51e and the R52, both based on the T43 system board, are the first R-series notebook to utilize DDR2-memory and include a SATA-controller, however uses only PATA-harddrives...

If this means that you'll need to know what specific PATA HDD's are supported in R51e's I don't know, but I would guess that if the "2010-error" is also a problem in R51e's, then information about this is available in the sticky in the T4x forum: Problems with non-thinkpad option drives on T43 thinkpads. Sorry if having made you confused...

Johan

[KATNIP]

I would have replied sooner but we lost power from Hurricane Ike. Most of the heavy damages occurred in/around the coastal cities. We do not expect these areas to be up and going for a couple of months. Fortunately, the evacuation went smooth and we faired the hurricane in Houston, Texas.

Johan thanks for posting so many answers to my questions!

I purchased my 80GB from ZipZoomFly.com for $55.27 (tax, s/h charges included). I also download the complete manual for the IBM ThinkPad R51E laptop.

I'm sure I'll be back posting when I hit those bumps in the road.

Once again, thank you so much for your reply.

Sincerely,
K~

[jparrot427]

Hello.
Have you considered doing an image of your current HD now ? I do quite often the procedure that you refer to, specifically HD replacement and to be sure, I do first an image of the present HD then image it back to the new drive. I use True Image, (TI). It is possible to make a self booting ERD and it will start your system, whatever it is, see the USB ports and you can then image it back.
Good luck, but you will not need any luck.
Cheers, JP.