R60 - SATA 1.5 vs 3.0

[iminj]

I am looking to upgrade to a larger HDD on my R60.

There are 2 types of SATA 2.5" drives, 1.5Mb/sec. and a faster format at 3.0 Mb/sec. Will either type work on my system, or am I limited to one - and if so, which one?

My system:

R60 - 9461CTO
Chipset: Intel i945GM/PM/GMS (940GML)
Southbridge: Intel 8280 1GBM (ICH7-M)
BIOS: ver 2.22
Current Drive: Hitachi 100Gb SATA 5400 rpm (HTS541010G95A00) (I can't find spec's which determine if it's 1.5 or 3.0)

Thanks.

[RealBlackStuff]

Either one would work. If your TP is only SATA 1.5, a 3.0 driveD would only work at the slower 1.5 speed.

[iminj]

Thanks RealBlackStuff:

Follow-up question - How I can determine if my ThinkPad R60 MoBo is capped at SATA 1.5 or will run at 3.0 Mb/sec? I checked the spec's on my Lenovo invoice, and this detail isn't stated.

Thanks

[RealBlackStuff]

Download the latest Hitachi Feature Tool
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
With that you can change the SATA settings. If it won't accept 300, you have a 150.

[basketb]

When you get a new HD, make sure its height is 9.5 mm, not 12.7 mm. There is one 2.5" 500gb HD that is 12.7 mm high and that one won't fit.

[iminj]

RealBlackStuff:

Thank you for that Hitachi Tool. Very handy. Unfortunately, on my system, the Hitachi Tool simply states that I can't change the SATA speed and it doesn't tell me the current speed.
Drats!

I'm going to contact Lenovo Tech Support. Hopefully they can tell me the SATA speed capabilities of my Motherboard.

(I wonder why this is such a pain in the A** to determine. Seems to me that this information should be easily available, and it isn't. Not on the Lenovo specs, and not from software like ThinkPad Configuration or PCDoctor.)

basketb: Yes, thanks for the tip about size. I didn't know there are 2.5" drives thicker than 9.5mm - I'll steer clear of them.