R52 Hard Drive

[colloquor]

My R52 OEM hard drive is only 40GB, and I need to upgrade its capacity. I understand there's a flag in the drive's BIOS which effectively requires buying a replacement from Lenovo, rather than other non-IBM or Hitachi drives. Is this the case, or may I replace it with a Seagate or others from other supply sources in the retail distribution channel?

I know this information has been posted on here before, but I recently did a search specific to a R52 hard drive upgrade, and really didn't find the essential info that I needed. If you should have a link to a previous post or posts, and don't want to rehash the info, it would be greatly appreciated.

One previous post mentions a 120GB Fujitsu drive, but it appears that it's no longer available. In fact, only Seagate and WD seems to continue to offer PATA 5,400RPM drives over 60GB.,

Thanks,
Don

[basketb]

Here's a link to a previous thread, which itself contains a link to another, hopefully useful, thread:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=69701

[colloquor]

Here's a link to a previous thread, which itself contains a link to another, hopefully useful, thread:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=69701

Thanks. That was the link I look at earlier, but the Fujitsu 120GB drive is no longer available at that vendor, or at any other it seems, including Newegg or others. As mentioned, only Seagate or WD seems to offer PATA drives greater than 60GB, and I would like to upgrade to at least 80GB or greater on the R52.

Maybe the answer is to simply leave the 40GB boot drive as is, and use an external USB drive for files?? It certainly reduces the hassle factor.

[mgo]

Here's a link to a previous thread, which itself contains a link to another, hopefully useful, thread:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=69701

Thanks. That was the link I look at earlier, but the Fujitsu 120GB drive is no longer available at that vendor, or at any other it seems, including Newegg or others. As mentioned, only Seagate or WD seems to offer PATA drives greater than 60GB, and I would like to upgrade to at least 80GB or greater on the R52.

Maybe the answer is to simply leave the 40GB boot drive as is, and use an external USB drive for files?? It certainly reduces the hassle factor.

I have two older ThinkPads, including a R52. Yes, some drives generate the "error 2010" message. A simple fix is to just select the option to continue after displaying the error and the machine will then run fine. I have never had any problems, despite the error message.

Another option for more room would be to install a second hard drive in the Ultra Bay slot for documents and other files rather than use an external USB drive.

[BeeJayEmm]

Here are links to more appropriate threads:
#1
#2
#3

#2 talks about T43s which share this issue with R52s and X41s.

You could use an external drive. You could also swap out your optical drive for an ultrabay slim 2nd hard drive caddy. Search for more details.

[sjthinkpader]

The WD PATA drives work fine. Just update the BIOS to the latest. Then set the BIOS settings to Continue To Boot after error.