New Thinkpad T42P owner need HDD advice

[scottmti]

Hi all
Been enjoying and learning alot from this site.
I am now a proud owner of pre-owned T42P and like to refine the T42
I have purchased a new High Capacity Battery and it's working pretty good ( getting 2.5hrs normal use)
I'm not really sure how long the battery suppose to last but I guess 2.5hrs is good considering my old HP lasted less than 1 hour. Any ways, I been searching and comparing and seems like I might be needing a new HDD pretty soon. HDD is the T42p is 80G and looks like its an original. I have not had any problem so far but I feel new HDD might be more reliable/stable.
I've been comparing HDD pricing and seems like good old IDE drive no longer in circulation. I was really looking into getting a 7200rpm in maybe 60G or larger. There aren't that many new 7200rpm IDE HDD out there. I have seen couple from e-bay used and some new but without a warranty.
So, 5400 vs 7200? How much reliable and quicker is 7200 compare to 5400?
What about battery? Would 7200 drain battery more quicker?
Is there any other alternate choice for HDD?

Thanks you in advance
Scott

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

A NOS 100GB/7200rpm drive from a trustworthy source will run over $100...

I've been very pleased with newer Seagate and Fujitsu 5400rpm drives and would recommend them highly.

Power consumption of 7200rpm drives is marginally higher than 5400rpm ones, and would make no difference in real life to the vast majority of users.

Hope this helps.

[sktn77a]

You'll be lucky to find a 7200rpm IDE drive now. You may also want a larger capacity that the 100Gb max (I think) that they came in. I compared my 100Gb Hitachi 7200rpm 7k100 drive with their 160Gb 5400 rpm 5k160 drive and the 5400rpm drive was noticeably slower. Maybe the higher capacity 250Gb 5400rpm drives are faster because of a greater areal density.

Supply and demand dictates that you are going to pay through the nose for a 100Gb 7200rpm drive (probably even more that George estimated)!