Thinkpad T43p - reliable and economical way to edit video?

[tex-murph]

I apologize, as this post delves into the oft-discussed area of replacing hard drives on T43 laptops. I swear, though - I did my homework! In fact, between reading these forums and various sites through Google, I feel like my eyes are bleeding from the hours of reading.

To start with, let me list what I've looked into already:

1. My ideal and original goal was to have the T43 boot off of a USB external drive into a FULL version of Windows - not a BartPE modified version. This seems not possible, right? Which would be a shame, because I have - http://computers.pricegrabber.com/hard- ... 00613.html - this 500gb WD RE2 drive sitting around.

2. You can get a SATA to PATA Ultrabay adapter off eBay, but it's not official, and some users report slower/equal speed compared to PATA, and I've seen at least one user report more BSODs and instability in general in XP.

3. 2010, a Hard Drive Odyssey - You guys know the drill. The hard drives with the proper firmware (ie the Fujis) aren't even the fastest of the PATA generation. Your other, non firmware compliant, drives seem to be disappearing, commanding high prices, etc. Not to mention that you to have get the HDD Ultrabay adapter to get these other drives to work.

(and, yes, I know you can just bypass the glorious beeps. But since this is for jobs I do, I don't want to run the risk of any hard drive problems. I believe Lenovo when they said they implemented the 2010 error for a reason)

Now, I'm on the fence here because my priorities are speed and cost. I'm looking for a 2.5" drive that will give me modern desktop performance similar to the SATA Desktar 7K2000 on my T43, AND will not be very expensive. I see no reason to spend more than around $200 (give or take) for a fast, modern hard drive upgrade (including Ultrabay). I mean, I can buy a new name brand PC workstation with multiple processors for about $650. My eyes bulged when I saw one PATA drive sell for over $300 on Amazon!

This recently mentioned drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136345 - seems good price wise, but I was having a hard time finding any reviews, benchmarks, etc.

But I also have a fondness for my old T43 tricked out with its big bulky dock, Firewire controller, Audigy sound card, etc. I see no reason to sell it if I can work something out.

I'm not looking to mod or experiment with my Thinkpad. I'm looking to get a 100% reliable workstation going that I can use and not think about it.

Thanks to anyone who read this whole thing! And many thanks for any replies.

EDIT - As a backstory for anybody curious, I'm in this situation because my homebuilt PC died. I've been trying to edit with my Thinkpad since, and it's fine, aside from the hard drive performance.

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

What makes you believe that T43 won't boot a "full" version of XP off of an external drive?

Obviously, a SATA drive in UltraBay will run at PATA speeds, because the connector is PATA. But there's no reason for any BSOD if the machine is properly configured.

I'm not about to debate why the "2010 error" was implemented, but will tell you that I've been running a Seagate drive in a variety of T43/p machines for close to two years now, with no issues apart from the annoying little beeps. No data loss, no problems whatsoever.

One of these days when I get a chance I'll throw the SATA drive from my T60p into an Ultrabay adapter (have it on order but hasn't arrived yet) and see how fast or slow T43 gets with a 7200rpm SATA drive as the main one...will post results once I get it done.

[tex-murph]

Thanks for the reply!

In terms of booting off an external drive, I honestly can't remember what I read where, so that's great news if this is possible. I've purely just been reading like mad and not trying much on my machine - I will try setting this up on my external drive!

And very good news re the 2010 issue. Perhaps I might be overthinking it, and just picking out every worse case scenario I can find. Or just being generally paranoid/scatterbrained maybe.

I'd be very curious to see how the T60 drive fares! Interesting/good idea for a test subject.

But either way, if I can boot from my SATA drive, that's great news to me, so I'll post with my results after I try that.

[tex-murph]

I have had not any success booting from my USB2 hard drive. Booting starts, but soon after the Windows logo appears, I get a BSOD. I've tried this multiple times both in Safe Mode and normal booting conditions. And this was with a fresh XP installation I did today - I tried an existing hard drive image of mine, and that crashed at the same point in the bootup process, Safe Mode or otherwise.

Unfortunately the link isn't working today, but Microsoft's following site is what I was reading earlier (at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/st ... sbfaq.mspx) -

Q: Can a USB storage device be the primary (and only) means of storage?
No. USB-based mass storage devices cannot be the primary hard disk storage solution on a regular system ...

I believe it has something to do with Windows crashing while accessing USB drivers during boot up, and that causing some kind of problem if it's accessing a USB device to do so.

There is also a how-to site - http://www.ngine.de/article/id/8 - that goes into this further, explaining why booting won't work. This site has a guide on to how to editing lines in the original Windows Installation CD to get booting to work, but frankly I'm not sure I trust myself to pull that off!

I'd love to hear of any other workarounds, though. Booting off a USB drive is rather ideal for me, given what I have.

Thanks!

[davidspalding]

I apologize, as this post delves into the oft-discussed area of replacing hard drives on T43 laptops. I swear, though - I did my homework! In fact, between reading these forums and various sites through Google, I feel like my eyes are bleeding from the hours of reading....

Not sure if this was one of the options you discussed ... how about booting from a drive in the UltraBay Slim drive? BIOS seems to offer it. I've hever had need to try it, though.

My own setup is the original 5400 RPM 80GB drive in the HDD0 position, partitioned into SYSTEM, PROGRAMS, USERS, DATA1, DATA2 partitions to limit fragmentation on the low-churn partitions, and also to facilitate easier nighttime, automated backups ... then for video/multimedia editing, I've used a 7200 Hitachi TravelStar 100GB drive in the UltraBay Slim adapter. Never tried booting from it.

The 7200 Hitachi is about to go into a new (for me) X32, and the X32's pokey 5400 RPM drive will become the T43's second drive. I'd bought the 7200 drive for the fastest (affordable) solution in 2006 for a Photoshop scratch disk (and working disk), likewise for Premier Elements. But later I read that some felt the boost in drive speed did nothing since the software could be the bottleneck.

I like you, have a Dock II in which I installed a Firewire 800 card (hardly used, as handycams are now straight USB or DVD), and either my MultiBurner Plus drive, or an older CDRW/DVD drive for read-only, in the UltraBay 2000 slot. The heat buildup of the optical drive is far better handled in the Dock II. (I just wish that the Dock II internal fan wasn't so loud. "Small jet engine, clearing the Thinkpad runway....")

I don't know why you want/have to boot from an external USB drive ... what's wrong with your system and programs installed on an acceptable HDD0, then work on data in the fastest working drive you can put in HDD1 (UltraBay Slim)? One of the reasons I bought the T43 was the ability to load a second battery in there (waste of time, it turned out), or load more hard drive space.

Don't forget that the ExpressCard slot on the other side is supposed to be fast, full USB 2.0 or better. I find reading and writing to SD and XD cards in there is lickety split. I even boot off a Fedora 10 liveUSB disk in there (a cheap PNY stick no less), and detect no sluggishness. (That's right. You can boot from it.)

[tex-murph]

Nice well thought out post! I have debated the Ultrabay, but have been mixed/undecided. I've had a hard time finding a way to get a nice and fast drive that, when coupled with the Ultrabay expense, is still not too pricey. Not to mention the dilemma of whether or not to get the SATA Ultrabay one, which, aside from a complaint here or there, seems to have pretty popular support. Using the SATA Ultrabay might be cheaper, since it takes away the premium on the PATA drives that are going up in price now.

Would you recommend the Travelstar as the drive to get?

But later I read that some felt the boost in drive speed did nothing since the software could be the bottleneck.

I have ALWAYS noticed a difference when using a faster drive. It was my fountain of youth for years with my desktop before it finally died - my WD RE2 drive was amazing, and made my machine (doing Photoshop, video, whatever) very very fast and responsive. With 512mb of RAM! Keep in mind, of course, this was with a custom bare install of Windows I made specifically for video/etc, but still.

(I just wish that the Dock II internal fan wasn't so loud. "Small jet engine, clearing the Thinkpad runway...."

This is definitely the weak point of the dock. I have to take out my T43 whenever I do any sound work!

I don't know why you want/have to boot from an external USB drive

Because I already have one! It's a WD RE3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136294 - that is rather fast, and now useless as a system drive since my desktop died.

what's wrong with your system and programs installed on an acceptable HDD0, then work on data in the fastest working drive you can put in HDD1 (UltraBay Slim)?

Well I've had no problem accessing my project data via my external drives, but I find the biggest bottleneck is the system itself. At least my drive is a bit sluggish, takes a few minutes to boot up, and just sometimes churns like crazy when I start to overtax it.

I mean, I work with miniDV video, which is just 3.5MB/sec! Not too taxing really on its own.

I've done work on the T43, don't get me wrong, but I will be needing something desktop level performance wise for an upcoming project with a quick turnaround!

But overall, yes, an Ultrabay solution sounds like the most realistic. I suppose it's just a matter of finding the right drive/Ultrabay combo that makes the most sense financially.

[sjthinkpader]

2010 error not withstanding, my experience with these these non-white list drives had been working fine in T43s. The newer large 5400 PATA drives are pretty fast also.

[tex-murph]

Good to hear - I'd rather deal with an annoying beep than spend extra on the Ultrabay.

Recommend any drives in particular, or just any current generation large PATA drives?

[sjthinkpader]

The ones available locally now are 160GB, 250GB WD.