WD Scorpio 2.5-Inch 500 GB SATA WD5000BEKT

[taichi]

Has anyone used this drive in a T60P? (WD Scorpio 2.5-Inch 500 GB SATA WD5000BEKT)

Some of the Scorpio Drives have a free fall sensor that might conflict with the sensor in the Thinkpad. I'm not sure about this one.

There is also a smaller 320 GB version with USB 3.0...of no consequence for the Thinkpad, but probably running at 2.0 speeds on older systems. Still, 3.0 might be useful elsewhere.

thanks

taichi

[taichi]

Well... a lot of people read this post, but no opinions expressed.

So I'll answer the question. I just installed the 500 GB Scorpio Black in my T60P and it is great so far.

Everything opens significantly quicker.

[nfotis]

I am in the same boat as you (with a plain 1.66 GHz T60), and torn between this disk and the Seagate Momentus XT hybrid.

How did you clone your T60? Or you did install fresh Windows?

N.F.

[taichi]

Sorry it took so long to respond.

The Momentus Hybrid, according to a number of things I've read, offers not enough of an increase in performance to warrant the higher cost. Moreover Western Digital really seems to be doing things right, with extremely good reliability. So I unhesitatingly went for the 500GB Scorpio Black, and am happy with it. Things load much quicker now.

For a conventional HD (and the hybrid is still based on rotating platter technology) the WD is the way to go. An SSD would be the only alternative for better performance IMO, albeit with greater cost for lesser capacity.

I have a very good and honest computer service which I use, and I let them do the clone...primarily because three days before the swap I heard a faint purring from my old drive, and was advised by my tech that this may be one sign of an impending drive failure. I shut down my T60P after that, ordered the WD overnight, and let them do the clone with their tech version of Acronis.

Luckily, it all went without a hitch...all data intact. And it was good that I let them do the clone, because unbeknownst to me, when cloning Vista it is often the case that some part of the OS (related to boot issues) becomes problematic.

The fix (in the hands of someone who knows what's what)
was simple, involving a simple reinstall of a small bit of data from the Vista install disk.

When I bought my drive from Amazon they had a bundle deal on an excellent, dirt cheap USB enclosure, so I bought it with the intent of buying another drive soon to maintain a clone for backup.

Anyway, according to virtually all reviews, the 500GB Scorpio Black is a superlative drive, and so far (less than a week in operation) I'm very happy.

Good luck and yassou!

taichi

[nfotis]

Hello there,

I am speaking through a WD Scorpio Black 500GB-equipped T60 now...
(yes, I took the plunge, after receiving a USB/eSATA enclosure from Ebay).

I downloaded the Acronis data backup from the WD site, after skimming through the manual (maybe I am too weird ).
I had to install the Scorpio into the enclosure first, because the program refused to install without finding a WD drive.

Next step was to burn a bootable CD of Acronis, then I exchanged the original 80 GB disk and the Scorpio
(I have read advice in the forum that Thinkpads work much better if the drive to clone to is already inside the Thinkpad)

After that, the machine booted from CD, and I went ahead on cloning the drive.
I decided to manually split the 500 GB into two partitions, one 150 GB and the rest in another partition.
The Acronis gave them the letters D: and E: during the cloning.
The process was painless, albeit very slow (I suspect that Acronis made a full format of the disk).

Cheers,
N.F.
PS. My T60 is an XP machine

[taichi]

Congratulations!

It's a great drive...one of the few purchases I didn't second guess.

The tech who cloned the drive for me removed the source drive from my Thinkpad and mounted it into a desktop along with the new drive. It's apparently faster to clone this way, and the new drive installed perfectly. So it can be done in different ways.

If you are in Athens, is Vasili's near Syntagma still there?

taichi

[nfotis]

My first impressions are pretty good.

The new drive is noticeably faster than the old Toshiba(?) 80 GB.

It's a wonderful feeling to have "suddenly" 420 GB of free space...

Regarding the shop/place you mention, I have no idea - if you can be more pointed, PM me and I'll search (my neighborhood is approximately 7 miles from Syntagma as the crow flies)

Now I am installing the Trains magazine from Kalmbach complete set (two dual-layer DVDs)...

Cheers,
N.F.