T22 Thinkpad help

I just picked up an old thinkpad that was left in the heat. I got it for free and after some testing found that the hard drive had failed. I havent really worked with laptops before and I'm wondering what is a good, current hard drive for under $100? Also, the heat caused some paint to chip off the back panel used to cover the ram...does anyone know if it is possible to replace these?

Also, the owner said that recently the battery life was horrible on the laptop. I think it is because she had it constantly plugged in. Is that a possibility? Can I buy an after market battery to remedy the problem? Does anyone know how long the battery should last typically?

Here are the specs that I know (if it helps):
Model: T22
Processor: P3 900 mhz
Ram: 512 ram
...that's basically all I know right now.

 

I think the standard battery goes about three hours on a T22. After this long it is probably time to get a new battery anyway. I would not buy a third party battery. You can look for a deal on eBay or Pricegabber.

I personally like Hitachi and Seagates drives. You can probably get a new 40GB 5400RPM drive in the $50-60 range if you don't need a lot of space. It will be a nice little office and internet PC. Just make sure it is an ide drive as opposed to SATA. Good Luck.

 

I have aThinkPad T22 also. Just replace the harddrive 3 months ago with a Fujitsu MHT2040AH 40GB/5400RPM harddrive from newegg. Price right now at newegg is $67.99. Nice drive,quiet,temp right now after spyware scan 50c Harddrive is very easy to replace go to Lenovo.com/click on support&downloads/click on auto-detect this system[MUST USE INTERNET EXPLORER FOR AUTO-DETECT TO WORK] click on product information/ click on product information-ThinkPad T21,T22/scroll down to installing hard disk drive. Battery life on my laptop sucks too.I get about 1.5 hours surfing the web. I do not know how old the battery is. I do think it needs to be replace .