Which HDD to buy for my T400 and how to swap them?

I am looking at:

1. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280
2. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=250419977561
3. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148336

These are them and in the order in which I like them. The top two are both the Scorpio blacks but the second one has the free fall sensor which I wouldn't mind having. I know ebay is not as reliable as newegg but I figure I have seven days to return a DOA drive and 3 years with the factory warranty. The one on ebay does come with the WD warranty right?

I've been told the Scorpio blacks(320GB) are the best on the market but I still seem to like the Seagate. Not sure why.

I have never done this before but I plan to use acronis true image to copy the HDD's and then swap them. I hope it is easy.

I will be buying an external enclosure just for this. I am planning on getting:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392019
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182140

I will probably be buying all of this Tuesday of this week.

Thanks

 

The Ebay deal is the best. Low price with FFS.

The Scorpio Black beats the 7200.3 in most real world benchmarks:
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15079

Laptopmag currently says:" the fastest mechanical drive we’ve ever tested, the 7,200-rpm Fujitsu MHZ2320BJ (320GB)." Unfortunately they have never published test results of the Fujitsu beating the WD.

The 250GB Seagate 7200.4 could also be interesting, although I don't believe it's actually faster than the WD Scorpio Black.

 

Your ThinkPad already has a free fall sensor. It's one of the ThinkVantage tools. It will work regardless of the drive. While I'm sure it won't hurt to have it on the drive too, I don't know that I'd pay extra for it.

 

How easy is it to change the HD on T500?

 

I am not sure. I have a T400 and will be doing it myself within the next week or two. I can tell you how easy it is once I do it.

On another note does anyone know if I need a rescue CD if I use an enclosure and just image my internal HDD to the enclosed one and then swap them? Is it really that easy?

Thanks

 

Hardware-wise, it's one screw to remove. Very very simple, much easier than even replacing the RAM.

Imaging your drive is a bit more time-consuming, but should not be too difficult either with the proper software.

@alittlemonkish: Pretty much it - it really is that simple

 

hey i was debating over those 2 also either the seagate or scorpio which do u guys recommend any people with experience with these hdd's


thanks in advance

 

I will probably buy the scorpio black with free fall sensor off eBay for $70. I figure if something goes wrong I will have to send it to WD anyway.

What are the chances of an HDD not being DOA and dieing within 30 days? It it worth newegg for the 30 days and there service?

 

i like newegg not bad of a price either. i just feel that the seagate is faster though....hmmm

 

The only reason it is more time consuming is because of the copying the files right. Not actual work? I can tell them to clone and walk away. I would expect that to take awhile.

Would it be hard to partition the new HDD so that the OS is on one and all my data is on the second. So say one 10GB and one 290ishGB? Would it make a difference performance wise or just organization?

 

do u know what program to use to clone the hard drive that is a freeware

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/notebook-hard-drive,2006-6.html

This is why I am getting the scorpio black. Personally I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

 

thanks for the heads up might not be able to see it but hey at least u knoe its their (lol)

 

what software u going to use to transfer your old hard drive to the new one?

 

I am going to use Acronis true image 11. I am rethinking getting an enclosure though and may try it without first. I don't know if it is harder but I am hoping to pull it off. It doesn't seem too hard. I just need to create a bootable recovery disk. Anyone able to tell me how using acronis or windows? (I heard you can only make one, is that true?)

 

I guess it applies to the free trial version.....not sure u going to buy the whole thing

 

The trial version is complete.(So I am told) It works 15 days from install. So I kept the setup files and if it lets me I will just reinstall it when I need it. If it doesn't work I don't plan on buying it but hopefully my plan works.

 

It's not. http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15079/7

 

nice find their thanks for the good input now that really help me decide....

 

The Seagate 7200.4 250GB will be closer to the WD3200BEKT performance. Don't know if it's available yet.

Edit: it is: http://www.provantage.com/seagate-st9250410as~ASEGS1Y3.htm

 

so even the new seagate inst as high performance as the WD......

 

That is uncertain. There hasn't been any review that has done non synthetic benchmarks yet.

The only non synthetic benchmark of the Seagate 7200.4 showed that it was outperformed by the Hitachi 5K500.b (5400 rpm) in copying a 5GB folder. Not a good sign.

As you can see in the Techreport Review the Seagate 7200.3 (7200rpm) was outperformed by the WD3200BEVT (5400 rpm) in many situations. I won't be surprised if the same is true between the Seagate 7200.4 and WD5000BEVT.

 

Just noticed that the internal interface is running on IDE and I just bought a WD SATA drive. Anything I can do or will I have to get a different drive?

 

If your laptop supports IDE, you wont be able to fit SATA in the slot.

 

A T400 with P8600 @ 2.4GHz with IDE interface? Seems unlikely.

 

Isn't IDE the same as the old ATA? If the drive that I bought is not compatible can someone recommend a 320GB+ drive that is preferably 720RPM and good performance?

Thanks

 

alittlemonkish, I am quite sure your T400 supports a SATA drive.

Link.

 

I pulled up Acronis and it says that the master HDD's interface is IDE. I hope it is wrong and I hope your right.

Heres what I know about it. It is the 160GB @7200RPM that it came with from Lenovo. In Acronis it says it is the Hitachi HTS723216L9S FC2Z IDE(0) Primary Interface.

I hope it is SATA because that would make it alot easier.

 

Glad to hear that. I will give it a try when it gets here. I was just a little surprised to see that in Acronis.

 

Can you post your HDTune result? (screenshot)

 

Why would a brand new T400 have an IDE drive? Isn't that an older interface?

 

Yes, IDE is the older HDD connector. Pretty much all new notebooks use SATA now.

 

How do I make a backup CD to use during the swap? I have found that Roxio Cd Creator Business Edition to burn the disk might be easier than using windows. I just dont know how to make a backup of the operating system and all the important files to put on the bootable disk?

Anyone able to help me with this?

 

Get the trial version of Acronis True Image, create the bootable CD, connect the new hard drive through USB, boot from CD, clone your current hard drive onto the new one, switch drives and you're ready to go.

 

Is there any way to do it without an external enclosure or do you recommend one?

Also, I found a file name Rescue and Recovery on the HDD already. I am guessing this is the recovery file that it came with. I copied it to my desktop and then burned it to a CD using Roxio. When I burned it i clicked make it bootable. Does it sound like I made a successful recovery CD or did I do something wrong?

FYI it was about 75MB

 

75MB is not a very big file to contain a full version of Windows.

Did you try to boot off the CD to see what, if anything happens?

John

 

I don't think it would be possible, unless you want to reinstall the whole OS ofcourse.

a simple USB to SATA cable would work to. Something like this.

 

USB 2.5" enclosures are not expensive and provide a permanent home for the HDD. Some cloning softwares will let you create a backup image across several DVDs or onto a large external HDD. However unless your current HDD is almost empty then the cost of the DVDs will be nearly as much as for a USB enclosure.

John

 

I thought it was small too. How would I create a bootable recovery disk then?

Edit: I tried to boot from the disk and the only thing it said was missing operating system. Exactly as you suspected the disk is missing the operating system. How do I make a disk that will work?

 

Speaking as someone who has over 15 years experience building desktop computers, you couldn't pay me to put data on a WD drive that isn't in a fault-tolerant configuration. Historically, I've seen more WD drives fail then all the other brands put together.

Seagate may not be the absolute fastest in the benchmarks, but you'll never know the difference. They have a reputation for being reliable (which they lived up to in my experience) and if you don't have a RAID array, you're gonna want a reliable drive.

I personally like Seagate a lot, but I'm not pushing them specifically. I'm more warning against using WD.

 

Could someone help me create a recovery disk? I tried it and apparently I didn't do something right. I tried booting from it and it said missing operating system.

I have thinkvatage but I could find how to create a recovery disk. I dont have a problem creating an image. I just have not figured out how to create a recovery.

Can someone help me!

Thanks

Edit: Speaking of recovery disk I found a disk stuck in the box that it came with. It says "Start Recovery Disk" but heres my question. I ordered it with XP and that is what is running on it right now. BUT like most new computers I had to buy the license for windows vista and thats the "Operating System Recovery Disk" that I have. Is the Start recovery disk for XP or Vista?

 

Consider doing it the easy way: buy a USB enclosure. Then you don't need the recovery disks.

 

Ok, so I've ordered the enclosure and it should be here in the next couple days or so. I've already got the WD Scorpio Black sitting on my desk. Once I get the enclosure all I need to do is clone the internal HDD to the new one and swap them right?

Is there anything I can do while I wait for the enclosure to get here?

 

Yes.

You can install the trial version of Acronis True Image and make the bootable DVD/CD.

In order to clone your harddisk you'll need to boot of the DVD.

PS. there are also other applications that can do it, I use Acronis.

 

How do make the bootable DVD/CD in acronis? Also is it going to be a CD or DVD? I have both but I am just wondering.

Thanks

 

Try it. Run it and you will find out. CD or DVD doesn't matter afaik. But Acronis will tell you if it does matter.

 

I have tried creating a System State Backup in Acronis before but it never even asks me if I want to burn it to a CD/DVD? It saves it to the desktop.

 

Acronis has a separate option for making bootable media. I'll check it on my desktop.

Edit: It's a separate item in my start menu and it's also an option in Acronis TI. "Create bootable rescue media."

 

I couldn't figure out how to do that. It seems to me that all that does is make a bootable disk for Acronis True Image.

 

Yes that's what it does. You'll need to boot off that and then choose Clone disk.