Planning new HD for ThinkPad R60 (9456-FCU)

I have been lurking for awhile and think I would feel better at actually doing what I have in mind (or what you recommend doing to get where I want to be) if I have help from you guys. What I want to wind up with is a nice fresh install of XP Pro without some of the software, such as games, BUT with things like the Sonic Software and ThinkVantage Programs that came with the computer. I have printed out the ThinkPad SuperGuide and Windows XP Clean Install threads.

I have a ThinkPad R60 (9456-FCU) which has a 100GB 5400rpm disk in it currently. This has really gotten filled up since I brought the laptop in 2007. As near as I can tell from what documentation I have and searching on the net I figured I needed a 2.5in SATA drive the has a height of 9.5mm. If I am going to go to the work of changing the hardware and installing the OS, etc. I feel that I want to go with something really large — such as 500GB. I purchased this Amazon.com: Western Digital 500GB Scorpio Blue Sata 5400RPM 8MB Internal Laptop Hard Drive - Retail: Electronics hard drive and this enclosure Amazon.com: Eagle Tech ET-CS2PESU2-BK 2.5-Inch SATA to USB/eSATA Portable HDD Enclosure w/Built-in USB cable: Electronics with the idea of eventually using the enclosure for my old hard drive.

Rather than having made my own Product Recovery disks I paid for a set before Lenovo stopped selling them for out of warranty systems (I may go ahead a make a set anyway now). I have also been copying data from the existing HD to an external. I think I have all of the disks from software that I installed myself and will double check this before starting. I DO expect to NOT touch the existing HD that will be removed until I am completely satisfied with the way the computer is preforming wit the new HD.

This has gotten long but I have probably left out something ! Feel free to ask any questions that will make it easier to help me. I haven’t installed Windows since the 3.1 days LOL — just all of my own software and drivers for things like scanner and printers.

 

How about some help with this? Is my best bet to remove the current hard drive, install the new one, and then boot from the disks that I bought from Lenovo? As I said above, I haven't installed Windows since the 3.1 days.

 

Please refrain from bumping your thread up within 24 hours; patience is a virtue

It seems to me that you pretty much have all your bases covered. As for drivers, I would suggest downloading ThinkVantage System Update. Put the installer on a USB drive, and when you boot into Windows for the first time, run the installer and set up SU - then, it should gather together a list of the drivers and software you may want (it's fine to deselect pretty much all the software; I would recommend installing nearly all the drivers).

That way is a lot easier than manually finding, downloading, and installing each driver/piece of Lenovo software separately.

Precisely.

 

To do a clean install you'll need an OEM Windows disc.

 

I know it can seem pretty intimidating if you're unexperienced, but it's really a very straightforward procedure, and it looks like you have your bases covered.
Just install the new HDD, boot up from your Lenovo discs, and install. If you need any guides, either do a google search or ask one of us here, and we'd be happy to help if you have any problems.

 

@ZaZ...when you say OEM, did you mean the System Builder's version? Could we not simply use a retail disc to do a clean install?

 

Thanks for the reply. Sorry if my bump was a problem to you. I was seeing read after read and got the impression that my post was being taken as a report rather than wanting help.

Regarding drivers won’t there be drivers on the disks that I got from Lenovo? I have not been having obvious problems; just wanting the additional space and seeing no reason to use some of it for things I don’t use.

Thanks ZaZ. I am aware of that but don’t have access to an OEM Windows disc. And . . . there is some of the software that came with it that I DO want just not ALL.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Talin! Do have to LOL about one thing though. To ask here if I have problems I would have to backtrack and put the old drive back in as this is the only computer that I have that I can get on the net with. The very old one that is around does not have a NIC in it and I have DSL .

 

Lenovo used to offer a custom install option via Rescue and Recovery on the T61 era of ThinkPads. I thought it was a great idea, but for some reason they dropped it. You could try making your own XP CD. I've never done it myself. I've no idea if it works.

I'm not sure what's the difference between OEM and System Builder. A retail copy likely won't accept your key. You could try the key that came with the disc and then change it after XP is installed. I've done that a few times and it's always activated. Worst case is you'll have to call Microsoft to get it activated.

 

the retail xp pro installation discs can't be activated by the OEM key.

 

I am dealing with an R60 isn't that the era just prior to the T61? So, should this be available to me?

Jane

 

Yes, the R60 is just prior to the T61. I don't know, perhaps if you could get the right version of Rescue and Recovery on there, it might work, but I don't know enough about it so say with any certainty.

 

Life got in the way and since the computer was not inoperable this is one of the things that got put off. Today I was surfing around on this subject again and ran across this thread on a different site Reinstall XP and getting rid of pre desktop thinkv... - lenovo community. The answer there from Andy P says this "Using the R&R software to recover the system will restore it to the factory state. During the process, on an R60, you should also have the opportunity to run a custom recovery and leave out some utilities you don't want to have. I would recommend this method to you."

I never did get making my own R & R disks to go beyond the first one! But, may well try this with what I bought from Lenovo. It would mean a lot more re-installation of software than buying other cloning/backup software but may well result in a preferable installation in the long run.

I know I have seen instructions but need to look up if I need to change any settings before physically putting the new drive in and trying booting from the first disk that came in the set from Lenovo. I don't think I will know anymore about options until I try it. Like will I have the option to choose what to install right away or will I have to put it all on and then do a recovery?

Still willing to look at additional suggestions!
Jane B.

 

I never was able to get the R&R discs to burn on my T60p, unfortunately. Your OEM discs may be the only way to get the new HDD reimaged, to be honest.

If you've got your system set up the way you want it(and just need more space) there are free cloning solutions available. I've used the free edition of HDClone(available here) several times to good effect. All you would have to buy is an external 2.5" SATA HDD enclosure, probably around $25 at the most and likely significantly cheaper than that, and a blank CD-R if you don't already have one.

 

Believe it or not I am still back a forth gathering things for this and doing other completely unrelated things. Since the following message on a blue screen is showing up regularly, but not every time, when shutting down I have come to the conclusion that even though it would probably lead to more re-installation I would probably be better off to use the disks I got from Lenovo rather than try any cloning software.
STOP:C000021a {Fatal System Error}
The windows Logon Process system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc0000005 (0x00000000 0x00000000.
The system has been shut down.

To then shut the power to it I have to hold down the power button.

Comments welcome!