Replace my T61 hard drive: difficult? which brand?

I am thinking about replacing the hard drive (100GB, 7200RPM) of my T61.

I would like to know whether it is doable and how hard it is.

Which replacement do you recommend? I would like to have 160G or 200G drive and it must be 7200RPM.

Thanks!

 

I do not have a T61 in front of me, but I do believe that replacing the hard drive on those is pretty darn easy. Flip it over and look... I think its as simple as removing a screw or two, and sliding the drive (and its caddy/cover which is usually the edge of the laptop) out the side.

I don't have any opinion on which drive to replace it with. There are other threads on this site regarding best drive size/performance for the $$.

I do not know your technical ability, but you will need to reload your T61 when you replace the drive unless you have the means of creating an image of the OS. If you have Windows Vista Ultimate, its easy, otherwise you need 3rd party tools.

 

It's easy to replace the drive on these laptops. The HD (I believe) is right under the right palm rest. Take out the screw and pull out the drive.

There is a drive caddy but that's easy enough to figure out.

I recommend buying Norton Ghost and use that to make an image to an external hard drive and restore it.

Like ChevyNogo said there isn't one good hard drive. You'll have to search around for opinions on different drives. With that said, any 2.5'' SATA drive will be compatible with the Active Protection System.

 

Brain,

Thanks again for your help!!!

I am struggling now between by a larger hard drive and buying another T61.

My current T61's CPU is T7700 (2.4G 800Mhz, 4M cache) and it has 100GB/7200RPM (Lenovo recommended when I bought it). If I go with another T61, the only new things will be CPU T9300 CPU (2.5G 800Mhz, 6M cache) and a 160GB/7200RPM disk.

My more urgent need is to have a larger disk for software pojects.

What do you think?

Regards.

 

millermagic,

Thanks for your chiming in! Really appreciate it.

Best.

 

Well, your current laptop is pretty decent. And since all you need is more space, I recommend you to just get a new HD. Check out the WD Scorpio 320Gb@5400rpm or the Hitachi Travelstar 320Gb@7200rpm at the hardware forum

 

I defintely wouldn't reccomment getting a new laptop for teh sole purpose of having more HD space. changing hard drives is a simple operation. As others have said, you should probably make an image of your O.S so you don't have to reinstall everything afterwards.

 

Seagat 7200.2 200GB SATA 2 with 16mb cache is works well in my T61p. Seagate offers free hard drive applications to help transfer data from old hard drive to new one. Not that hard to do. I did this myself shortly after receiving my T61p. Use the stock 80GB hdd as a USB data storage drive.


Not that bad of a price either. Newegg has them for around $150.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148307

I found one at dell listed as a replacement for a Dell 1420 for less. OEM type.

 

Thanks for the info. I notice that you are using Dell Inspiron and waiting for a new T61. I switched a year ago. You will not regret!

 

Thanks for the info and the link!!!!

 

Just snatched this deal:
Hitachi Travelstar, 200GB, 7200RPM, $30 rebate

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=247425&highlight=Hitachi+Travelstar+320GB

Thank you all guys (gals???) for helping me out on this. I am going to buy a much better config with saved money when T71 or T81 is available

Warmest regards.

 

It's not hard at all...1 screw on the case bottom and 4 screws holding HD in caddy w/ pull tab. There are videos at

http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/

 

HD tune posted some decent numbers when I ran the benchmark. The 7K200 that I posted the link to is one of the better on the market (according to myself and more importantly Toms Hardware) If the deal is still on I recommend it.

(link is 2 posts up)

 

Not bad, not bad. I must remind you, though, the Thinkpads of the future won't be called TXXs, but with three number digits now.

 

techboydino,

Thanks for the original Hitachi HD link. Very glad to hear you visited this thread.

Regards.

 

Hey! It sounds easy...I have T60 with a full HD...

Can I just backup everything on the old HD to my ext HD (160 GB Western Digital Passbook) and then copy to the new one? What does Norton Ghost do specifically in terms of changing the HD out?

thanks!