T400 options and encrypted hard drive

I'm thinking about upgrading my T61 to a T400 and wanted to know more about the encrypted hard drive option (7K250). Who makes that drive, and how does the encryption work (hardware or software)?

Otherwise I'm about set on my options. Planning on a T400 elite with all the standard options plus:
4GB RAM
High-nit LED display (will they ever be available in WXGA+ ?)
Thinkpad BGN
3-year depot warranty

I am upgrading from my 4:3 T61 because I want better battery life and a better screen. In general, I always update my machine every two years, leaving one year of the warranty on the old one and thus increasing its resale value.

I will, however, wait until the free Win7 upgrade option is available, hopefully later this month.

 

led wxga+ (not high-nit though) are available on the lenovo canada site, but not at lenovo usa for some frustratingly ridiculous unknown reason
who knows when, if ever, they will make available to us customers this screen option so very many people really want

 

Type "7k250" into google and you'll have tons of info about who makes the drive and how the encryption works. Short answer is it's a Hitachi drive and it's hardware based encryption since its done in the drive.

My personal opinion is there's too big a price premium on that drive for most purposes. I use BitLocker (since I have Ultimate) and a 320/7200 Fujitsu drive. Original 250/5400 seagate is in an external enclosure and used for backups and secondary storage. Also look at TrueCrypt.

Technically BitLocker/TrueCrypt will impose some performance degradation due to being software but I've not seen anything noticeable with the drive encrypted or decrypted. Also they're technically more susceptible to the "cold boot attack" but my concern is to protect personal info in case my laptop is lost/stolen -- not military/government/giant-corporation secrets.

 

They used to offer it -- I have LED WXGA+ w/ camera. Bought back in Aug 09.

Do you think they're having difficulty sourcing screens, or they have something against U.S.?

 

Can't it be both? I think the official party line is they don't have reliable enough supplies. Rather than offer them and have people complain when it takes a month, which would never happen here :wink:, they don't offer them. They probably offer them in Canada cause last time I looked, you all were a much smaller market than us. It's odd because Dell doesn't seem to have this problem with their Latitudes.

 

I use TrueCrypt and love it! I really don't want an encrypted hard drive, which is why I was hoping it wasn't a hardware thing. I do, however, want a 7200 drive and something bigger than 160GB, which is the only other 7200 drive that's a option on the T400.

I could buy a separate 2.5" drive and drop it in, but I'd rather just buy one with the laptop and not have to worry about software licenses and separate warranties etc.

Does the 250GB Hitachi offer the option of not using the encryption? It looks like it might be an option. Granted, I'd then be paying a premium, but I can swallow that as the price of a hassle-free life

 

Little is known about how the encryption actually works in the drive (at least I wasn't able to find much detailed information). However, you're right in that the drive is not encrypted and acts as standard hard disk unless you enable this option in BIOS and set appropriate password(s). Still if you don't intend to use the encryption, it doesn't really make sense for you to opt for this drive, as the premium you'll be paying is rather high. For the price of the upgrade through Lenovo, you can easily buy a hard disk with double the capacity aftermarket, like ST9500420AS.

 

If I were to go that route, is there a way of cloning the Lenovo drive to the new drive without running into OS licensing issues?

I'd also be without a 3-year warranty on the drive, but I could live with that.