Upgrading HDD on T61p

Considering getting a Lenovo T61p so I have a few questions.

Since the prices are so reasonable from newegg and so unreasonable from Lenovo, I would consider getting a 200GB Hitachi 7k200 HDD upgrade. Since I know Lenovo has their proprietary partition-based load of Vista, how would one go about clean-installing Vista on a newly installed HDD? Without a Vista boot DVD provided, this seems like it could be difficult. I assume I'll have to hunt down the license number for my copy of Vista on the computer and then use someone else's Vista DVD to boot and install it. What other challenges are there going with this upgrade path?

Also, how difficult is installing a new hard drive on it? Are we talking about unscrewing a few screws and replacing a sliding drive, or something more challenging? And what about RAM upgrades -- how painful is it and how technologically proficient do I have to be? Assume that my only tech experience is upgrading the RAM on a desktop as a kid in 1997.

 

I believe you can burn recovery discs using your stock system, put in the new HDD, then perform a factory install using the discs. No license key or anything required since the only component you changed is the HDD.

 

HDD and RAM installations are simple.. first and formost.. ground yourself.. easy to do.. touch something thats plugged in and metal.. easy done.. there are video instructions on how to do just about anything to a thinkpad on lenovo's website..

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-67869

if you have access to another computer.. u could buy a usb to sata/ide adapter and use drive snapshot to clone your old hard drive.. then clone it back to the new hard drive.. so everything is like it was but now with larger drive..

or just use ur recovery cds that you make in windows..

 

I have a 7K200 in my T61p, and have no regrets (yet : )

 

Thanks for the advice!