Upgrading harddrive in thinkpad T500

I'm just about ready to order the T500, but am trying to decide what harddrive to get. I definitely want something running at 7200 rpm and 160 gb seems a little small, but I don't need data encryption and don't want to pay a lot extra for the 200gb model.

I was thinking of buying a 320 gb harddrive from newegg along with a data transfer kit and just getting the standard 80 gb harddrive in the thinkpad.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817155602

I just have a few questions. Does this seem like a reasonable plan? I've never replaced a harddrive or done major data transfers before so I don't know how difficult it will be. I won't have to buy vista again or anything if I just copy the harddrive exactly right? And don't thinkpad's usually have a special partition for updates? Would I be able to make that and what would happen if I couldn't.

Also, I know that by replacing the harddrive, lenovo obviously won't warrant the new harddrive, but would they still cover the rest of my system?


Thanks, and please respond in a somewhat detailed manner if you can. I really don't know anything about this.

 

My (inexperienced with this part) thought: If you're ordering the drive such that it's in your hands before you receive the T500, couldn't you simply run the recovery disk creator to create a recovery disk set then swap hard drives and use the recovery disks to build the new drive?

As for your questions:
No you won't have to buy Vista again.
Yes, there is a special partition, recovery disk method should recreate them, I have no idea whether that package from Newegg would do so.
Warranty on rest of system will be fine.

 

But you don't get a vista disc with the laptop, do you? How do you make the recovery discs? And would those be able to back up all the programs that come installed? (I know a lot of people go to a lot of trouble to uninstall those but there's probably at least a few I'd want.

 

I don't believe so.
There's a utility to make the recovery discs.
I believe the recovery discs include the preinstalled software.

 

My Acer didn't come with any CD/DVDs. Usually you need to burn 2-3 DVDs from a hidden partition on your hard drive. Acer had a built in recovery management system in order to back up the factory default stuff.

 

You can clone the partition from the standard drive to the new drive using the trial version of Acronis True Image. No need to buy the "Hard Drive Upgrade Kit", a basic enclosure will do.

More info here in John's post:
Originally Posted by John Ratsey
Step 1: Check your existing HDD to find out the interface type (PATA or SATA)

Step 2: Buy a compatible HDD plus a suitable USB enclosure

Step 3: Go to Acronis and download the trial version of TrueImage. Install and create the recovery CD.

Step 4: Put the new HDD into the enclosure and connect to the computer

Step 5: Boot the computer using the Acronis CD and then select the Clone option

Step 6: Clone the old HDD onto the new one

Step 7: Take the old HDD out of the computer and replace with the new one from the enclosure

Step 8: Boot the computer. Everything should be as it was except for more free space.

The enclosure can then be the permanent home for the old HDD which you can uses for backups.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=252436&highlight=acronis

It's fairly simple to do it. Just follow the steps.