time for a hard drive upgrade help a newbie pls

I have a T61 that only has 120 gb HD that almost all used up, can you guys pls help a newb out on how to upgrade my HD??

I found a HD on newegg for my t61 already .. I think I will go with this..
Newegg.com - Lenovo ThinkPad 43N3411 320GB 7200 RPM 2.5" SATA 1.5Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive

I probably can youtube the install of the HD to my t61 but how do I transfer all my data and software to the new one?? what do I need to know to to do this??

sorry for the dumb questions, any help would be great

 

Lenovo Support & downloads - Hardware Maintenance Manual - ThinkPad R61, R61i and T61 14.1inch widescreen

follow the above manual for the removal and installation of the hdd, it is pretty easy.

Regarding transfer data and stuffs, you probably would need an imaging software like Acronis Trueimage.

 

You don't need to buy a lenovo branded drive. You are actually paying way too much if you do.

I ordered my t400 with an 80GB basic drive and promptly upgraded to a Hitachi 320GB.'

Now, you can find 500GB 7200RPM Western Digitals or Seagates for $60 to $70.

I just installed an OCZ Agility 2 60GB SSD into my t400 and made the 320GB a storage drive in the UltraBay adapter.

I have had no troubles with my non-lenovo drives. My SSD boot was $124.99 after mail-in rebates.

Just my thoughts

 

Any 2.5" SATA 9.5mm hard drive will fit into the T61, as tony487 said you can opt for Non-Lenovo branded drives as they will provide you much better value for money yet provide the same usability. As a system drive, 7200RPM drives makes sense for slightly fast load times. You can opt for SSDs for even faster performance but they're pricey and rather limited in capacity.

If you care more about storage capacity than absolute speed you'll have a lot more choice with the standard 5400RPM drives. 500GB drives are great value for money in this range, I recently bought the Western Digital 500GB Scorpio Blue drive (WD5000BEVT) and it's fine and provides ample of space. You will find that its almost half the price at NewEgg compared to the Lenovo drive you gave us the link to. But feel free to scout the competition, Seagate and Hitachi also makes some decent drives in this range too.

 

thanks Can you guys recommend me something in newegg that will work for my t61?
need atleast 300gb and 5400 rpm.. im trying to spend the least amount, so 320gb would be fine.

 

and do I need a OS CD?? im not sure if I have one.

 

you can burn it from start -> program -> thinkvantage -> create recovery media (2 dvds for XP and 3 DVDs for Vista).

 

i recommend the wd3200bevt from newegg. just type that model in newegg and you'll get it. you should be able to get it for about 50

 

If you're looking for the easiest way to transfer all your info to a new hard drive, I'd highly recommend an imaging program. I typically use HDClone, as there's a free version and has given me less headaches than Acronis TrueImage. Here's what you do:

Purchase a WD 5000BEVT from Newegg. It's $60 right now. I've got two of them and over two years they've proven to be nice, reliable drives. 500GB will also give you a good bit of breathing room.

Also, purchase an external USB HDD enclosure(link is to Newegg, too).

Once you get those, install HDClone and choose the option to burn the HDClone software to a CD. After the CD's burned, shut off your system and remove your hard drive from your system.

Install your new hard drive in your ThinkPad, and install your old hard drive into the external enclosure. Plug the enclosure into a USB port and then turn the system on.

If HDClone doesn't start after the machine starts, make sure that your BIOS boot order is set so that the machine boots from your CD drive before your hard drive. When HDClone runs, chose the option to clone a hard drive to another hard drive. Select your old hard drive as the source, and the new hard drive as the target, then let it run. It will take a few hours, so be patient.

When HDClone stops, turn your system off, make sure the CD is out of the drive, and turn your ThinkPad back on. You should have all your existing OS installation, programs, and files just like you did before, but have a lot more free space. You can also choose to format your old drive and use the external drive for extra storage space, too.

 

No problem. Just keep in mind that in the worst case scenario, you will still have all your data on your old drive. I've done this several times with no big fuss; it's how I upgraded from a 160GB to a 500GB drive on my T400.

 

Awesome! Let us know how it goes!