Upgrading a T40 hard drive

Hi Thinkpad community,

I'm sure that this question has been asked before, but here goes:
I just got a used T40 and want to upgrade from the 30 GB hard drive to a
60 or 80 GB. Can I just order a Hitachi 5k80 from DELL or Buy.com and
install it or do I need to get one specifically for the IBM thinkpad.
Also how about the Samsung. Is it better or not as good as the Hitachi?

And when I install it, how do I get the everything onto it? I tried
getting IBM to send me the recovery disk but they no longer do that. How
do I go about getting the recovery disk from the old disk?

Thanks for your help
Rick

In article <6xIle.4565$Fb.704@trndny07>,
Rick Speaker <> wrote:

> Hi Thinkpad community,
>
> I'm sure that this question has been asked before, but here goes:
> I just got a used T40 and want to upgrade from the 30 GB hard drive to a
> 60 or 80 GB. Can I just order a Hitachi 5k80 from DELL or Buy.com and
> install it or do I need to get one specifically for the IBM thinkpad.
> Also how about the Samsung. Is it better or not as good as the Hitachi?
>
> And when I install it, how do I get the everything onto it? I tried
> getting IBM to send me the recovery disk but they no longer do that. How
> do I go about getting the recovery disk from the old disk?
>
> Thanks for your help
> Rick

There are no specific ThinkPad hard drives, but you will need one of the
2 1/2" drives specifically for notebooks. I've had good luck with
Hitachi 5400 RPM drives. Nice and quiet, and no drive failures on three
I've installed on various ThinkPads and Mac PowerBooks.

To transfer old files I've found the best solution is to put the old
drive in a USB external enclosure, then plug it in and drag the files
you want from the old drive to the newly installed drive. Plus you have
the added benefit of keeping the old drive as external storage. Great
for backing up or for moving large projects from home to work, etc. OWC
online has them here:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-.../External-USB/ and places
like CompUSA probably so as well.

rambo47 wrote:
> In article <6xIle.4565$Fb.704@trndny07>,
> Rick Speaker <> wrote:
>
>
>>Hi Thinkpad community,
>>
>>I'm sure that this question has been asked before, but here goes:
>>I just got a used T40 and want to upgrade from the 30 GB hard drive to a
>>60 or 80 GB. Can I just order a Hitachi 5k80 from DELL or Buy.com and
>>install it or do I need to get one specifically for the IBM thinkpad.
>>Also how about the Samsung. Is it better or not as good as the Hitachi?
>>
>>And when I install it, how do I get the everything onto it? I tried
>>getting IBM to send me the recovery disk but they no longer do that. How
>>do I go about getting the recovery disk from the old disk?
>>
>>Thanks for your help
>>Rick
>
>
> There are no specific ThinkPad hard drives, but you will need one of the
> 2 1/2" drives specifically for notebooks. I've had good luck with
> Hitachi 5400 RPM drives. Nice and quiet, and no drive failures on three
> I've installed on various ThinkPads and Mac PowerBooks.
>
> To transfer old files I've found the best solution is to put the old
> drive in a USB external enclosure, then plug it in and drag the files
> you want from the old drive to the newly installed drive. Plus you have
> the added benefit of keeping the old drive as external storage. Great
> for backing up or for moving large projects from home to work, etc. OWC
> online has them here:
> http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-.../External-USB/ and places
> like CompUSA probably so as well.

Thanks Rambo47-
I had just about come to that decision as I was asking the question.
Dell had a small business 25% off sale with free shipping for the
Hitachi Drive and they recommended the apricorn upgrade hard drive kit
which was also on sale and comes with software for cloning a drive and
the enclosure. I orderfed it after reading your reply. Thanks for the
confirmation through experience. That helps.
Rick