ibm thinkpad hdd replacement

MofoKilla · 7 Feb 2014 at 15:39

hi guys ,i have a imb thinkpad t21 that needs a new hdd

i was told think pads are fussy with certain hdds , that a lot dont work etc is this true?

also can anyone spec me a drive that will work

many thanks.

thepharcyde · 8 Feb 2014 at 10:24

Just replace with an SSD should be no reason why it does not should not accept any. Take the current one out and examine the connection and is any of it is bespoke which I doubt for manufacturing cost reasons.

http://support.lenovo.com/en_GB/product-and-parts/detail.page?&LegacyDocID=MIGR-4PEHK4

MofoKilla · 8 Feb 2014 at 15:54

thanks for the reply , can you get ssd in ide ?

Amonlym · 9 Feb 2014 at 22:12

Very limited availability of IDE ssd's, they do exist but tend to be based on CF card style controllers and so are not always very fast (think original JMicron drives)

The main issue with thinkpads is down to active protection: the disk must support the in-flight head parking and so on else the machine will at best give bios errors.

from the maintenance manual:
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/62p9631.pdf

Hard-disk drive (6.0 GB), STD OP 05K9227*
Hard-disk drive (6.0 GB), HITACHI OP 05K9228*
Hard-disk drive (10.0 GB), STD OP 08K9508*
Hard-disk drive (10.0 GB), HITACHI OP 08K9531*
Hard-disk drive (12.0 GB), STD OP 05K9229*
Hard-disk drive (12.0 GB), HITACHI OP 05K9230*
Hard-disk drive (20.0 GB), STD OP 27L4286*
Hard-disk drive (20.0 GB), HITACHI OP 08K9533*
Hard-disk drive (30.0 GB), STD OP 08K9564*
Hard-disk drive (32.0 GB), STD OP 08K9509*
Hard-disk drive (18.0 GB), STD 27L4073*
Hard-disk drive (40.0 GB), STD 08K9683*
Hard-disk drive (48.0 GB), STD 08K9599*
Hard-disk drive (60.0 GB), STD 08K9700*

all list as options, so if you can find any of those FRU's (the number at the end) or the equivalent non ibm part, eg: 08K9533 is actually a Hitachi DK23BA-20. Drives from the same series are all likely to be compatible (not guaranteed, but more probable than a random disk)