Upgrading T42 Hard Drive 2373-5TU

[reklein]

I purchased a WD 160GB ATA drive (WD1600BEVE) to replace my origional hard drive.   I have an ultra-HDD adapter and used Acronis to clone the drive.   That all worked fine.   However, when I put the drive in as my primary drive, the BIOS does not see it.   Is there a problem supporting a 160GB drive on this system as IDE HDD0?   The BIOS sees the drive fine in the ultra-HDD adapter as IDE HDD1.   Would it work with an 120GB drive?   What are my options?  How do I fix?    I was planning on using the same drive in my daughter's T41.   Anything different with the T41?

[Kev2009]

I am no computer expert, i have a T42 2373 4WG that was originally fitted with a 40GB hard drive.

several weeks ago, i upgraded to 160 GB and the change was easy, though in my case i simply removed, fitted, and then reinstalled everything from recovery disc, and windows update.

What i was advised when i purchased the drive was that, some systems would only "see" perhaps 60/90/120 GB and if that was the case, i was to download and flash the BIOS.

perhaps in using a clone software package, you simply cloned the previous system including BIOS ?

[andyP Community SuperMod · Accepted solution]

reklein, welcome to the forum,

I cloned a T42, (with XP SP2 installed), 40GB hard drive to a WD16000... 160GB on Saturday without problems. How I did this;

Set the Predesktop area to disabled in the bios security menu and booted to windows. Confirmed that the pda was visible in drive management and shut down.

Removed 40GB drive from primary slot and caddy and placed it in the Ultrabay adapter, I then slotted this into the bay.

Attached caddy to 160GB drive and installed it into the primary hd slot.

Connected external usb cd drive and entered bios to ensure that it was recognised along with both hds in boot menu and ensured it was selected as first boot device.

After restarting I booted to Acronis 11 rescue cd, which I had created on another system some time ago, and chose to clone the drives.

I manually resized the partitions allowing 5GB for the PDA, (originally 4.69GB - Acronis suggested 9GB if I remember correctly), and then allocated all other space to the first partition.

After cloning was finished at the reboot I went straight into bios and then removed the cd from the drive. Turned the system off by pressing the power button for ~5 seconds and then removed the 40GB drive from the bay.

Restarted and it booted to windows where I then checked that the hpa was visible in drive management.

Shut down and from cold start I entered bios and set the hpa to normal. After a restart I was able to enter the hpa.

Everything was as it should be, just with a larger capacity drive.

Hope this helps

[zilla]

Andy,

that's an excellent description!

And with nice details like using the power button in bios mode preventing the new Windows from booting and corrupting the old Windows drive in the ultrabay, so that the old drive still can be put back as primary drive if needed. 

From the context I think you are using "hpa" as a synonym for pda = Predesktop area. What does hpa stand for?

On my T500 I have deleted my Q partition after burning and verifying the recovery disks. So assuming my S partition is my pda, can I use this exact procedure to upgrade the T500 hard disk? What size would you recommend for the new S partition (it's now at 1.46GB)?

Message Edited by zilla on 2009-04-28 10:17 AM

[andyP Community SuperMod]

Thanks

Did I use hpa? I thought I was careful and only used pda, -irrelevant.

hpa = hidden protected area

With Vista it's another story altogether. I believe zoltanthegypsy has illustrated this well in his post here.

[zilla]

Zoltan's post says he can get everything working cloning with ATI except the Thinkvantage button on the Vista T500. Are you saying that on the T42 with XP the procedure you have described here will also result in a working IBM Access button?

If yes will the same procedure restore the Thinkvantage button  on a T500 running XP?

[andyP Community SuperMod]

zilla,

please search the board for your answers, or start a new thread and ask them. This thread is about T42s and XP not T500 and Vista.

Regards

Andy

[zilla]

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zilla wrote:

Are you saying that on the T42 with XP the procedure you have described here will also result in a working IBM Access button?

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[andyP Community SuperMod]

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andyP wrote:

Restarted and it booted to windows where I then checked that the hpa was visible in drive management.

Shut down and from cold start I entered bios and set the hpa to normal. After a restart I was able to enter the hpa.

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[zilla]

ok andy thanks -- will continue in t500 thread