Few questions about new x61s

Just picked up a new x61s for a steal, but I have a few questions about some things I want to swap out when I get it. The downsides are that it's coming with only 1 gig of RAM, 80GB HD, and vista basic. I don't really mind because I got it for really cheap and these things are pretty easily taken care of.

First, I can't decide if it's worth just throwing in a 2GB stick of RAM, making the total 3GB and calling it a day. Or is it worth upgrading to 64 bit just to get 4GB of RAM and be able to recognize it. I'm leaning towards just upgrading to another 2GB making it a total of 3GB, but I'm not really sure if there are any other advantages to upgrading.

Second, I'm going to upgrade the HDD to a Seagate ST9320320AS 320GB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s HDD. Any thoughts on this choice? I will probably do this shortly after I get the laptop but I'm still a little fuzzy on the process. Basically what I need is the HDD, external enclosure, and Acronis to make the image? I want to make an exact image of the old HDD to the new one, but keep the old one fully intact with all of its data.

 

64 bit at the moment doesn't really offer much in my opinion. For a few more bucks you can probably get a 7200RPM drive, which will have a bit more spring in its step.

 

Good point, definately worth the few extra bucks. Can anyone comment on imaging the stock HDD? I've search but it's still pretty fuzzy, as I really don't know too much about it.

 

Glad you finally got your computer (I recall helping guide you between a T400, M1330, or X series).

I would generally recommend you get a 2GB stick and just use 3GB total. This should be adequate. Any 2GB DDR2 notebook DIMM should work (e.g. this $21 Kingston module).

I would recommend you also get a 320GB SATA drive. I have a 5400 RPM Hitachi 5k320 ( $80 before $20 rebate) in mine and am satisfied with the performance. You should also consider the 7200 RPM Seagate 7200.3 ( $90).

You have a few options for transferring Data between the drives.

1. Create Recovery discs (1 CD, 2 DVD), swap drives, and restore to the new drive
2. Put both drives in a desktop computer with 2 SATA ports (this is what I did).
3. Buy a USB enclosure for a 2.5" SATA hard drive.

If you choose option 2 or 3, you will need disc cloning software. Most people on this forum prefer Acronis true Image. However, I used (and was very satisfied) with Self Image (it's free). Unfortunately this application cannot expand partitions (1:1 copies only).

You can use Vista (Administrative Tools → Computer Management → Disk Management → Right click C: → Expand) or a live Linux CD like SysRescueCD (this is what I did) to fill up your drive. Or just create a ≈240GB data storage partition separate from your OS.

 

I would recommend Jon's option 3 (USB enclosure). They're inexpensive and quite handy (for example, if you want to recover something off the distribution disk later). If you go the "USB enclosure; Acronis clone disk" route, you'll find it pretty self explanatory. Just...

1) install Acronis
2) put new disk in USB enclosure and plug in
3) use the Acronis "clone disk" utility to make a copy of C: -> D: (or whatever the drives are)
4) swap the new drive into the laptop and boot... it should just come up exactly as before

If you're going with 320GB, I'd also recommend 7200 RPM. I put a 5400 RPM disk in my X200 Tablet, but only because I wanted to put in 500GB. There aren't any 7200 RPM 500GB laptop drives yet.

Warren.

 

Thanks for the responses - special thanks to jonlumpkin for all your help with my decision.

So, at this point I'm going to pop in another stick of 2GB RAM, making it a total of 3 and forget about upgrading to 64 bit at this time. Also, I'm going to grab an external slimline DVD burner to make recovery discs, etc. I'll also pick up the 7200rpm Seagate 320GB HDD.

I'm still up in the air about swapping the HDD though. I'll go through jon's options:

1. Seems like it might be the best option at this point because I will be swapping the new HD in right when I get the laptop. There will be no extra data to transfer. I really want to keep the stock 80GB HD fully intact with all of the data/ThinkVantage programs/everything on it, just the way I got it, even though I will not be using it. It would make me feel better knowing I still have the original HD with everthing stock on it incase I either mess something up or the new HD crashes. I'm also considering a clean install, but that will be after I swap HDs - like I said I want the original fully intact as a backup.

2. Not an option - don't have a desktop.

3. An option, don't know the advantages of this over option #1.

Does any of this make sense? I'm not really sure if my logic on #1 is correct or which option I should chose for my needs.

 

Option 1 is probably best for your case. You are doing this immediately (no settings to worry about) and this will get you a working factory install on both drives. This way if anything bad happens, you can swap the other drive in your machine in 5 minutes and be back to factory settings (also good if you ever need to send it in for warranty service).

Option 3 has a couple of advantages, but you may not gain much from it. A direct drive copy over USB is usally faster than restoring from recovery DVDs (mine was taking forever, so I just used the desktop clone). An external enclosure also allows you to use the original 80GB drive as a USB external. You can use this for data storage, or more appropriately backup.

One thing to consider that would give you the best redundancy in case something bad happens is the following:

1. Buy an enclosure and put your new drive in it.
2. Use self image (or acronis) to clone the entire 80GB drive to your new 320GB drive.
3. After this is done swap the drives and boot off the 320GB drive.
4. You will now have all your old partitions plus a 230-240GB unpartitoned space at the end of the drive.
5. Format this as a new partition (e.g. D) and use it for data storage (downloads, music, movies, etc. [not documents]). This keeps your OS separate from your files (my setup is this way: 1.5 GB service, 96GB Vista, 14.5GB Ubuntu, 0.1GB Boot, 4.6GB Swap, 167GB Data, 14GB XP).
6. Regularly (e.g. once a week) image your system partition on the 320GB drive back to the 80GB drive.

This way if something bad happens (virus, hard drive crash, etc.) you can quickly restore your system partition or swap drives and at worst be out the contents of the data partition (you should back up anything important on this to another external drive or DVD-R) and one weeks work. This setup is more complicated but if something bad happens, you will appreciate the system you set up.

 

I couldn't agree more with the idea of breaking the hard drive into sections because it accomplishes much like keeping the operating system seperate from the sections to the disk is writing to.

Renee