Hard drive question.

So I'm thinking about switching my 100GB 7200rpm hard drive for one that's larger and with the same speed. I'm thinking about either 160GB or 200GB.

The thing is though, this is the first laptop I'm going to actually switch out some parts, so I've never had previous experiences on switching hard drives, hence the following questions.

1. What hard drives can fit into my T61p?

2. Assuming that I have to reinstall my OS, which is vista ultimate, do I have to do it with a full retail version? Or can I just use the "Anytime Upgrade" DVD for $5, since I assume I can just use the ABR Utility, copy the activation key, and paste it into the new hard drive (from stallen's (stalin? lol) clean install guide).

3. Assuming that I do somehow manage to reinstall the OS, is it exactly the same as if I just did a clean install? If not, what are the differences?

Those are about it right now...I might have more questions later, since I'm really a newbie at these things.

 

I just upgraded my T61p with a 160Gig Seagate Momentus 7200.2 harddrive recently.
So to answer your question:
1) Seagate Momentus will fit for sure (but I belive every 2.5" sata fits since it is standardized), I bought form Dell.com for 116USD using Paypal's coupon.
2)&3) You can create "recovery media" (3DVDs or 10 CDs) in "Thinkvantage". It recovers EVERYTHING - even include the hidden partition! So next time you can just use that feature to rebuilt your OS from the new harddrive. But bad thing is that you will have a huge partition C.
The alternative you might use is to back up the C drive only and move it to the new harddrive, which makes more sense to me comparing with a 1xxGig partition C.

Good luck.

 

Thanks solus. I'm thinking about the Hitachi Travelstar 7200rpm 200GB. I think many people had already done it and are pretty happy with it. 229USD but I don't mind spending money on this.

Thanks for the tip on the recovery media! I cannot believe I have never thought of it.

Although I'd still appreciate it if anybody can respond to the original method I mentioned in the beginning, since if I do do it with the recovery disc, I'll still do a clean install for the performance gains.

 

another happy 200GB 7K200 user here.

if you don't go with the 200GB, make sure the one you get is 7K200 and not the older 7K100 (Hitachi models). They're the 0G9SA00 models.

 

1. All 2.5" drives fit. You'll be happy with the 7K200. If your not, I don't know what to say. It is currently the fastest 2.5" HDD available.

2. I'm not sure I understand the question. If you are buying a laptop with Vista and you want a clean install of Vista to get rid of all of the woes of the factory bloatware install then that is what the guide is all about.

3. Re-install vs. clean install. Well they are kind of the same thing. Only a re-install would mean to install Vista the same exact way as it was when you pulled it out of the box. Which includes a ton of utilities and applications that you don't need and are virtually impossible to remove without doing a clean install.

A clean install just means that you are installing Vista only with just the drivers necessary for the laptop to have full functionality.

I think if you read the F.A.Q. at the bottom of the clean install guide all of your questions would be answered. You definitely don't have the understanding of the ABR utility. Read the F.A.Q. and all will become more clear.


Good Luck.

 

What he said.....I could not have put it in better terms