Thinkpad 390x hdd died - Whats compatable?

[Spazz11]

I'm trying to fix this for a friend, it should be a simple matter to replace a HDD, but notebooks are case specific. Will any drive the same dimensions and connector work? The original was the standard 6.4 gig drive. It starts up now, but verry slow, and you can hear the drive head working very slowly, then Windows crashes all by itself. Sometimes Fdisk see's the drive, sometimes it doesnt

Anyone know where I can find compatability info for notebooks? I tried the IBM website, but they dont have any info on old hardware. There's gotta be a chart somewhere. Any idea's??

 

[Spazz11]

Bump

 

[miken]

Any standard notebook drive will work... I have gotten a drive for my IBM TP from http://www.bixnet.com before without a problem.

 

[Spazz11]

Cool. I can geet a 20 gig drive for $80-100, but to get one that is supposed to be compatable with the 390x, they want $180 for a 10 gig...but then again, thats from IBM

 

[techfuzz]

AFAIK, all laptop hard drives are the same, they're all 2.5". More than likely it is the hard disk tray that varies between manufacturers based on my experience with Dell laptops. It should just take a small screwdriver to remove the old hard drive and replace it with a new one. So to answer your question, no need for a compatability chart.

techfuzz

 

[AMCRambler]

Yeah any notebook drive should work just make sure it's the size to fit the caddy. Those laptops used the newer drives that stand 10mm tall. I got my girlfriend a 390E and upgraded her 4gb to a 30gb without a problem. I have heard sometimes people have had difficulty not being able to use the whole size of the drive and this is usually a limitation due to the bios. Someimtes a bios upgrade will fix it, other times you'll have to download a hard drive bios that loads after your laptops bios to allow accessing larger drive sizes. I don't think you'll have this problem though since the 390E had no problem with a 30gb drive. The 390X is the next model up so it shouldn't either.

 

[ChefJoe]

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4BXQAN

6.4GB HDD with adapter 05K8923
(Withdrawn) 05K8934
(HDD only) UltraBay Adapter FRU -> 05K5525
10.0GB HDD with adapter 05K8983
(Withdrawn) 05K8984
(HDD only) UltraBay Adapter FRU ->

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/LWIK-3ZUGZV.html?lang=en_IN&page=brand&brand=IBM+Options&doctype=&subtype=All
info on the 05K8934
Weight: * lbs (170.0 g)
Height: .51 inches (13.0 mm)
Width: 3.54 inches (90.0 mm)
Depth: 4.92 inches (125.0 mm)

Just an FYI, my IBM ThinkPad 380D with a 2.1 gig HD died, I popped open the case using one of their service documents (IBM Mobile Systems - ThinkPad HMM Volume 3) for help with what needed to be removed, nice pictures and screw counts, and then found out that my HD (which was a 12.5 mm tall drive) was in a metal bracket with a plastic spacer at the top. I could actually fit any 2.5" HD up to 17 mm. I ordered a 17mm tall drive from computergeeks.com (17mm is real old school and a 3 gig drive only cost $24 ). Anywho, it looks like your drive is a 12.5 mm tall, I'd say buy an IBM HD to replace it, but they're really interchangeable (it's a cute mini version of IDE with 4 extra pins for the power input).

Here's the Hardware mainenance manual for the 390x i series
ftp://ftp.pc.ibm.com/pub/pccbbs/mobiles/09n8604.pdf

 

[Nack]

Flash the laptop's bios (download diskette bios flash from IBM website) to the latest version before installing the new drive. Often the ability of older laptops to recognize newer (larger) drives is included in the new bios revisions.

Nack

 

[AMCRambler]

Here's a heads up on the bios flash I forgot to mention too. Might already know this but you need to have a fully charged battery to do the bios flash. I tried to flash my girlfriends and it wouldn't let me just having it plugged into AC power. Said I needed to have a fully charged battery in case the power was lost. Really pissed me off, because there's no way around it that I could find and it wasn't like I was gonna yank the plug outta the wall while it was bunring the rom chip. Kinda stupid but I'm sure it's saved them replacing a lot of bios chips under warranty, lol.