Replacement laptop hard drive?

VoucherMan

I bought a refurbished laptop for my niece a few months ago. An old Lenovo T43.

It's now got a message when she turns it on ERROR 0200: failure fixed disk 1 which it seems is probably a damaged hard drive.

As the laptop only cost about £40 in the first place I didn't think it worth trying to repair but after a quick search found this video which makes replacing the hard drive look easy.

I've not found any suitable hard drives, mainly because I'm not sure what I need to look for!
I'm assuming the hard drive would be the same spec for all T43 laptops?

Any advice on what I'd need - i.e. compatible drives (or even better a link) & is it that simple to replace them - unplug the old & plug in the new?


The laptop seems quite adequate for the kids so if I can fix it quite cheaply then it's hopefully a better option than buying another, which looking on eBay I don't think I'd get anything anywhere near the price I paid for this one.

Notmyrealname

T43 it will be an IDE laptop hard drive. Easy as pie to change the hard drive on one of those.

GunJack

VoucherMan wrote: »

The laptop seems quite adequate for the kids

Would also be adequate for me, thanks

T-series thinkpads are pretty bomb-proof compared to pretty much anything out there, so pop a second-hand/refurb/new IDE (NOT SATA, not the same thing) hdd in it, re-install OS, and keep going with it until it finally falls apart

NiftyDigits

Keep this in mind when thinking about the upgrade.

You may need to update the BIOS. But Notmyrealname will know.

WhiteChristmas

Make sure you get a 2.5" drive for a laptop, not a 3.5" drive for a desktop.

VoucherMan

Thanks for the replies


Bearing in mind the link from NiftyDigits are any brands better than others & are there any best avoided.

Also would there be any problems with a larger (capacity) drive? I think the existing one is 60GB but a quick search shows various sizes up to 160GB.


I've also got a T60 laptop so may try and swap the drives then put the new one in the T60 hopefully avoiding the incompatibility issue. (or is that a bad idea?)

NiftyDigits

VoucherMan wrote: »

Thanks for the replies


Bearing in mind the link from NiftyDigits are any brands better than others & are there any best avoided.

Also would there be any problems with a larger (capacity) drive? I think the existing one is 60GB but a quick search shows various sizes up to 160GB.


I've also got a T60 laptop so may try and swap the drives then put the new one in the T60 hopefully avoiding the incompatibility issue. (or is that a bad idea?)

T60 use a SATA drive, T43, IDE.

Thought Notmyrealname would be advising, as he sells these things.

But in answer to your question.... Click on my original link and then navigate to.... Drives that work out of the box

prowla

VoucherMan wrote: »

I've also got a T60 laptop so may try and swap the drives then put the new one in the T60 hopefully avoiding the incompatibility issue. (or is that a bad idea?)

You can take the drive out of both and see if they look similar (their respective caddies may be different to suit the particular machine, but the hard drives themselves will be standard parts).

It would be an idea to make a note of your licence keys and things (and obviously back up your files!) before you wipe anything though.

If you do decide to upgrade your T60's drive, then you may be able to simply replicate the existing drive onto it if you have a USB caddy that the new one could be put into temporarily. Of course, you are then moving into more PC techie things...

NiftyDigits

You'll find the stock 60GB Fujitsu on eBay for just over £20. If you don't have the IBM recovery disc, I'll see if I can find it.

AJ84

Working in repairs- I'd probably steer away from the Fujitsu drives - I replace more of them and Toshiba (and those horrible IBM/Hitachi's) more than any other drive
What seems to be more solid is Western Digital and Seagate currently followed by Samsung

WhiteChristmas

There's been a lot of consolidation in the hard drive market over the last few years. Fujitsu is now part of Toshiba, Hitachi part of WD and Samsung part of Seagate,

No one manufacturer is inherently better than another; they're all equally likely to last for ages or, if you get one from a "bad batch", die within weeks.

The best buy is the best offer on the day, in my experience