[ltp] T60 SATA hard drive compatibility?

[Paul Seelig]

Yes, the T6x generation Thinkpad SATA HDD's are backward and forward
compatible. The switch from IDE to SATA made things much easier and
removed most concerns about compatibility.

On 01/04/2013 03:18 PM, Dmitry E. Mikhailov wrote:
> Lenovo requires that the drive has specific firmware that supports
> IDLE_IMMEDIATE command that unloads the disk heads off the surface. It's
> needed for the HDAPS subsystem. So you have three options:
> 1) The disk has the correct firmware for the newer Thinkpad -> it works
> flawlessly.
> 2) The disk has no correct firmware -> there's an "incompatible disk"
> message on bootup and you have to press some key (or wait some seconds)
> to continue. And you do not have HDAPS.
> 3) The disk has no correct firmware but you've loaded a patched BIOS for
> that Thinkpad -> You do not have HDAPS.
> 
Hmm, wasn't this a "feature" typical only of the IBM T4x generation
Thinkpads, prior to the Lenovo T6x machines? Never heard about any such
things in relation to any T60 or T61, but only in regard to the older
IBM T4x boxes.

I am maintaining multiple T60 and T61, and all of them had the original
Lenovo low specs SATA disks replaced with higher capacity after market
SATA disks of various vendors at some stage, and never ever have i seen
or heard of any such strange symptoms. We are speaking about a dozen
different machines and disks here.

Anyway, if you'd replace the HDD by a SSD, HDAPS would without any
relevance anymore. SSD is the way to go, as the very obvious random
access speed increase (sequential access speed doesn't matter here)
gives a very welcome boost to those old machines. But i digress...

Regards,
Paul