Problems with non-thinkpad option drives on T43 thinkpads

[nrj45]

Anyone successfully using a
7200 RPM drive larger than 60 GB in a T43p with the current bios?

It seems that the only way to bypass the error message is by flashing the firmware with an IBM/Lenovo's one. So i think as soon as IBM will include some other 7200 rpm hdd in their "compatibility list, it will be possible ?

[alpuzz]

Good to know that a firmware update fixes the problem

Apparently though, not all folks are so lucky. Check out the thread below. This person's drive supposedly already had latest firmware and he couldn't get it to work without some serious hacking. Also, what about non IBm drives? Will all drive manufacturers offer the appropriate workaround in their firmware or will we effectively be limited to select models?

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ware+error


--Al

[fbrdphreak]

Has anyone tried to update a non-IBM drive with the manufacturer's firmware (i.e. update a non-IBM Hitachi 7K60 with the Hitachi firmware) and have it work?

[BillMorrow]

Has anyone tried to update a non-IBM drive with the manufacturer's firmware (i.e. update a non-IBM Hitachi 7K60 with the Hitachi firmware) and have it work?

tried it with the E7K60..
won't work..

this crap is nearly enough to make me hang up my spurs and retire.. again..

[fbrdphreak]

Let my IBM guy know, we'll see what they say

[BillMorrow]

I split the thread drift from this topic..

please stick to this subject in this thread..

thanks

[ruymbeke]

Hello,
The IBM Thinkpad T43 2010 bios error post I have with my Seagate Momentus 100GB is a majeure problem
because of the disk data bandwidth reduced to 5% or 2MB/Sec under Windows XP, instead of the 40MB/Sec expected !!!

After bypassing the 2010 bios post error message, my 100 GB Seagate drive will still boot and work but the transfer rate bandwidth under XP is about 2MB/sec instead of the over 40MB/sec expected. Benchmark done using the Aida32 software.

Surprisingly, under Linux (Mandriva 10.2, Knoppix/debian live DVD/CD 4.0/3.9) I get a data rate of 36Mbytes/sec using the command: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/null count=1M. I measure the exact same bandwidth with both disks: Seagate and IBM. I know from measurements done on other laptops that the Seagate drive is faster than the IBM one. This means that the sata/pata H8 bridge is limiting the overall disk bandwidth to 36MB/sec.

My understanding is that the T43 is one of the first ThinkPad using the Intel chipset with pci express and sata bus. IBM added a sata to pata bridge to connect existing laptop disk drives. It look like that the sata/pata H8 bridge is accessing the drive in PIO mode instead of UDMA.

I contacted Seagate about this problem of the 100GB disk in the IBM T43 and they claim that their drive work on all platform as long as standard IDE request commands are used. All test, statistics (smart) and extra features like parking the heads (in case of a shock) are standard IDE commands and that there no need nor plan for a patch nor disk drive firmware upgrade. BTW, they asked me why IBM require a fw upgrade to get their own drive to work on a T43 ? And I think that this is a very good question ! I would appreciate a real answer from IBM. Since this is only required on a T43, is that a bug of the disk or a bug of the T43 ?
Most likely a new IBM "feature" to lock your system(s) to IBM drives only !!!

I contacted IBM two times about this issue and they decided to close the case without further information except: "we only support shipped configurations" (IBM drives). I told IBM that I will post my results.

In order to "help" IBM to fix their bug and/or unlock their system with a bios update, I would like to suggest you to
send an Email to: "amazing_AT_us.ibm.com", who is a second level IBM technical support manager,
and like me, share your requests, complains and frustrations.

Best Regards
Gilles

PS: Please replace the "_AT_" string by the "@" character in the Email address

[2010]

Hello ruymbeke,

as I said a few days ago (the message has been removed from this thread), here what I can say about this problem:

* transfer rate is ok, it is very fast
* the drice is accesses using DMA, not PIO
* if you the drive in the harddisk slot it may operate for a few hours or even days as desired but then you will have corrupted data becaus of DMA related read and write errors. This was tested using FreeBSD as OS and believe me, FreeBSD ATA drivers are very stable and of high quality.
* If you move the harddisk to the ultraby slim, all problem are gone - no DMA problems/timeouts and no data corruption at all

Conclusion: IBM drives have to patched because of their incompatiblity to work with _broken_ PATA/SATA bridges. This is common to all drives, not only IBMs. So to deny these big problems they say it is just a small firmware issue... and they support only their own crap.

So what do we need?

* a working PATA/SATA bridge by replacing the bridge itself or by patching its microde (if this is possible at all)
* a big fat sticker on the top of the notebook which states that this device is unable to use standard conform ATA-drives because of broken hardware inside

[john 86]

I have installed an Hitaci 100GB 5400 drive in my T43 (replacing the 40 GB).
I have not got any hard disc error messages on restat
Cheers John
PS I am still tring to get the extra 55 GB in one partion (downloading Linux now) Thanks to all that replied to the previous off topic post (sorry ).

[jfh]

I have installed an Hitaci 100GB 5400 drive in my T43 (replacing the 40 GB).
I have not got any hard disc error messages on restat
Cheers John
PS I am still tring to get the extra 55 GB in one partion (downloading Linux now) Thanks to all that replied to the previous off topic post (sorry ).

What model drive?

[ruymbeke]

...Conclusion: IBM drives have to patched because of their incompatiblity to work with _broken_ PATA/SATA bridges. This is common to all drives, not only IBMs. So to deny these big problems they say it is just a small firmware issue... and they support only their own crap.

So what do we need?

* a working PATA/SATA bridge by replacing the bridge itself or by patching its microde (if this is possible at all)
* a big fat sticker on the top of the notebook which states that this device is unable to use standard conform ATA-drives because of broken hardware inside

Personally, I am very disapointed by IBM. I thought they were one of the last one to ship good quality products, but in fact they are not any better than the others, just more expensive... So here is what we can also do:
1) send an email to: "amazing_AT_us.ibm.com" (replace the "_AT_" string by the "@" character)
2) ship the T43 back to IBM since the hardware is defective
3) post this info on the www in as many customer reviews/forums as possible
(to prevents other customers to replicate my mistake and buy these new Thinkpads)
4) spread the word in the IT communities, conferences, ...
5) call IBM customer technical support and ask for a patch or a recall
6) file a class action lawsuit against IBM for shipping a known defective hardware
Best Regards,
Gilles

[john 86]

What model drive?
Dear jfh
Sorry I carnt find the deails at the moment and I dont want to pull out the drive again, but I think Hitachi only produce one model that is a 100G 5400 2.5 inch drive. I have restarted several times with a normal start up and no error mesages.
Cheers john

[keku]

Gilles,

you can't file a class action suit for this problem, but you can file an anti trust lawsuit against Lenovo when those other HDD are not supported at all.

Right now they can get away with excuse that we just warn but HDD still works they have not restricted as of yet. anyways.

we can send mail to amazing. lets see what happens.

[egibbs]

Wonder if this is at all related...

Via warns of hard drive chipset incompatibility

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24910

Ed Gibbs

[ruthlessbrad]

I just received my T43 a week ago with the v1.08 BIOS. I ordered a Hitachi 7K60 thinking that I would just force the IBM firmware update like some others had done, but the drive does not work at all. If I insert the 7K60 internally, I get the incompatability warning message, I press ESC, then the laptop just hangs on a black screen with a blinking cursor. I then attached the drive to a USB enclosure and cloned my current drive. The clone seemed to work just fine, but when I put the 7K60 back, I had the same problem. Then I tried booting from the 7K60 attached to an external USB enclosure and I got a BSOD half way through the Windows XP boot. I figured maybe Windows was corrupted during the clone, so I placed the drive internally again and ran a Windows XP setup. That seemed to go fine until the drive had to boot again, and it just hung like before. I then tried installing XP with the drive attached to the USB enclosure, but got a BSOD again half way through the first boot. I can't upgrade the firmware because I don't have a floppy. I think that is rediculous to release an update these days that requires a floppy drive. Nobody uses those things anymore. Do you think I just have a bad drive? I haven't found anybody else with these problems. If I can't fix the problem in a day or two, I'm going to send the thing back and wait a while until this whole IBM Hard Drive issue is resolved.

EDIT: Just to make sure it is clear, I purchased an OEM Hitachi 7K60 from zipzoomfly.com. The T43 came with an IBM 80GB 5400 RPM drive.

[ruthlessbrad]

I just received my T43 a week ago with the v1.08 BIOS. I ordered a Hitachi 7K60 thinking that I would just force the IBM firmware update like some others had done, but the drive does not work at all. If I insert the 7K60 internally, I get the incompatability warning message, I press ESC, then the laptop just hangs on a black screen with a blinking cursor. I then attached the drive to a USB enclosure and cloned my current drive. The clone seemed to work just fine, but when I put the 7K60 back, I had the same problem. Then I tried booting from the 7K60 attached to an external USB enclosure and I got a BSOD half way through the Windows XP boot. I figured maybe Windows was corrupted during the clone, so I placed the drive internally again and ran a Windows XP setup. That seemed to go fine until the drive had to boot again, and it just hung like before. I then tried installing XP with the drive attached to the USB enclosure, but got a BSOD again half way through the first boot. I can't upgrade the firmware because I don't have a floppy. I think that is rediculous to release an update these days that requires a floppy drive. Nobody uses those things anymore. Do you think I just have a bad drive? I haven't found anybody else with these problems. If I can't fix the problem in a day or two, I'm going to send the thing back and wait a while until this whole IBM Hard Drive issue is resolved.

OK, I solved the problem. I managed to ge a hold of a floppy at work, burned a bootable CD, and more or less followed the instructions here:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ware+error Those directions didn't exactly work for me... I had to change a few things. I followed all of the same steps, except when I ran the flash utility, I used the command:

Code: Select all

hfui12H IA6GA -pm MH4IA6GA.bin /u /f MRHA6GA.tbl

OR

Code: Select all

hfui12H IA6GA -pm MH4IA6GA.bin /f /u MRHA6GA.tbl

OR

Code: Select all

hfui12H IA6GA -pm MH4IA6GA.bin /f MRHA6GA.tbl

but I'm not quite sure because I tried them all before I noticed the firmware actually changed. Notice how I used IA6GA instead of OA6GA like in the instructions.

[nasshi]

does anyone know if this issue affects non-IBM optical drives?

[Wholesomer]

Where can you buy the non-IBM slim 9.5mm drive? AFAIK, you can't buy any after market drive but the one that are being offered by Lenovo; therefore, you don't have to worry about it

[nasshi]

so as i understand it, not even OEM/retail drives with the same model number will necessarily work, even after a firmware update. some people have hacked the firmware update to help with this, but only with the 7k60 it seems.

what do you think the risk is of buying a "compatible" drive from Newegg and not having it work? is this a risk worth taking or should i just go ahead and spend the extra $100 for an IBM part?

$100 for a few different hex numbers.....argh

[JWadle]

Hello,
The IBM Thinkpad T43 2010 bios error post I have with my Seagate Momentus 100GB is a majeure problem
because of the disk data bandwidth reduced to 5% or 2MB/Sec under Windows XP, instead of the 40MB/Sec expected !!!

After bypassing the 2010 bios post error message, my 100 GB Seagate drive will still boot and work but the transfer rate bandwidth under XP is about 2MB/sec instead of the over 40MB/sec expected. Benchmark done using the Aida32 software.

Surprisingly, under Linux (Mandriva 10.2, Knoppix/debian live DVD/CD 4.0/3.9) I get a data rate of 36Mbytes/sec using the command: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/null count=1M. I measure the exact same bandwidth with both disks: Seagate and IBM. I know from measurements done on other laptops that the Seagate drive is faster than the IBM one. This means that the sata/pata H8 bridge is limiting the overall disk bandwidth to 36MB/sec.

My understanding is that the T43 is one of the first ThinkPad using the Intel chipset with pci express and sata bus. IBM added a sata to pata bridge to connect existing laptop disk drives. It look like that the sata/pata H8 bridge is accessing the drive in PIO mode instead of UDMA.

I contacted Seagate about this problem of the 100GB disk in the IBM T43 and they claim that their drive work on all platform as long as standard IDE request commands are used. All test, statistics (smart) and extra features like parking the heads (in case of a shock) are standard IDE commands and that there no need nor plan for a patch nor disk drive firmware upgrade. BTW, they asked me why IBM require a fw upgrade to get their own drive to work on a T43 ? And I think that this is a very good question ! I would appreciate a real answer from IBM. Since this is only required on a T43, is that a bug of the disk or a bug of the T43 ?
Most likely a new IBM "feature" to lock your system(s) to IBM drives only !!!

I contacted IBM two times about this issue and they decided to close the What is the model numbe of your MOmentus drivecase without further information except: "we only support shipped configurations" (IBM drives). I told IBM that I will post my results.

In order to "help" IBM to fix their bug and/or unlock their system with a bios update, I would like to suggest you to
send an Email to: "amazing_AT_us.ibm.com", who is a second level IBM technical support manager,
and like me, share your requests, complains and frustrations.

Best Regards
Gilles

PS: Please replace the "_AT_" string by the "@" character in the Email address

What is the model number and firmware version of your Seagate drive? Have you had any response from IBM. I have a 100GB Momentus 7200.1 drive on order for my T43p.

Hard to believe IBM/Lenovo is ignoring this problem.

[JWadle]

Hello,
The IBM Thinkpad T43 2010 bios error post I have with my Seagate Momentus 100GB is a majeure problem
because of the disk data bandwidth reduced to 5% or 2MB/Sec under Windows XP, instead of the 40MB/Sec expected !!!

After bypassing the 2010 bios post error message, my 100 GB Seagate drive will still boot and work but the transfer rate bandwidth under XP is about 2MB/sec instead of the over 40MB/sec expected. Benchmark done using the Aida32 software.

Surprisingly, under Linux (Mandriva 10.2, Knoppix/debian live DVD/CD 4.0/3.9) I get a data rate of 36Mbytes/sec using the command: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/null count=1M. I measure the exact same bandwidth with both disks: Seagate and IBM. I know from measurements done on other laptops that the Seagate drive is faster than the IBM one. This means that the sata/pata H8 bridge is limiting the overall disk bandwidth to 36MB/sec.

My understanding is that the T43 is one of the first ThinkPad using the Intel chipset with pci express and sata bus. IBM added a sata to pata bridge to connect existing laptop disk drives. It look like that the sata/pata H8 bridge is accessing the drive in PIO mode instead of UDMA.

I contacted Seagate about this problem of the 100GB disk in the IBM T43 and they claim that their drive work on all platform as long as standard IDE request commands are used. All test, statistics (smart) and extra features like parking the heads (in case of a shock) are standard IDE commands and that there no need nor plan for a patch nor disk drive firmware upgrade. BTW, they asked me why IBM require a fw upgrade to get their own drive to work on a T43 ? And I think that this is a very good question ! I would appreciate a real answer from IBM. Since this is only required on a T43, is that a bug of the disk or a bug of the T43 ?
Most likely a new IBM "feature" to lock your system(s) to IBM drives only !!!

I contacted IBM two times about this issue and they decided to close the What is the model numbe of your MOmentus drivecase without further information except: "we only support shipped configurations" (IBM drives). I told IBM that I will post my results.

In order to "help" IBM to fix their bug and/or unlock their system with a bios update, I would like to suggest you to
send an Email to: "amazing_AT_us.ibm.com", who is a second level IBM technical support manager,
and like me, share your requests, complains and frustrations.

Best Regards
Gilles

PS: Please replace the "_AT_" string by the "@" character in the Email address

What is the model number and firmware version of your Seagate drive? Have you had any response from IBM. I have a 100GB Momentus 7200.1 drive on order for my T43p.

Hard to believe IBM/Lenovo is ignoring this problem.

[JWadle]

Hello,
The IBM Thinkpad T43 2010 bios error post I have with my Seagate Momentus 100GB is a majeure problem
because of the disk data bandwidth reduced to 5% or 2MB/Sec under Windows XP, instead of the 40MB/Sec expected !!!

After bypassing the 2010 bios post error message, my 100 GB Seagate drive will still boot and work but the transfer rate bandwidth under XP is about 2MB/sec instead of the over 40MB/sec expected. Benchmark done using the Aida32 software.

Surprisingly, under Linux (Mandriva 10.2, Knoppix/debian live DVD/CD 4.0/3.9) I get a data rate of 36Mbytes/sec using the command: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/null count=1M. I measure the exact same bandwidth with both disks: Seagate and IBM. I know from measurements done on other laptops that the Seagate drive is faster than the IBM one. This means that the sata/pata H8 bridge is limiting the overall disk bandwidth to 36MB/sec.

My understanding is that the T43 is one of the first ThinkPad using the Intel chipset with pci express and sata bus. IBM added a sata to pata bridge to connect existing laptop disk drives. It look like that the sata/pata H8 bridge is accessing the drive in PIO mode instead of UDMA.

I contacted Seagate about this problem of the 100GB disk in the IBM T43 and they claim that their drive work on all platform as long as standard IDE request commands are used. All test, statistics (smart) and extra features like parking the heads (in case of a shock) are standard IDE commands and that there no need nor plan for a patch nor disk drive firmware upgrade. BTW, they asked me why IBM require a fw upgrade to get their own drive to work on a T43 ? And I think that this is a very good question ! I would appreciate a real answer from IBM. Since this is only required on a T43, is that a bug of the disk or a bug of the T43 ?
Most likely a new IBM "feature" to lock your system(s) to IBM drives only !!!

I contacted IBM two times about this issue and they decided to close the What is the model numbe of your MOmentus drivecase without further information except: "we only support shipped configurations" (IBM drives). I told IBM that I will post my results.

In order to "help" IBM to fix their bug and/or unlock their system with a bios update, I would like to suggest you to
send an Email to: "amazing_AT_us.ibm.com", who is a second level IBM technical support manager,
and like me, share your requests, complains and frustrations.

Best Regards
Gilles

PS: Please replace the "_AT_" string by the "@" character in the Email address

What is the model number and firmware version of your Seagate drive? Have you had any response from IBM. I have a 100GB Momentus 7200.1 drive on order for my T43p.

Hard to believe IBM/Lenovo is ignoring this problem.

[JWadle]

Hello,
The IBM Thinkpad T43 2010 bios error post I have with my Seagate Momentus 100GB is a majeure problem
because of the disk data bandwidth reduced to 5% or 2MB/Sec under Windows XP, instead of the 40MB/Sec expected !!!

After bypassing the 2010 bios post error message, my 100 GB Seagate drive will still boot and work but the transfer rate bandwidth under XP is about 2MB/sec instead of the over 40MB/sec expected. Benchmark done using the Aida32 software.

Surprisingly, under Linux (Mandriva 10.2, Knoppix/debian live DVD/CD 4.0/3.9) I get a data rate of 36Mbytes/sec using the command: dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/null count=1M. I measure the exact same bandwidth with both disks: Seagate and IBM. I know from measurements done on other laptops that the Seagate drive is faster than the IBM one. This means that the sata/pata H8 bridge is limiting the overall disk bandwidth to 36MB/sec.

My understanding is that the T43 is one of the first ThinkPad using the Intel chipset with pci express and sata bus. IBM added a sata to pata bridge to connect existing laptop disk drives. It look like that the sata/pata H8 bridge is accessing the drive in PIO mode instead of UDMA.

I contacted Seagate about this problem of the 100GB disk in the IBM T43 and they claim that their drive work on all platform as long as standard IDE request commands are used. All test, statistics (smart) and extra features like parking the heads (in case of a shock) are standard IDE commands and that there no need nor plan for a patch nor disk drive firmware upgrade. BTW, they asked me why IBM require a fw upgrade to get their own drive to work on a T43 ? And I think that this is a very good question ! I would appreciate a real answer from IBM. Since this is only required on a T43, is that a bug of the disk or a bug of the T43 ?
Most likely a new IBM "feature" to lock your system(s) to IBM drives only !!!

I contacted IBM two times about this issue and they decided to close the What is the model numbe of your MOmentus drivecase without further information except: "we only support shipped configurations" (IBM drives). I told IBM that I will post my results.

In order to "help" IBM to fix their bug and/or unlock their system with a bios update, I would like to suggest you to
send an Email to: "amazing_AT_us.ibm.com", who is a second level IBM technical support manager,
and like me, share your requests, complains and frustrations.

Best Regards
Gilles

PS: Please replace the "_AT_" string by the "@" character in the Email address

What is the model number and firmware version of your Seagate drive? Have you had any response from IBM. I have a 100GB Momentus 7200.1 drive on order for my T43p.

Hard to believe IBM/Lenovo is ignoring this problem.

[ruymbeke]

Hello,
The IBM Thinkpad T43 2010 bios error post I have with my Seagate Momentus 100GB is a majeure problem
because of the disk data bandwidth reduced to 5% or 2MB/Sec under Windows XP, instead of the 40MB/Sec expected !!!...

What is the model number and firmware version of your Seagate drive? Have you had any response from IBM. I have a 100GB Momentus 7200.1 drive on order for my T43p.
Hard to believe IBM/Lenovo is ignoring this problem.

It is a 100GB a Momentus 5400.2 Seagate drive
model #: ST9100823A, PN: 9EW3234-501, FW: 3.0, SN: 3LG0EH3E
Best Regards,
Gilles

[ibm_phil]

I recently bought a T43p, well over a month ago now, and just the other day got a Hitachi 100gb drive. After installing the drive i got the same Error message as everyone else. I actually got the 100gb drive from the IBM distributor, from the same country i bought the laptop from. i think they thought i was only going to use the 100gb in the ultrabay slim, so didnt mention anything to me that it wouldnt work properly in the primary slot. anyway, i emailed ibm asia-pacific, as i bought my laptop in thailand as i currently live/work there, about this error message. i got the following reply today, seems like from Japan, as .jp on email address:

"Hello
Thank you for your email
The machine can only accept up to 80gig as the maximum HDD size.
This is a limitation of the BIOS, in the future there might be a new release of the BIOS that might address the issue.
Regards"

I have replied to this email this morning to ask if that is a definite on the bios upgrade including 100gb drives and when. it seems he uses the word "might" a lot, i think he has no idea.

will post again if i get another reply. i am still running off my 100gb drive now and just put up with pressing Esc on startup.

[ibm_phil]

Has anyone seen or heard of anyway of editing the firmware updates to include the Hitachi 100GB drives? I have searched everywhere and only seems the 60GB 7200rpm mentioned to have had a temp fix made for them. I would be intereted if someone could do a 100gb fix or is it not possible because there are no 100GB of any make/model listed for T43p in bios firmwares. My bios/computer knowledge doesnt reach that far, so i cant try and do it myself. Help on this would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Phil.

[nrj45]

The toshiba 1032GAX (100gb, 5400rpm, 16mb cache) is working fine in my t43p. The only bad thing is this 2010 message coming each time i reboot my tp. So if "the issue is not addressed", i hope there will be a BIOS option allowing to disable the 2010 message. I was hoping there will be something like that in the 1.22 but since i installed it, i saw no difference.

[2010]

Someone already tested the new bios?
(I doubt something related changed...)

Version: 1YET57WW (1.22)
Release Date: 2005/08/04

[mg]

HGST.com answered a request for a firmware update for a 7K60 as follows:

Hitachi self do not normally provides firmware, except in certain case,
like SCSI-drives. In your case, the message is caused by the Bios of the
laptop, as it looks for a certain level of firmware, but of course will not
find this on our drives. When you bought the hard drive together with the
laptop, we advise to contact IBM to get another firmware. If you bought the
drive external in a shop, you should just ignore the message. However, if
there is an issue with a drive, that was bought single in a shop, there is
no solution from the Hitachi side, as this is caused by the IBM Bios
firmware of your laptop. To say it in clear words: This is totally the
responsibility of IBM and you should contact them.

[ibm_phil]

An update about my 100gb/5k drive...

For the last 3 days everything seemed to be fine. Until to today it seemed my internet was palying up. so i switched to the WLAN. it told me that the drivers needed to be installed again for the WLAN card. i also got a message earlier today that the video card, display drivers were not loaded properly and had to restart. Until i installed the 100GB drive 3 days ago i never had any troubles. As i had read many things about using the old BIOS, so that i wouldnt get the Error message at startup, i had tried this yesterday. but it also caused a few conflicts. so i went back to the most recent BIOS and put up with the error message and pressing escape. After all these problems, this afternnon i deceided to install my 60gb/7k drive and use that from now on until IBM fixes this problem with 100gb drives. i have the 100gb in the ultrabay slim. hopefully i dont need the data on it and CD/DVD at same time.

After installing the 60gb i actually notice the speed difference. From when windows loads and logins in until all startup apps are loaded is at least 5 secs faster i think. All the programs are the same as nothing had changed from cloning the drive to 100gb. So its def faster with the 7k, i have seen this debated in many forums, and also it seems a lot more stable, maybe by changing the Bios i screwed something up.

So it seems some people have no probs, some have lots. I think until IBM has a bios fix for this, or does something about it, im sticking with the 60gb/7k.

Phil.