Hi,

I'm a bit confused about what HDDs could be used in a Thinkpad 560Z.

I've read infos from IBM, news:ibm.ibmpc.thinkpad (sorry, I can't post
to this group) and other places but these statements seem to be
contradictory.

As far as JHEM said (Newsgroups:ibm.ibmpc.thinkpad, Date:2003-11-05
20:11:56, Re: 560Z Hard drive) I could use any HDD up 80 GB; but

Which BIOS version would I need?
Do I need an additional BIOS patch from IBM?
Is the sometimes mentioned 8.4 GB limit related to a certain BIOS
version?

btw.: what about the 560X?

Stephan

On Tue, 13 Jul 2004 21:24:19 +0200, Karl-Stephan Werkmeister
<kastwerk@web.de> wrote:

the current largest 2.5" drive) right out of the box. The 560X needs a
BIOS upgrade. The 560E and original 560 are limited to 8GB or so.
Emanuel

Karl-Stephan Werkmeister <kastwerk@web.de> wrote:
Correct. The 560Z, which was built on the same Intel 440BX chipset as the
Thinkpad 600 series, shares the 600E and X series ability to use _any_ HD up
to an including the newest 80GB models.

It's always a good idea to keep the BIOS in your machine upgraded to the
latest version available.

http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/si...id=DSHY-3YTKKV

No.

The 8.4GB limitation only affects the earlier 560 and 560E series machines,
the 560Z has NO hard drive size limitation.

--
Regards,

James

Checkout the NEW Thinkpad Forums: http://forum.thinkpads.com

I have a 30GB IBM drive in my 560Z, it worked out of the box and I'm
running Win98SE and Linux on it.

I also have a 128MB memory modules on my 560Z (total 192MB) and it
works fine. IBM says limit is 64MB + 64MB. I'm looking for a 256MB EDO
SO-DIMM module to see if that would work as well.

Overall, the 560Z is a great vintage notebook which will run Linux.
There is not much available today that I would consider trading it for.

See ya, -ingo
--
/* Ingo Cyliax, cyliax@ezcomm.com, Tel: 812-391-0895 */

The 560 2640 ENA has a 4.1GB limitation. But this limitation can be easily
worked around using a DDO (dynamic drive overlay) such as MAXBlast and a
little bit of fiddling. I know this as I've put a 20GB HDD in my 560 and no
problems to date. With the 8MB on disk cache the 560 is no longer I/O bound
but now processor bound, i.e. performance has improved remarkably, Win98
boots in under less than a minute.

JJHEM wrote:
bit anxious about this.
The BIOS chip seemed to be faulty and did not update correctly (not even
in an external flasher).
I could replace the chip with a new one but if this happend in the TP it
would be dead, wouldn't it?
I see. Again I was unsecure due to my PC experience. I had to update the
BIOS of an older PC of mine three times (8 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB barriers)
even though the chipset did support HDDs up to 128 GB.


btw: I've checked the BIOS version of my 560Z now using your link. It is
already the latest one, :-).

thank you!

Stephan

Stephen Melis wrote:
What fiddling do you mean exactly? I once upgraded a PC with a large
Samsung HDD using DDO. This PC did not boot until I manually set the HDD
to 528 MB in the BIOS. Autodetect didn't work. That is why I'm not sure
whether this worked in TP that doesn't allow any settings in the BIOS
setup.

I know this as I've put a 20GB HDD in my 560 and no
I agree. Using a fast HDD gives you in office applications often a
better performance boost than a faster CPU.

Stephan

Ingo Cyliax wrote:
A few week ago my old TP 560 went broken and I was really upset.
Thanks to EBay, I got an almost new 560X and additionally a 560Z for me
and my wife for little money.
Surely there are always better, faster and cheaper solutions.
But I stick to what I know I can rely on.

Stephan

I posted the following message some time ago, as you can see below have the
full 20GB available using the DDO as I use the TP as a photo album. No
problems just a few things to remember:

1) Allocate 2 partitions one at 4GB and the second using the remainder. If
you don't and the TP suspends it can cause disk errors on resume. If you
resume after suspend do not access the second partion otherwise you will
have disk errors. The reason being when the TP resumes the DDO somehow is
lost and so the full disk cannot be seen.

2) place WIN98 and all software on the 1st partition and use the 2nd partion
for data or as in my case photos

3) Disable suspend, i.e. TP is either on or off, no suspend or hibernate.
the TP can suspend if the battery is nearly flat so set the power options at
4% to shutdown. If the TP does suspend then when you resume you must
shutdown and restart with a cold boot

4) To conserve battery now that there is no suspend use AMNRefrigerator or
RAIN or the like with WIN98

5) Now the DDO is installed, go to the BIOS and ensure the HDD is the first
boot device as the DDO must load first. Never boot from floppy again with
out booting from HDD first.

6) The TP will no longer warm boot, but that doesn't matter. This is because
the BIOS on warm boot does not read the MBR and the MBR must be read to see
the disk. So always cold boot. To cold boot after a failed warm boot just
hold the power switch in for several seconds and release.

6) Enjoy the bigger disk and faster TP560

If all this is too much then consider LINUX, I've been told LINUX can work
around these limitation without the DDO.

At one time I was wishing the TP560 had a USB port, but alas it doesn't and
never can, so I use a wireless adapter to another PC which has the USB port.

My TP560 2640 ENA lives on.......

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Melis" <stephen.melisNOSPAM@bigpond.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 6:41 AM
Subject: Re: Thinkpad 560 hard disk upgrade


"Karl-Stephan Werkmeister" <kastwerk@web.de> wrote in message
news:40F80F17.65BE4D9C@web.de...