Hi OP -

According to this link:

Link

the 2366 and 2367 series T30 will only max out at 80G. My T43 had a 60G HD in it and for what I needed the laptop for, that was plenty of space.

I know you can bump up a HD size with a desktop by using a card but I have no idea if you can do that with a laptop, I doubt it.

You can always get an external USB HD to keep with the ThinkPad - they are really small now and easy to carry arround with the laptop.

The BIOS date is 2004.

It lists bios updates released in 05 and then again in 06 but neither one say anything about updating for the support of a larger hard drive.

So it looks like you're stuck with a 80gb for an external drive.

When the Thinkpad T30 was designed and built, it was still IBM, not Lenovo. IBM used to manufacture hard drives, but "spun off" that division to Hitachi in 2003. However, well into the Lenovo days, all IBM laptops came with IBM or Hitachi hard drives, never any other vendor.

Perhaps you are trying to use some other vendor's hard drive, and the BIOS will not accept it.

I had a similar problem recently with a Gericom laptop that I bought at a yard sale. It had been dropped and suffered a broken screen and damaged power jack. Since I had a compatible screen "lying around" here, I decided to repair it. After I got the computer working, I noticed that the hard disk still had the previous owner's data on it, so I attempted to reformat and re-install the operating system.

Unfortunately, the hard disk would not format to completion, and when it got to a certain point it just made a lot of noise but wouldn't finish. So of course it was time for a new hard disk.

I tried many different models of 2.5" IDE hard drives, ranging from 20 GB to 120 GB, and none of them would work. Either the CD/DVD drive wouldn't be detected, or a PCI device error would be displayed after the BIOS splash screen. I tried several different CD and DVD drives as well, and tried using master/slave and CSEL configurations and nothing would help.

Of course the original hard disk did not have these problems.

I then went on the Internet and found out that this particular notebook has a "whitelist" of 6 or 7 specific hard drives that it will work with, and anything else will not work. However, no one listed what the specific model #'s were that would work, except for one website which would have required me to put in a credit card # and pay for the information, which I don't believe in doing.

Since I was tired of messing with it, I decided to go on Ebay and buy a tested, working used hard drive that was the same model as the original. It worked without any problem, and I was able to reformat and install Windows XP.

The point of this is that you should be aware that some notebook vendors place unreasonable restrictions in the BIOS to force you to buy parts from them. That is why HP/Compaq notebooks manufactured after 2003 have a "BIOS check" on the mini-PCI device, and if you use a different wireless card, the computer will give an error and not boot up. IBM also does this. However, other vendors such as Dell do not; that is why you can use whatever wireless card you feel like in a Dell computer.

It may very well be that you're stuck having to go with the same model of hard drive, or perhaps a slightly larger one in the same model series. If your hard disk is about to crash, I'd probably replace it now, rather than wait.

I agree with aguavivaonline.. I've had a dozen T30's and T models in general.
some see the drive, some don't. Is it being picked up in the BIOS?

Thanks, guys, for all your interesting facts, theories, experiences and tips. I have tried with IBM, Hitachi, Seagate and Samsung drives, with 160GB, 80gb and even 30gb without success. I want to throw out this question: Since this T30 won't work for me can I pursue a "Significantly not as described" claim against the seller? I realize this could be a long shot but I want you opinions.

What is the deal with this thing, is the bios or something similar stored right on the hard drive for that model?

It certainly wouldn't need a bios update to use a 80gb hard drive running XP, and to use a 30gb it wouldn't matter what OS or bios date it had at this point, surely any would be new enough for a 30gb. That is if it has a eeprom chip (or whatever they call it) right on the motherboard itself.

If it has something on the hard drive, bios for example, then all you need to do is get it and put it on the drive first, then install the OS.

some older ibm T series, when you swap hard drives, it just won't see the new drive, not matter who built the HD. So when you flash the bios, boom! HD shows on bios and you are ready to roll.