By Ivy / Last update December 13, 2021

 

About IBM ThinkPad

ThinkPad series laptops were originally IBM products until Lenovo acquired the brand and division in early 2005. Sometimes, you have to upgrade hard drive for the IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad to get better performance and shorter boot time. But how to perform IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad hard drive replacement?

You might want to use the Lenovo Migration Assistant to upgrade your hard drive. However, Lenovo Migration Assistant only help you migrate all the user files, the settings from old PC to new PC for all Lenovo (including IdeaCentre, IdeaPad, ThinkCentre, ThinkPad, ThinkStation) computers in Windows 7 and 10.

It cannot clone Windows system and installed programs to another hard drive, which means that Lenovo Migration Assistant can’t help you to do IBM or Lenovo ThinkPad hard drive replacement, what should you do?

 

Best Hard Drive Cloning Software - AOMEI Backupper

As the best disk cloning software, AOMEI Backupper Professional will do you a big favor to upgrade ThinkPad hard drive in Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP, including 32-bit and 64-bit. Besides, it’s a powerful backup softwarem which allows you to backup the IBM ThinkPad hard drive to external hard drive, then restore to the new hard drive.

Hence, there are two ways to do IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad hard drive replacement:

  • Disk Clone to migrate everything from one disk to another, including WIndows system, installed programs, settings, files, etc.

  • Disk Backup and Disk Restore.

Please download the hard disk cloning software - AOMEI Backupper Professional 30-day free trial to have a try.(The Clone features in free trial can only be demonstrated, please upgrade to enjoy)

Download Free Trial

Win 10/8.1/8/7/XP

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Lenovo Hard Drive Replcement with Disk Clone

Prepare the new larger hard drive and connect to your IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad, make it can be recongnized by Windows. Then, follow the steps listed below:

1. Launch AOMEI Backupper, choose Clone > Disk Clone.

Choose Disk Clone

2. Select the IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad original smaller hard drive as source disk, and hit Next.

Choose Source Disk

3. Choose the new larger hard drive as the destination disk, and press Next.

Choose Destination Disk

4. Press Start Clone >> to clone disk to larger disk in Windows 10/8/7.


Disk Clone

★ Tips:
✿ If you are cloning HDD to SSD for IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad, it’s recommended to check SSD Alignemnt option to optimize for overall performance for the SSD.
✿ Edit Partitions allows you to modify the partition size on the destination disk to fully use the storage space which is especially useful while cloning disk to larger disk.
✿ Sector by sector clone will clone all sectors on the source hard drive, including used sectors, blank sectors, and bad sectors (if exist), and the time will be much longer. Uncheck this option will skip bad sectors by default, which is helpful to clone failing hard drive.

Change the boot order in BIOS to make the new hard drive as the first boot device, then boot from it, and everything is done.

 

Upgrade IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad Hard Drive with Backup & Restore

The other way to do IBM ThinkPad hard drive upgrade is backup IBM/Lenovo hard drive to external hard drive, then restore to new larger hard drive.

Before you do:

  • Create bootable media with AOMEI Backupper to boot up the computer.

  • SATA to USB enclosure.

  • Screwdrivers to replace the hard drive for IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad. 

Step 1. Backup IBM ThinkPad Hard Drive

1. Connect the external hard drive using SATA to USB enclosure to IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad. Launch AOMEI Backupper Professional, Select Backup > Disk Backup in turn.

Disk Backup 

2. Select the original hard drive (HDD) in IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad as source disk. Modify the Task Name to distinguish from others.

Add Disk 

Select IBM ThinkPad HDD

3. Choose the external hard drive to save the image file from IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad.

Select Backup Destination 

4. Press Start Backup to backup IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad hard drive.

Start Backup 

★Tips:
✿ Options: It enables you to comment, encrypt, split, compress the backup image, enable email or SMS notification, etc.
✿ To automatically backup data to another, please click Schedule > General, choose Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Event Triggers, USB plug in to automatic backup. 
✿ Scheme: It allows you to delete old backup images automatically while the backups exceeds the number you specified to retain.
Step 2. IBM ThinkPad Hard Drive Replacement

Step 2. IBM ThinkPad Hard Drive Replacement

How to replace IBM ThinkPad hard drive replacement? Here it is:

  1. Shut down ThinkPad and unplug the battery.

  2. Locate the hard drive bay on your IBM ThinkPad, remove the screw on the cover with a screwdriver.

  3. Use your fingers to push the hard drive cover to detach it from the device. Use a Phillips screwdriver to unscrew the screw on the mounting bracket.

  4. Take out the hard drive.

  5. Insert the new larger hard drive to the IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad hard drive slot. 

Step 3. Restore to Larger Hard Drive for IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad

1. Connect external hard drive contains the image file with your computer. Turn on your computer, and boot from the bootable media created by AOMEI Backupper. It will bring up the AOMEI Backupper automatically.

2. Select Restore > Select Image File or Select Task to locate the disk image.

Select Backup Image 

2. Tick Restore the entire disk, press Next.

Restore Entire Disk or Partition

3. Press Start Restore to restore to larger hard drive for IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad.

Preview Restore

★ Tip: Universal Restore allows you restore image to dissmiliar hardware computer and ensure its bootable without any issues.

After the restoration finished, just restart your computer, change the boot order to boot the new larger hard drive, that’s it.

 

Final Words

It’s quite easy to perform IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad hard drive replacement with the help of AOMEI Backupper Professional. And 2 ways included in this article for your reference.

In addition, AOMEI Backupper Professional provides command line utility that takes up less resources for those who want to use it, sync features, like Real-Time Sync, Two-Way sync, and Mirror Sync could help you transfer files from one computer to another easily, etc.