Hard drive for IBM Thinkpad 390X

[simonsky]

I have this old truck of a laptop and its been very dependable so far.

I would like to upgrade the stock 4.8GB Hard drive.

Does anybody know what form factor are these drives, what's the max size that can be installed (is there a limit?) and do I have to buy IBM or is there 3rd party?

The connector looks standard for a 2.5in laptop drive but the casing is a little bit weird. It's a perfectly flat rectangular brick. Can it be opened and could I install any standard 2.5in IDE drive inside?

 

[AMCRambler]

It's your standard 2.5inch laptop hard drive the reason it looks funny is that it is inside the caddy you are seeing. the metal halves come apart and there is an adapter on one end that allows you to plug it into the Thinkpad. I upgraded a 390X to a 20gig drive without a problem. I think it was a toshiba or a hitachi. Just take the caddy apart carefully because it's just thin sheet metal and gets bent easy. Should be able to swap to a larger drive and pop it back in and have it recognized no prob.
On another note if you're looking for performance upgrades I also upgraded the processor on the 390x as well. It was originally a P2 400 and I found a P3 450 on Ebay and swapped that in. It will take as high as a P3 500 I believe. It does make it run hotter I noticed, the keyboard gets quite warm over the chip when it's been on for a while, but so far no problems.