Failed Hard Drive, Assistance with OS Recovery Needed!!!

Hello Lenovo Forums,
First time being here because I haven't had a problem with my Lenovo y510p up until now. Unfortunately though, all good things must to an end. I've confirmed through tests with my desktop's hdd diagnostic software that my Lenovo y510p's hard drive has finally kicked the bucket. Failed the read and the write tests entirely. I'm convinced that I need a new hdd. I know how to go about obtaining a new hdd, however how would I go about reinstalling the copy of Windows 8.1 that came with my y510p?
Will I have to jump/cut through a bunch of red tape involved with Lenovo, or is the process painless?
tl;dr > My hard drive is shot to hell and I do not have the product key for the copy of windows 8.1 that managed my y510p when it was running fine. How do I get a hold of the OS's key so I may purchase another hdd and install the same "technical" copy of windows?
Thank you,
Lance

I would just remove the second drive while doing the recovery operation and slap it back in when the process is done. Better safe than sorry. Theoretically the recovery disks will not affect the second drive but it is really easy to be 100% sure they will not.

Similar Messages

After replacing a failed hard drive with new one I inadvertently created a different account name(home/user) than the one in the Time Machine backup. Now I cannot restore the photos in iPhoto. What are my options?

After replacing a failed hard drive with new one I inadvertently created a different account name(home/user) than the one in the Time Machine backup. Now I cannot restore the photos in iPhoto. What are my options?

The best thing to do would be to start over. Use Setup Assistant this time.
Boot into Recovery, launch Disk Utility, and erase the startup volume. This operation will destroy all data on the volume. Quit Disk Utility and install OS X. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade, so make a note of those before you begin.
When you reboot, you'll be prompted to go through the initial setup process. That’s when you transfer the data from one of your backups. For a walkthrough, see here:
Using Setup Assistant
Don't transfer the Guest account, if it was enabled on the old system.
Note: You need an always-on Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection to the Internet to use Recovery. It won’t work with USB or PPPoE modems, or with proxy servers, or with networks that require a certificate for authentication.

Replacing a failing hard drive with a new Hard

Hey Apple Community,
So I have a failing hard drive in my mid-2009 Macbook Pro. I can't boot it up in regular mode any longer, and only can boot it in Recovery HD. I cannot repair the disk, so I guess my only option is to replace the hard drive.
I decided against paying our local experts upwards of $300 to run diagnostics and install a cheap, new HD. I did find a new 1TB SSHD, which I ordered and plan on installing myself.
My question is, with a NEW hard drive in the computer, can I still boot it in Recovery HD mode to do an installation of OS Yosemite? Or do I have to figure out how to obtain an external copy (on a USB drive for example) of OSY and install that somehow when I install the new HD?
Thanks in advance for your help! -MJ

mjwindett wrote:
...My question is, with a NEW hard drive in the computer, can I still boot it in Recovery HD mode to do an installation of OS Yosemite? Or do I have to figure out how to obtain an external copy (on a USB drive for example) of OSY and install that somehow when I install the new HD?...
On recent Macs, Recovery comes in two flavors with one being Internet Recovery which doesn't require a bootable drive to start with. Yours doesn't have that, so the other flavor is the Recovery partition on the failing HD you currently have.
What you can do is get an external enclosure, such as this one, install your new SSHD in it, connect it to your MBP, boot into Recovery and run Reinstall OS but with the external drive as the target. Once that's done, and you've tried booting from it, you can install the SSHD in the MBP, install the current HD in the external enclosure, and see if you can use Setup or Migration Assistant to move your files over to the SSHD.

Can I use HP System Recovery Disks on a new hard drive replacement with a lower storage capacity?

Can I use the HP System Recovery Disks from my HP Pavilion dv7t-4000 CTO Select Edition Entertaimnent Notebook PC when I replace the failing hard drive with a smaller storage capacity hard drive? Right now it is a Toshiba 750GB SATA hard disk drive, 5400 RPM, 2.5 inch small form factor (SFF) and I am planning to replace it with the Toshiba HDKCB26 500GB 2.5 inch Hybrid Hard Drive. I read that I cannot use a System Image to restore the hard drive because it is a smaller capacity then the original Hard Drive. If this is true, it seems that my only option is to use the HP Recovery Disks.

Hi:
Normally the HP recovery disks don't work on a smaller hard drive either, but it may be possible in your case if HP offered a 500 GB HDD in that model series.
No guarantees though.

How do I remove one failing hard drive from raid set and replace with new one

Last Friday apparently one of my raid drives started failing.
As I mentioned on this forum I started getting continous beeping.
I was finally able to get the raid working at a degraded level. I ordered a replacement hard drive which is arriving today.
(In the meantime I made twice daily backups of my work.....)
Below was the message I got from the browser based raid software:
Blahblah 09    1000.2GB   RaidSet Member SamSung HD103SJ
Blahblah 10    1000.2GB     Free                 SamSung HD103SJ
Blahblah 11    1000.2GB   RaidSet Member SamSung HD103SJ
Blahblah 12    1000.2GB   RaidSet Member SamSung HD103SJ
(See this earlier thread if you wish!)
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/727867?tstart=0
At one point when I did the checked the browser interface I saw the message Failed and Degraded
As I said, I was able to work over the weekend on the degraded system.
This morning I got the beeping again and did the rescue and now I am running a "full raid" without the notice that one raid was "Free".
In any case, the new hard drive is arriving today.
What steps should I take to incorporate the new drive into the raid system.
I have one OS drive
and 4 tb raid drives.   One needs to be replaced with the new one that I am getting today.
Thanks
Rowby

Harm,
Regarding your comment:
Re: How do I remove one failing hard drive from raid set and replace with new one
Please tell me how to read the serial number from an individual drive rather easily, without un-installing them:
If you select the proper drive to change out, you only need to remove one drive and look at its serial number...
Step 1: Identify bad drive serial number using Areca's tools
Step 2: Turn off the computer
Step 3: Remove what you think is the bad drive based on following your numbered cable method, marked hot-swap bays, whatever
Step 4: Verify that the serial number matches the "bad drive" serial number from step 1; if it does great, proceed; if it does not match, go back to step 3
Step 5: Change out the CORRECT drive - that's the bottom line for this whole procedure
Cheers,
Jim

Replaced failed hard drive - access is slow with spinning ball

Hi,
I recently replaced my failed hard drive and during the OS install, selected a backup from Time Machine.
All's well. My apps and docs are all there.
However, when I double click on the HD icon on the desktop, I get a spinning ball for about 3-5 seconds before I get a contents window.
Is there something I should NOT have copied over from Time Machine that has caused this behavior?
The new HD is a 7200 rpm(?) Western Digital Caviar, 1 TB. Details from System Profiler:
ST31000528AS:
Capacity: 1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
Model: ST31000528AS
Revision: CC35
Serial Number: *****
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk1
Rotational Rate: 7200
Bay Name: Bay 1
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Main Drive:
Capacity: 999.86 GB (999,860,912,128 bytes)
Available: 539.26 GB (539,261,030,400 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s2
Mount Point: /
Thank you for any help!
Greg
< Edited by Host >

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen. Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then take one of the actions that you're having trouble with. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

I am attempting to replace a failed hard drive on a F500 Vista laptop. I have a home premium recover

I am attempting to replace a failed hard drive on a F500 Vista laptop. I have a home premium recovery DVD (1 of 1) and It runs the recovery after a while of loading, and it creates a 24GB partion and loads about 2.6Gb of information on it. the it ejects the disc and asks if I have any suplimental disks, which I don't have. Then it reboots it's self and cycles through reboots for 5 hours, yes I let it do this for 5 hours as the HP site says it could take several hours.
After this I finally shut down the computer and loaded the hard drive in an ext case and retrieved the above information. I also note that the 250GB drive is shown as a 24GB drive, so I guess it hasn't completed the partions?
I never get to a Vista window.
This hard drive does pass the laptop's Bios hard drive check (the former 80GB drive did NOT) and was used to store Old Time Radio shows, until I went to a larger drive.
The Laptop has a dual core Athlon TK-53 processor and the recovery disc is for 32 bit Vista (and the label in front and license on back don't state Vista 64, just Vista)
So, Do I need a Vista 64 recovery disc? Should I download the available driver on the HP site and slap in that disc when the Recovery disc finishes and asks for supplimental discs? Might thngs indicate other issues with the laptop?
I've loaded from scratch XP several times, but this is my 1st Vista experience. Thank you for any help!

Okay. So I was able to install, and format the new internal HD. Was able to install Lion then Mavericks. Next, is to try to retrieve my data from my failing old HD. I bought an enclosure (sled), and have my HD hooked up to my laptop, and it finally showed up in Finder. So. Now. What is next? I am seeing a screen that shows these folders: Applications (translate for the PC me = Programs), Library (I am assuming?? these are my various files such as docs, photos, music, etc.) System, opt, and Users. Should I just try to drag and drop some/all of the folders onto my desktop, then open up the folders and do something with the contents? Sorry to sound so vague and frankly, rather dumb-sounding, but the nomenclature with a Mac is a bit different than with a PC, and Finder is a little different looking to me than Windows Explorer. I am relieved to see that I was even able to get this failing drive to show up in the first place, so I feel a little like I could be on borrowed time with it. I think it may just be bad sectors, since I don't hear any clicking or other mechanical issues with the drive as it spins. But, any further help with retrieving the data would be VERY much appreciated!!

New Hard Drive for HP DV6 & Recovery Issues

Greetings everyone... Happy Holidays to all!
As luck would have it, on the first day of the Holiday break, my wife's laptop hard drive decided to go on strike - luckily, I could mount the hard drive on another system and get most of the files off that were needed. In replacing the hard drive and doing my research on the web and on these forums, it appears there is a fair amount of disparity between those having success and complete failure when running the recovery disks after a hard drive failure and, thus far, I am in the second camp (not going as smoothly as advertised). As a side note, I created the recovery disks from the system upon receiving it and the disks were verified as part of the creation process as being 'good.'
I am working on an HP Pavillion DV6t, product number XC100AV that originally shipped with a WD Scorpio Blue 640GB drive (WD6400BEVT, 5400 rpm). We have had this system about 13-14 months (just past that 12 month warranty period) and the system is very lightly used (nightly facebook'ing is about as strenuous as this system has worked). Since I have a high degree of experience and confidence in working with computers, I didn't have any reservations in going down to the nearest electronics retailer and picking up a new drive to put into the machine. I picked up a Seagate Momentus XT drive (500GB, 4GB SSD hybrid, 7200 rpm) and put it into the machine in a few minutes, adjusted the BIOS settings to boot from the CD drive and disable the HP Web flash capability, and proceeded to load the CDs through the HP system recovery manager. The system progresses through the recovery manager without incident or error (indicating the recovery disks are 'good'). However, when booting the system after the recovery CDs complete, I get the nice message that no boot file can be found. This tells me that there is no MBR (master boot record) created during the system recovery process and there is no way to boot into the operating system.
Given this information, I have a few questions to those experienced in this area:
1. Am I required to contact HP to purchase a new hard drive to get the recovery to work properly? To put it another way, is there an HP 'tatoo' (as alluded to in other posts around the Internet) that would prevent me from using a HDD that is technically compatible?
2. If the answer(s) to #1 is no, what am I missing in getting the recovery to work properly? Are there any MBR utilities that I should use in addition to the recovery processes outlined by HP?
3. Am I required to purchase the same HDD (size, manufacturer)? I decided to stay away from WD after it failed after only 13 months of light use...
Thank you in advance for your advice!

You're very welcome.
That happened to me too (after testing windows 8), and the only way I was able to get W7 back on my PC was to install XP, and have it format the drive. I let XP install and didn't bother installing any drivers.
I booted from the W7 disk and it worked without incident.
You have to have advanced knowledge to install XP on a modern notebook, because you need to know how to install the necessary sata drivers in order for XP to even see the drive.
I noticed that MS has re-established the W7 ISO file download links again in the last day, so see if you can make your own disk again and try using that to install windows and then try to use the recovery disks if you want.
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/14709-Windows-7-Digital-River-direct-links-Multiple-Languag...

Having hard drive problems with 2011 macbook pro

Hey all,
I am having some hard drive issues with a 2011 Macbook Pro running OS X Mavericks.
How it happened: I was browsing the web when suddenly I got the spinny-wheel-of-death. The spinny wheel of death stuck around for much longer than usual, and eventually my computer wouldn't even respond to mouse input (the mouse wouldn't move). Nothing worked, so I did a hard reset of my computer. When I rebooted the machine, it took me into "Recovery Disk Mode".
Here are the diagnostics that I've done: In "Recovery Disk Mode", I have the option to use the Disk Utility, which I have done. My main volume, called "Macintosh HD" is grayed out - and not mountable. When I run "first aid" on it, it is not able to verify the disk because of an "Invalid B-tree node size". It then tells me to repair the disk. I have tried repairing the disk, but it fails - and that is not entirely unexpected because all of the forum posts that I have read up until now say that Disk Utility cannot repair this specific type of error.
3rd party software I have tried: Based on the forum posts that I have read, Disk Warrior is especially capable at fixing this kind of error, so I went to my local computer shop, purchased the software, and booted into it. Disk Warrior did not recognize my drive, and did not even show it in the list of available options.
Other things I have tried: I purchased a Seagate external drive, and I tried to use Disk Utility to copy the contents from my MBP's hard drive over to the external drive, but when I do so, "Disk Utility" tells me that "Recovery partition restores can only be done on GPT partition maps." I have also had it give me another error message where it says it "cannot verify source - error 254".
Additionally, I have seen around the internet that many people try using "fsck" to fix this issue, but I haven't been able to find a good explanation of the proper steps when using "fsck", nor how to specify to the "fsck" program that I want it to fix my "Macintosh HD" volume. I've opened up the terminal, and gone into the "/dev/" folder, but I don't know which item in that folder, or any other folder, would properly lead down the path to my "Macintosh HD" volume. Also, the man pages seem to be of little help here.
One option I would like to try, but I have not been able to, is to try putting my MBP into Target Disk Mode, and see if my desktop machine (a Dell) can see it. The problem here is that my Dell only has USB ports - no Firewire, and obviously no Thunderbolt ports. I would need to find a way to plug my MBP into my Dell while it is in Target Disk Mode, but from what I can tell, that's impossible if I don't have a Firewire or Thunderbolt port on my Dell.
So, now having explained everything I have tried, can y'all give me any advice on how I can recover my drive without completely repartitioning it? Although most of my important data and files are located on cloud services, there are definitely some files on the drive that I don't have backed up, and I would like to recover the drive without losing those files. What suggestions can you give me? Thanks!

Yes, BUT...
... there are many problems that are really easy to eliminate by replacing the Hard drive, including ones that have nothing to do with actual Drive Hardware failure. These include corrupted install of Mac OS X, its EFI partition, clobbered partition tables, or the appearance of Bad Blocks in a critical area.
Any of these problems can sometimes be eliminated by re-initializing the entire drive and writing Zeroes, and re-installing from scratch. The trouble is, this process takes hours to complete, and is not guaranteed to be successful -- you may still need a new drive after all that effort.
I learned from my Plumber that consumers have no appetite for solutions that might work, and detest return visits for any related problems whatsoever. You or your friend may have had your drive replaced, not because it actually failed, but because the situation was troublesome, and the provider thought you would not tolerate anything less than a crisp, complete fix on the first attempt. And based on the cost of technician time, it may have even been cheaper that way.

Failing hard drive, unable to start, trying to back up data

My apologies in advance, I'm not terribly computer saavy.
I purchased an HP Pavilion dv6-1350 us Notebook PC in May 2010 from Newegg.com as my home computer.
About 2 weeks ago I fell asleep with the computer on (internet connected via dial up) and when I woke up, I was getting hard drive failure imminent warnings and warnings to back up my data. I ran several tests as per what directions the computer could give me and got the following results:
Start up test failed
Hard disk smart 301
Hard disk 1 QUick 303
100% system memory OK
4,156,358,656 bytes OK
Hard disk 1 QUick (303)
I purchased some larger USB memory sticks to recover my data on, but unfortunately, the computer cannot start up and I cannot back up my data before I send the computer for service. (I'm assuming the hard drive needs replacing).
However, I am slightly suspicious because the error message has an odd grammatical error, something to the effect of "hard drive failure imminent, to avoid not data loss, back up files immediately'.
Unfortunately I cannot offer any further details at this time as I am at work and the computer is at home.
So my questions are:
is this a hard drive failure or a nasty viral/computer takeover?
is there anything I can do start the computer enough to back up my data before getting the computer serviced?
does anyone have suggestions as to where I should get an HP serviced?
Thank you in advance for your time and assistance.

Hi,
Well 301 and 303 are genuine error codes relating to the Hard Drive ( so it will need replacing ) - I presume the tests you ran were from the Bios menu, if that is correct, it's unlikely to be Malware as bios viruses are extremely rare so it probably is just a grammatical error in the message, nothing more.
One possible way to try and retrieve your files from a non-booting drive is to follow the process detailed in the link below. The Ubuntu operating system CD you create can run from the CD alone ( ie it doesn't have to install on the Hard Drive ) and I've often found it to be successful in retrieving data even from a failing Hard Drive. When you've created the CD, follow the instructions and see if you can back up your existing files to the USB drives you've purchased.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windo...
Regards,
DP-K
****Click the White thumb to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
****I don't work for HP****
Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

Replacing a failed hard drive on a mid-2007 white macbook

Replacing a SECOND failed hard drive on a mid-2007 white macbook (Intel core duo 2.16GHz), this time on my own
Need to purchase a serial ATA drive, but I keep reading that trying to format and/or partition the drive for use with the original Tiger install disk is unsuccessful and that I would have to update to a newer OS before I can do that.
I have Leopard as the current OS, and that is in my backup files from Time Machine, but I do not have a disk with Leopard.
Wondering the best course of action and/or if someone had success wit ha particular Serial ATA using the Tiger disks
Thanks!

All Intel Macs have always use SATA drives, so all Intel versions of OS X support them including Tiger. I don't know what you've been reading. However, since you have Leopard I don't see what the problem would be because you don't need to install Tiger unless your Leopard disk is strictly an updater disc.
How to replace or upgrade a drive in a laptop
Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Step Two: Remove the old drive and install the new drive. Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure. You can buy one at OWC who is also a good vendor for drives.
Step Three: Boot from the external drive. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Step Four: New Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your new hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Step Five: Clone the old drive to the new drive
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new internal drive. Source means the old external drive.
Step Six: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume. Click on the Restart button. You should boot from the new drive. Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.

Failing hard drive or ??? of FOUR new laptop?

FOUR brand-new Toshiba Satellite C50 laptops - Windows 7
Steps taken:
Setup
Uninstall Norton Security Essentials trial
Install, update, and scan with Microsoft Security Essentials
Uninstall Norton Backup trial and Norton Anti-Theft
Download, install and setup Internet Explorer 11
Google Toolbar
Windows updates: 70
Burn 5 recovery DVDs Verbatim DVD-R
Check Windows logs
On 3 of the 4 computers an average of 10 warnings for EACH OF most DVD burned: “an error was detected on device \device\cdrom0 during a paging operation”; Event ID 51, Source CDROM
CHKDSK finds on all of them about 80,000 files and
over 200 unused index entries from index $SII
over 200 unused index entries from index $SDH
Memory Diagnostics Tool: no error detected
My search on the Web gives conflicting responses.
Should I be concerned about failing hard drive on all four brand-new computers?
Or is there another issue?
Thank you.

please provide the full model number of your computer(s). it is printed on the bottom.
I'd run chkdsk on them again until I received no errors. or return them for exchange/refund.
L305-S5955, T9300 Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 60GB SSD, Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit

How do I copy the entire contents of my laptops failing hard drive to copy back onto a new computer.

How do I copy the entire contents of my laptops failing hard drive to copy back onto a new computer.

If the drive has failed the only way to get any data off it is to send it to a Data Recovery company. Which is very expensive and no guaranty they will be able to retrieve any data.
That is why Apple has included a system to backup your Mac on a regular basis, Time Machine. Also there are other Apps to do basically the same thing by Cloning your internal drive to an external drive. Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper. Along with using Disk Utility to Image the internal drive to an external drive.
Sorry to tell you but if the drive has really failed your Data is gone unless you pay a large sum of money to one of the Data recovery companies.

Which types of external hard drives works with T400?

Hi Thank you for reading my post.
Can someone please let me know which types of external hard drives works with a T400?
eSata, USB or firewire?
Which model and brand you suggest for a 1TB drive?
Thanks

USB 2.0 is the connection that is natively supported on the T400, no eSATA or Firewire port i think, you can get these ports by buying an expansion card for the card slot (i think it is the expresscard one) on the T400.
Regarding a 1TB drive, most of the large drive manufacturers have one out, but i suggest you unless you need the large capacity, i would stick with a smaller drives like 750 gig or 500 gig since the cost gigabyte is lower. Also i would stay away for storing all your important files solely in these drive, because if these things start to fail it would be on a moment's notice, you probably won't even have time to backup the files, before the harddrive gives up on you.

Can I save my files from a failing hard drive?

Sorry if this is kind of long. I booted up the system off the Mac OS X disc after getting startup errors. I ran the Disk Utility and it could not verify or repair the hard disk. S.M.A.R.T. status reads "failing" in red. My best guess it that the hard drive is on it's way out. Tried to save my files by making and image file of the hard disk and putting it on an external drive, but I got an error and it wouldn't save. Put the system in Target Disk mode and tried to access the files from another Mac connected via FireWire, but it wouldn't mount on the second Mac's desktop. I checked Disk Utility and it was creating multiple images of the first Mac's hard disk and failed to mount. Is there any other way to retrieve the files from the failing hard drive? I'd appreciate any assistance on this.

Maybe, but at this stage, I'd boot from a data recovery tool, such as those listed on my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html#RECOVER
If none of those work, you may want to consider a data recovery service, depending on the value of the said files.
Moral of the story, always backup your data*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
It is not a question of if data will be lost, but when.

Failed Hard Drive, Assistance with OS Recovery Needed!!!

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