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Lest anyone think otherwise, IBM is *not* bending over backwards to give anyone a good deal on a hard disk. They are making money. They don't give a damn about whether they screw the customer as long as it doesn't affect their bottom line (much). They realize that by putting an incompatible interface on their hard disk, they can charge several hundred dollars more for that disk than for an ordinary disk -- and force the customer to pay their prices. It won't work forever -- sooner or later competitors will force them to lower their prices -- , but they can make a lot of money in the year or two that it takes competitors to catch up. By then, they'll have new models out with some other incompatible feature. IBM has a LONG history of doing this. Read the book _Big Blue_ sometime and see if you don't recognize the tactics from that book in the marketing strategy of the IBM of today. The strategy works because customers don't usually consider the cost of upgrades, when buying new equipment. But it's a good bet that a lot of ThinkPad users will eventually want a bigger hard disk. They may even be able to sell some of their less fancy laptops at reduced margins because they know that many customers will want to upgrade. IBM makes good hardware and they always have. But if you buy IBM, you may be paying for it longer than you thought at first. Keith