Thinkpads Forum

Does anyone have experience with frequently swapping Ultrabay devices in and out of the computer on a regular basis? Ex: Changing out the optical drive for the battery, or ultrabay hard drive, etc. I'm interested in finding out if there is any downside to frequent device swapping. Is the utlrabay designed for this, or only for occasoinal swapping?

Thanks,
Archer6

archer6 wrote:I'm interested in finding out if there is any downside to frequent device swapping.

The biggest downside is finding somewhere to keep the devices which aren't in the Ultrabay!

I'm personally swapping devices in and out of the Ultrabay Slim on my T4x laptops several times a week and haven't expereinced any problems over 2.5 year period. There are other T4x users in our consulting group who do it several times a day, also without any reported problems.

Cheers,

Bill

I believe I read somewhere in the past that the hard drive should not be frequently swapped out from the main hard drive slot. For frequent swapping, use the hard disk drive adapter that fits in the optical drive bay. In other words, the connector for the optical drive bay is designed for frequent swapping, whereas the connector for the main hard drive slot is not.

bill bolton wrote:

archer6 wrote:I'm interested in finding out if there is any downside to frequent device swapping.

The biggest downside is finding somewhere to keep the devices which aren't in the Ultrabay!

Wow... that's exactly what I have been thinking...

bill bolton wrote:I'm personally swapping devices in and out of the Ultrabay Slim on my T4x laptops several times a week and haven't expereinced any problems over 2.5 year period. There are other T4x users in our consulting group who do it several times a day, also without any reported problems.

Cheers,

Bill

Thanks Bill! That's exactly the info I was looking for. I had an idea that it was designed to do so, however I wanted to confirm it before I "mucked it up"....

Yep, I do this with the 3 components I have: MultiBurner +, HDD adapter, and Ultrabay Slim LiPoly battery. In fact, I've found that the FN + F9 utility is better than Windows' "remove hardware" icon in the system tray.

I have no problems unless a program (Photoshop, Premiere Elements) is using the 2ndary HDD.

Also, I find the "release extraction tab" switch (next to the Ultrabay slot) works for the DVD burner and battery, but not for the HDD. FN + F9 to the rescue! It shuts down the drive in XP beautifully. This is the first laptop I've used in whch the "swappable, multi-purpose" bay delivered on the promise. Happy camper me.

davidspalding wrote:Yep, I do this with the 3 components I have: MultiBurner +, HDD adapter, and Ultrabay Slim LiPoly battery. In fact, I've found that the FN + F9 utility is better than Windows' "remove hardware" icon in the system tray.

I have no problems unless a program (Photoshop, Premiere Elements) is using the 2ndary HDD.

Also, I find the "release extraction tab" switch (next to the Ultrabay slot) works for the DVD burner and battery, but not for the HDD. FN + F9 to the rescue! It shuts down the drive in XP beautifully. This is the first laptop I've used in whch the "swappable, multi-purpose" bay delivered on the promise. Happy camper me.

Thanks, davidspalding.

As long as I have been using ThinkPads with the bay, I've been in a rut and just left the optical drive there or the ultrabay battery depending on needs. However I have not done frequent swapping and with the tight integration offered by the ultrabay HDD I'm going to take advantage of the flexibility.

This info is very valuable, especially the usage tips. It's these "little things" that make the user experience fast and fun. Now that I have this knowledge, my usage of different devices in the bay will be similar to yours.

By the way, if you have any further tips or suggestions on setting up the HD in the bay and it's usage....I'm listening...

Thanks again,
Archer6

I swap between a HDD and DVD-multi regularly on my R52. I've never had to use either remove hardware or Fn-F9 since pushing on the eject tab always automatically removes the device for me.

Since my HDD doesn't have the metal frame and is somewhat loose, so I always keep the HDD inside the TP when transporting, and I have a little pouch (with TP logo) for keeping the DVD-multi in.