Thinkpads Forum

I just purchased a T30 off e-bayfrom a dealer with a very high positive feedback rating (high volume, very few complaints). The T30 came with a 20GB HD which I thought that I would just replace with the 60GB I had in my old T20. Unfortunately, the drive will not just slip out. I looked at the movie and illustrated instructions on the web site but to no avail. I was able to remove the black cover piece from the drive (yes, I had the laptop open and on it's side) but I did not want to screw it up or break it.

I would appreciate if any of you gurus have any advice for me. I don't want to just go out and get a 2nd HD adapter for the Ultrabay 200. Thanks for anyone willing to offer suggestions.[/b]

Honestly I dont now what you are doing wrong. I just open the screen, remove the screw right under the head phone/mic/line out jack and the whole piece slips out holding the drive.....

Are you saying the cover for the audio and mic ports came off while the drive was still in the laptop? With my T23, I just take off the bottom screw, open the LCD cover, then slip out the hard drive with little pressure. The cover on the side should stay with the laptop (thats what's holding it together).

If the black plastic cover came off/out without the HDD (HDD stayed in the thinkpad), get some hemostats or long needle nose pliars and pull out the HDD (grab the HDD adapter and not the HDD). Could be that the screw retaining the HDD was never removed and the plastic cover is broken with the screw hole enlarged. This was the shape of my T30 when it arrived from the person I bought it from on eBay. If this is the case, the screw is still keeping the HDD in place. Unscrew first and then do as I suggest above. The HDD should slide right out. After all is out, look at the screws on the HDD adapter and how it fits into the black plastic cover's metal retaining pieces, within the plastic cover. YOu will see how there are 2 round holes in the metal parts...one on each side of the plastic cover where the screws holding on the HDD adapter fit. Anyway, hope this helps...and good luck!

To add one additional tip, if the wrong screws have been used to mount the HD to the tray, the screws have a tendency to bind in the tracks that the drive normally slides in and out on.

Regards,

James

I want to thank all of you for your replies. I got a pair of needle nose pliars as suggested and it did the trick. The caddy was ent and it prevented the drive from sliding out smoothly.

Now that I got the drive out of course there are other issues. I wanted to swap out this 20 GB HD that came with the unit for the 60 GB that I was using on my T20. When I boot with the 60GB installed I get the Blue screen of Death. The T30 is apparently not recognizing the new 60GB drive. I tried putting the old drive (20GB) back in and upgrading the Bios Firmware but it still does not work. I tried the 60GB in another unit and it works so I know that the 60GB is not defective. Any solutions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

Dr.　Pete...Try　booting up with a windows 98 floppy and F-disking the HDD first and deleting and remaking the partitions and it should work. Somehow I had trouble installing Winxp or Ghosting my drive I had formerly had XP on until　I did this on mine.

BSOD means that the HDD is being recognised by the T30 but the OS (windows) is crashing..

get a recovery CD and reload the original image or do a clean windows install..