SATA hard drive caddy in ultrabay

[andertrack]

I have a 2373-m3u T42. Can I remove my optical drive and put something like this in:

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-Thinkpad-2nd-HD ... 33543ae0dc

[rkawakami]

Yes, but that particular adapter is not a factory version (in case you care). It appears to be identical to the one that I use in the T41 and X6 Ultrabase (Ultrabay Slim).

[andertrack]

Do you use the extra hard drive as a boot disk? If so, is it faster than the main drive? I realize that the caddy has to convert the SATA signal to IDE, which limits the speed, but only a small increase in speed would be worth it.

[frankiepankie]

I use a non-IBM ultrabay sata caddy in my T61 and my FrankiePad (T40 with R51 mainboard) and they work great.

The caddy gives a great boost in speed, the standard HDD in my T40 had a read speed of 34MB/s, i currently have an OCZ 32GB SSD in the caddy, and the read speed is now about 83MB/s (limited by the PATA bus of R51 mainboard, if i connect the SSD to an PC with SATA it reaches over 100MB/s )

I removed my normal HDD (which unfortunately causes a 30 sec boot delay at the IBM splashscreen) and i am booting from the SSD in the Ultrabay, works great!

Even if you don't put an SSD in the caddy it will be an improvement, because 2.5" SATA drives are much faster (about 66MB/s is easily possible) in comparison with their older 2.5" PATA brothers.

[rkawakami]

Do you use the extra hard drive as a boot disk? If so, is it faster than the main drive?

My only purpose in using the Ultrabay hard drive adapters in any of the Thinkpads you see in my .sig (so far) has been to clone / image the main drive.

[andertrack]

I removed my normal HDD (which unfortunately causes a 30 sec boot delay at the IBM splashscreen) and i am booting from the SSD in the Ultrabay, works great!

Even if you don't put an SSD in the caddy it will be an improvement, because 2.5" SATA drives are much faster (about 66MB/s is easily possible) in comparison with their older 2.5" PATA brothers.

That is exactly what I am thinking of doing. Is your main hard drive bay empty then?

[andertrack]

I think I am going to pick up one of these at Micro Center:

http://www.microcenter.com/single_produ ... id=0351760

[ParatoOptimal]

So, I can use this on my T41?
I have to remove my current DVD-ROM and replace it with this and then I can usa a SATA HDD??

Thanks

[arizz]

I use a non-IBM ultrabay sata caddy in my T61 and my FrankiePad (T40 with R51 mainboard) and they work great.

The caddy gives a great boost in speed, the standard HDD in my T40 had a read speed of 34MB/s, i currently have an OCZ 32GB SSD in the caddy, and the read speed is now about 83MB/s (limited by the PATA bus of R51 mainboard, if i connect the SSD to an PC with SATA it reaches over 100MB/s )

I removed my normal HDD (which unfortunately causes a 30 sec boot delay at the IBM splashscreen) and i am booting from the SSD in the Ultrabay, works great!

Even if you don't put an SSD in the caddy it will be an improvement, because 2.5" SATA drives are much faster (about 66MB/s is easily possible) in comparison with their older 2.5" PATA brothers.

My experience on t43 with sata ultrabay and SSD CORSAIR Force 60GB is more positive. System response and opening programs are very quick. Boot , same thing of frankiepankie, 30 sec boot delay at the IBM splashscreen: next days i'll try to do some tests with a ide hd inserted.
Stay tuned....

[frankiepankie]

That is exactly what I am thinking of doing. Is your main hard drive bay empty then?

Yes, that is exactly what i am doing. It works great, but the only downside is the delay at cold boot. When resuming from standby there is no issue, so i am not very dissapointed about it, because i usually put the machine into standby instead of shutting it down.

My experience on t43 with sata ultrabay and SSD CORSAIR Force 60GB is more positive. System response and opening programs are very quick. Boot , same thing of frankiepankie, 30 sec boot delay at the IBM splashscreen: next days i'll try to do some tests with a ide hd inserted.
Stay tuned....

I already tried that. With a HDD installed in the default HD bay, there is no problem.

But i don't need the default PATA HDD because it doesn't have very much space (40GB), i have a server with 2TB storage running in my network so i can access all my files trough my home network, and the PATA HDD consumes battery power....

In my T61 i have an Intel 40GB SSD installed in the main HDD bay, and an 320GB WD in Ultrabay.


Maybe the 30 sec delay can be fixed with a hacked BIOS.... Anyone willing to look at that? I don't know how it works. I know there are some people that know MUCH about it (hacked the 1802, 2010 errors etc)

[andertrack]

I just got my caddy and I am trying to install Windows 7 on a spare SATA drive (while I wait for my SSD). Windows install is not recognizing the drive. Do I have to provide a driver?

[frankiepankie]

I have the same problem, what i did was install it on the internal HDD and then cloned it to the Ultrabay HDD.

I would also like to know how to avoid that driver screen.

[Temetka]

Interesting thread.

Do those chinese ultrabay adapters come with a driver cd? I have a USB dvd burner that I can hook for situations like this. For those of you who replace your optical drive with an ultrabay adapter there are usb units that you can get to install the optical drive into, this way you can still carry around your optical drive with you and use it as needed.

For my uses a 2nd HD isn't that much of a concern. However a 2nd battery is. That is what I am going to use my ultrabay for when the $$$ presents itself with my after christmas paycheck. That and a shiny new 9-cell battery.

[frankiepankie]

Nah in Windows it isn't an issue, but on installation it kept me asking about a driver for CD/DVD driver, and i don't know what driver i need to feed him

[Norway Pad]

Boot , same thing of frankiepankie, 30 sec boot delay at the IBM splashscreen: next days i'll try to do some tests with a ide hd inserted.
Stay tuned....

I came up with an idea about this at one point. Not sure if anyone has ever tested it out, or if it will work at all, but here we go:

What about using a PATA HDD where the platters or heads are defective, but where the electronics part is still functional, cut/disconnect the leads for the motor, maybe also remove the platters if you feel like it, and simply insert the drive this way? The idea is that this will make the BIOS detect the drive during POST, while there are no parts moving and thereby no power consumption.

The first question is if the IDE electronics on the drive needs any information that's read from the platters and/or if the drive does it's own POST and will not detected by the BIOS before it's ok. I don't know enough about the procedures that goes on in the drive. Question number two is how the OS will treat the non-functional drive. Will it throw an error, will it list it, will it freeze the machine if you try to read from it or what will happen? The times I have had drives fail, it's always been my main drive, meaning no boot, so I have never seen how the OS treats a defective drive. I would like to actually test this once with a defective drive, but I don't have any defective 2.5" PATA drives around.

[Raceboy]

If you use NHC, it has a SMART error pop-up set up by default which shows up on the system tray whenever SMART error is registered by HDD. You can unclick this option.

I'm not sure what would happen if you try to access the drive in windows since it is a non-removable drive. On removable drive it just prompts to insert a disc but I'm pretty sure that laptop will become unresponsive for some time and saying after that source drive cannot be read or the like.

This is a good thing to try if all other methods do not work. To save weight, you can just install the PCB part together with the IDE connector and insulate it to tape or something.

[frankiepankie]

I think if you try Norway Pad's suggestion, it will also freeze on startup.

In my opinion, a better solution would be: Buy an 2.5 IDE <> CF converter, and put in a small CF card (16MB can be enough i guess, because you aren't going to use it).

Don't create any partitions on it, so it isn't bootable and then just set the ultrabay device to first boot device.

[andertrack]

In my opinion, a better solution would be: Buy an 2.5 IDE <> CF converter, and put in a small CF card (16MB can be enough i guess, because you aren't going to use it).

Don't create any partitions on it, so it isn't bootable and then just set the ultrabay device to first boot device.

That sounds like a great idea. I did a quick serach on ebay and found this for pretty cheap:

http://cgi.ebay.com/CF-44-pin-2-5-IDE-H ... 5d2c4497ad

Hopefully I will get my SSD today so I will clone over my Windows 7 install to that and see how everything runs. Interestingly, when I installed 7 and ran the performance test, it enabled Aero for me, which is pretty sweet

[andertrack]

Just got the SSD, cloned the IDE hard disk to it, and then booted it in the SATA caddy without an IDE drive connected. I am getting 75MB/s read, which is not great, but considering it is going through a SATA to IDE converter, I can live with it.

More importantly, my computer is completely silent except for the fan, and my hard drive is much less likely to mechanically fail. When I get the CF to IDE adapter, I will see if that gets rid of the boot issues.

[Norway Pad]

..it will also freeze on startup.

In my opinion, a better solution would be: Buy an 2.5 IDE <> CF converter, and put in a small CF card (16MB can be enough i guess, because you aren't going to use it).

I suspected there might be some issues with installing a non-working hard drive in the main bay, so I'll probably forget about that idea. The CF card is a better idea.

I have actually been looking into the possibility of finding a IDE -> microSATA adapter, for being able to use a 1.8" SATA SSD in the main bay. The smaller form factor will hopefully give enough room for both the adapter and the drive in the main bay. But the only adapter another user and I have sourced so far is only sold in 100 piece bathces..

[GomJabbar]

You should be able to speed up the boot time by pressing F12 at the IBM splash screen and choosing to boot the second hard drive from the BIOS boot menu. This is how I choose to boot the second drive in my T42 (with a bootable drive in the main hard drive slot as well).

[frankiepankie]

I have the same problem, what i did was install it on the internal HDD and then cloned it to the Ultrabay HDD.

I would also like to know how to avoid that driver screen.

Yesterday i received a slimline USB casing for my T61 DVD burner, and when i tried installing Windows 7 on my FrankiePad with that DVD device, it didn't ask for a driver... Very weird

You should be able to speed up the boot time by pressing F12 at the IBM splash screen and choosing to boot the second hard drive from the BIOS boot menu. This is how I choose to boot the second drive in my T42 (with a bootable drive in the main hard drive slot as well).

Doesn't work, if i press F12 it will display "Boot menu" or something in the bottom of the screen, but will still have the 30 sec delay

[andertrack]

So I got my IDE to CF adapter from ebay (put an old 2GB CF card into it), attached it to the metal tray that was on my previous HD, and it removed the 30 second delay at the boot screen. I did have to put the jumper to cable select for some reason.

I also got 2 sticks of 1GB of RAM, and between that and the SSD Windows 7 is screaming (for a T42) fast. I can actually run Photoshop CS5 now.

Now I just have to wait for Sandy Bridge and USB 3.0 on my next laptop.

[andertrack]

Just wanted to bump this since I see some similar posts. Also, my SATA caddy is still working perfectly.

[frankiepankie]

Good to hear!

I am also still enjoying my FrankiePad (T40 with R51 mainboard) with an SSD in it, makes it one solid unit

I was also looking for a RAM upgrade to 2GB (i currently have 2x 512MB in it) but DDR is way too overpriced these days.

I also looked at an R52 mainboard (so i can use DDR2 sticks) with Intel video, but couldn't find any cheap ones like the R51 39T5510 FRU that is commonly found on eBay

[andertrack]

Still humming along here. Instead of buying a new laptop, get a SSD and Windows 7!

[shpitz461]

Hi guys,
I'm trying to install either XP or 7 on the ultrabay HDD.
The setup lists the HDD but is not able to do anything with it... Can't modify/delete the partition, can't format, nothing...

Do I need some kind of a driver?

Thanks

EDIT: I did a BIOS restore-to-defaults and changed the boot order of the ultrabay HDD and now it works!

[Shredder11]

I do not have a T4x series model but I have just bought a used Intel SSD 160GB which I plan on installing in my Thinkpad Z61p. I also have what might be a genuine Ultrabay SATA HDD caddy, and I was wondering if I can clone the existing Win 7 installation from my internal mechanical HDD, to the SSD while it is in the Ultrabay caddy? Or maybe I can swap the drives around and have the SSD in the internal port and the mechanical drive with Win 7 in the caddy? I plan on using the software Paragon Migrate OS to SSD which should make things much easier and more correct, e.g. partition alignment etc. I spotted this while reading a tutorial on another forum http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/14 ... ystem.html.

[ajkula66]

@Shredder11:

Install the SSD in the main bay, and the hard drive into the external enclosure or UltraBay caddy. That is the correct cloning procedure for ThinkPads.

Personally, I always advise people to perform a fresh install, but your ThinkPad - your call.