Thinkpads Forum

I do a lot of cloning and wanted a way to not have to keep removing the main HD from my T60p. It also occorred to me that it might be interesting to be able to attach a 400GB 3.5 drive to my Thinkpad. I came across a Male to Female SATA Cable for both power and data connection. I have tested it and it does indeed work with the original drive in my unit. It takes a little ingenuity but if you are careful you can connect the laptop end of the unit inside the main drive bay. The cable is long enough to be able to attach to another drive outside the unit. The main advantage is that I can swap drives a lot more easier now.

Here's a photo of the cable


My question is, is the power the same for 2.5 and 3.5 inch SATA drives? In other words, if I hook up a 3.5 inch drive to the cable will it power on and run just like the 2.5?

If anybody is interested I got the cable from CableGear at http://www.cablegear.com/productdetails ... 0&cats=555

Also, anybody else tried anything like this and have any experience to report back?
Thanks
DenTPr4m

I've thought about trying that a couple of times. You may also be able to fit the cable into the slim bay, so that your primary drive can stay put.

3.5" drives do suck more power than notebook-optimized 2.5" drives. For example, notebook drives typically use around 2-3 watts while reading or writing. 3.5" drives will use around 9 watts. These numbers are approximate, but you get the idea. Since you're running plugged in to wall power, this probably isn't important.

Thanks for the input, Rons.

I didn't want to use the ultrabay as I plan on keeping the main drive as a boot device. My understanding has been that if you have two bootable drives attached WinXP will alter the configuration of one of the drives making it unbootable.

So, as far as you know there would be enough power available to run the 3.5" drive?
DenTP4rm

hi,

i wouldn't try it,
if the powersupply isn't designed to supply higher current to the Sata Slot
you can blow a voltage regulator or resistor on the mainboard,
which than have to be replaced.
In the worst case it can burn your harddisk.

cu

Thanks, Killigrew.
Anybody else want to weigh in on this? It would be good to hear from somebody who's tried it.

You should look into how many watts your 3.5" drive needs to operate. If it's in the neighborhood of 8 watts (or less) I, myself, would go ahead and try it. The thinkpad's SATA power should be designed to handle the worst-case startup condition, where extra power is needed to spin up the drive. But, as killigrew pointed out, you may fry something.

I've never seen a hard drive die from undervoltage. But if the power supplying the SATA connector isn't designed for it, you could toast something on your motherboard, which may get expensive to fix.

Another option is to supply external power to the SATA drive, and just connect a SATA data cable between the drive and the Thinkpad connector. If you have a desktop chassis laying around that has SATA power cable, you could even take power from that.

There are some externel enclosures out there who have (beside usb2) a normal SATA Connector on the outside.

cu

RonS wrote:Another option is to supply external power to the SATA drive, and just connect a SATA data cable between the drive and the Thinkpad connector. If you have a desktop chassis laying around that has SATA power cable, you could even take power from that.

Hey RonS
Appreciate the suggestion. Actually I have a separate power block with a kind of bare-bones external SATA adapter that could provide the power needed. I may just go that route.

I don't want to do any "testing" on my T60p and then have to deal with a burnt component that I am sure would not be covered by warranty. I think I'll play it on the safe side unless anybody can verify that it does work direct from the internal connector.

At the same time I ordered the connector shown above (which would not work with a separate power supply, it's a single molded piece) I got another one that connects just the data terminals. That one would allow me to use a separate power supply
thanks,
DenTP4rm

I guess that would work, but why not just use the ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter?

Why not just use an eSATA express card or something? For cloning and data backups/recovery under Windows and Linux, I've just been using this nifty adapter from Vantec. It comes with an external power supply with adapters for molex, 2.5", and sata drives.

acasto wrote:Why not just use an eSATA express card or something?

Just be aware of the following pointed out by Paul Pavlik:

Cloning T60 With Apricorn (Update)

Acasto & GomJabbar,
Thanks for the suggestions. I have both the ultrabay SATA adapter & a USB adapter like the Vantec. For me they are good for different purposes, but not quite what I'm aiming for at the moment.

I use my T60p for video editing so I need a fair amount of HD space. I also like to play around with different boot drive configurations. I mostly use an XP Pro setup but I'm toying with Linux now too.

It's been my experience that if you have two drives with XP set as the boot drive and you do boot with both attached one of them will do a job on the other that basically renders it unbootable. I know I've read what happens and a workaround. I guess I'm just looking for a way to avoid that. If I leave my main drive in the standard HD bay and attach another bootable XP drive whether in the ultrabay or via USB, my assumption is it'll get rendered unbootable. But, I'd like to avoid having to unscrew the screws and pull out the main drive every time I want to swap boot drives.

If I leave my main XP drive in the Thinkpad's standard drive bay and try to boot with another XP config in the ultrabay I'm assuming it will reconfigure the main drive and render it unbootable.

That's why I was interested in figuring a way to be able to attach and detach the HD that would be running from the main drive housing. The same limitations would apply if I used an eSATA external setup together with an express card, which I have. It works fine, but, once again, if my main XP drive is still in the Thinkpad's main drive bay it'll be rendered unbootable if I try to boot from another drive with XP. (Or am I mistaken about that?)

I appreciate any further suggestions or input.
thanks,
DenTP4rm

GomJabbar wrote:

acasto wrote:Why not just use an eSATA express card or something?

Just be aware of the following pointed out by Paul Pavlik:

Cloning T60 With Apricorn (Update)

GomJabbar,
Yes, I'm familiar with that post of Paul Pavlik's. Very informative. My experience so far supports his conclusions. The safest cloning is from external to internal. I assume it is, as you pointed out, something to do with the disk geometry.

With cloning the devil is really in the details.
thanks,
DenTP4rm

It would be cool if someone could rig up some type of ultrabay thing into an eSATA adapter. Maybe a sata hd adapter, that cable, and some epoxy?

DenTP4rm wrote:It's been my experience that if you have two drives with XP set as the boot drive and you do boot with both attached one of them will do a job on the other that basically renders it unbootable.

I have not tried the above setup myself, but yes, I have read that happens to one of the XP installations. I understand your concern. I also read somewhere that if you have two drives that each have a different Windows Product Key, then the above is not a problem. Don't quote me on that though.

GomJabbar wrote:I guess that would work, but why not just use the ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter?

OP mentioned using an 3.5" drive external... the adapter takes only 2.5"

Those extension cables work really well.

http://www.satagear.com/pc-113_SATA_PCMCIA.html

Has anyone had experience using a PCMCIA > SATA (eSATA) adapter?

I may run a second hard disk (10k rpm Raptor) for video editing.

I don't have any experiences but i would you an ExpressCard Version because it should be faster.

cu

Ychocky wrote:Has anyone had experience using a PCMCIA > SATA (eSATA) adapter?
I may run a second hard disk (10k rpm Raptor) for video editing.

I have been using an ExpressCard eSATA adapter with an eSATA housing that is really fast. I haven't done any measurement but for video editing it works fine. You can save direct to the external drive.

Following are links to the adapter and external housing I'm using:
For 3.5 inch SATA drives I recommend the IcyDock external case. You can get it off Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/MB559US-1S-Extern ... 498&sr=8-1
It has USB 2.0 connectivity but also eSATA.

This is the eSATA card http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?Sku=6290272
If you just want to add additional storage I recommend this route.

Good luck,
DenTP4rm

I have plans to mod the Ultrabay Sata Adapter with an Sata-eSata Adapter to have eSata on the outside.
PCMCI or Expresscard is no option for me because i'm using the PCMCIA Audigy.
Does any body new if this eSata Port will be hotplug able because of the Pata to Sata Converter in the Slimbay Adapter it will not be a real Sata Port.
sry for my english

cu

killigrew wrote:I have plans to mod an Ultrabay Sata Adapter with an Sata-eSata Adapter to have eSata on the outside.
PCMCI or Expresscard is no option for me because i'm using the PCMCIA Audigy.
Does any body new if this eSata Port will be hotplug able because of the Pata to Sata Converter in the Slimbay Adapter it will not be a real Sata Port.
sry for my english

cu

Killigrew,
Great idea and very important question. Let me see if I understand your query. You want to mod the Ultrabay SATA adapter so it will have an eSATA port on the outside. The idea would be to have a hot-pluggable (and un-pluggable) eSATA port without using the Expressbay port.

Since for purposes of adding/removing the CD/DVD drive and SATA adapter the Ultrabay is hot-pluggable, would the same be true of a drive attached to your modded Ultrabay?

Any takers on this one? Actually, I can't remember in using my Ultrabay SATA adapter if I ever removed it while the Thinkpad was running. I assume that is possible, or not? If it is it would stand to reason an external drive attached to an eSATA mod of the Ultrabay should work.

I checked and the cable I have would need to be modified as it's a little too thick to work. The little raised bar on the housing, which apparently serves as a grip, if sanded down should lower it enough to slide into the Ultrabay adapter connector.

Since you probably won't need power, there is another adapter cable just for the data portion. This one would work: http://www.cablegear.com/productdetails ... 003A&cats=

Since these are regular SATA cables you would need an SATA to eSATA adapter which you can get through Addonics here:
http://www.addonics.com/products/other/

I think you would need either the AASA2SAP15C or the AAESAPSA15C.

Let us hear back from you on how it goes.
DenTP4rm

yes exactly thats what i want to do.
till now i don't have an externel eSATA HDD
but i plan to buy one and if you buy the eclosure seperatly you often get a SATA -> eSATA bracket with it.
Since the T60 doesn't have firewire or eSATA build in,
this would be the only way to connect a external drive to it
and get the high transfer rates from the 7200 rpm drives.

cu

Interesting hacks