Thinkpads Forum

I'm using my X61 (12") to run Pro-Tools so I can do audio editing and mixing on the go. The program needs two hard drives (although I can work, barely off of one alone).

Any of you using two hard drives in your T6x? Does the battery run down twice as fast? Do you notice great performance with both?

I can run two with my X61 if I carry the ultrabay, but then the machine becomes to blucky and a huge pain to carry. On top of that, the battery runs down QUICK!

How heavy is the T6x? Just sitting here thinking. Since, all I have is my PCI Slot on my X6 and an SD slot, I have no choice but to use two hard drives, because the PCMCIA and SD buses are SLOWWWWWW.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

I'm actually thinking of doing the same thing with my T61 since I have an extra slim bay thingy and a couple of extra hard drives from my T42P (160gb and 250gb). Only thing is though my battery is the cheapy 4 cell one.

Well, I do video editing on a T61 with a second 5400 rpm PATA drive in the ultrabay. I can't say that my 4-cell battery runs down a lot faster. I'm sure it cuts the run time down some, but not so that I would really really notice it.

Do I have this mixed up?

On the T61P the stqandard internal drive is SATA,
but the Ultrabay drive adapters are only PATA?

Or are the ultrabay adapters available both ways? I'd like the option of being able to put a second drive in the ultrabay, prep it and clone the internal drive to it, and then swap them out. (Using the new drive as the internal primary, and the original drive as a backup/storage location.)

For that matter I'd like to use a WD Scorpio series, their 320GB drives are very competitve and have antishock abilities in them--but no one at WD knows how or if that would interface with a Lenovo. Anyone been there before either?

Both of these work in a T6x:
SATA http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont ... de=40Y8725
and PATA http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont ... de=41U3148

hellosailor wrote:> . . . I'd like the option of being able to put a second drive in the ultrabay, prep it and clone the internal drive to it, and then swap them out. (Using the new drive as the internal primary, and the original drive as a backup/storage location.)

That's exactly what I did. Am now using the original 100GB drive my machine shipped with in the ultrabay mostly for storing large video files. Works great.

I have a 320GB main and 200GB secondary (SATA) in the drive bay. This works sweetly. I primarily use the system for photography related stuff. I have this setup to improve Photoshop performance and to be able to save my images to two physical devices while downloading from the memory cards. I mostly use the system while it is plugged in by leveraging a iGo power adapter (with US, European and air/auto plugs).

Here is the storage section of the PC Doctor report...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Disk
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hitachi HTS722020K9SA00 ATA Device
Model Number Hitachi HTS722020K9SA00
Serial Number xxxxxx
Firmware Revision DC4OC54P
Total Capacity 186.31 GB
Buffer Size 14.85 MB
Temperature 35 C
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\disk.sys
Driver Version 6.0.6001.18000, 6-21-2006

WDC WD3200BEVT-11ZCT0
Model Number WDC WD3200BEVT-11ZCT0
Serial Number xxxxxx
Firmware Revision 11.01A11
Total Capacity 298.09 GB
Buffer Size 8.00 MB
Temperature 36 C
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\disk.sys
Driver Version 6.0.6001.18000, 6-21-2006

BayHDD - D:
Drive Letter D
Volume Name BayHDD
Volume Serial Number xxxx-xxxx
File System NTFS
Volume Capacity 186.31 GB
Volume Free Space 103.63 GB
Volume Used Space 82.68 GB

T60 - C:
Drive Letter C
Volume Name T60
Volume Serial Number xxxx-xxxx
File System NTFS
Volume Capacity 288.48 GB
Volume Free Space 127.47 GB
Volume Used Space 161.01 GB

I put the old (EIDE) drive from my retired T42p into an UltraSlimBay adapter and carry it all the time. It's not that heavy, and it doesn't really affect battery life at all if I don't use it because the drive doesn't spin up until you access it. Works great, no problems.

I do use second hard drive for all data/work/projects storage, so in case the laptop's primary drive (or laptop itself) will die no work will be lost.

The 9-cell runs out after about 2 - 2.5 hours - and that's year and half old battery. Depending on the tasks of course...

I also use two drives and the battery runs down noticeably faster for me. When accessing both drives constantly (bittorrent )the battery runs down significantly faster. (Significantly faster = 2 hours or so with a new 6-cell battery on T60. Spec in my sig.)

(I've posted about this before, but a drive caddy is highly recommended if you leave the Ultrabay drive in permanently. Pic in my blog.)

I just put a Samsung 320gb 5400 rpm drive ($100 at newegg) into the SATA ultra slimbay adapter in my T61 and it works great. It's plugged into AC so I don't know the effect on battery life, but it is quiet and throughput is good. It does spin down when not in use for a while, I think, so there is a startup delay accessing it after a spindown. I haven't yet tried playing with the laptop's power control settings to adjust this.

mwave.com now has the Samsung 500gb drive for $200 so if I were doing it again I'd buy one of those. I might do it anyway.

I plan o getting a 7K320 to use only one primary drive, I have tons of files on my Ultrabay 7K100 PATA drive case originally from my T42p. I guess old 7200 rpm drives suck more power. Will benchmark later battery life with/without 2nd HDD.