Thinkpads Forum

I have a T410 with linux mint (based on Ubuntu) running on it. I recently upgraded the i5 to an i7. It had been running fine just like that for a few weeks. More recently, I upgraded the OS to a couple versions newer of the same linux mint. I think I went from 14.x to 18.x.

After a reboot, I had some OS issues, which I have solved, but the system is not seeing my ultrabay HD, nor is it seeing my eSata drive. both drives work on another t410 with Win10 installed.

Also, the boot process is extremely slow. The lenovo splash screen is shown for upwards of 60 seconds. Pressing F12 to get to the boot menu also takes minutes. I haven't done any performance tests on the system while it is running, so I can't say if it's always a slug, or only during pre-OS boot.

Anyway... my main question is about the eSata and ultrabay. Is there anything in common there? What should I be looking at to get the drives running properly again?

Thanks everybody!

Last time I had extra-long and weird boot process was when I accidentally connected a dead HDD to my desktop. To make myself clear - I'd have a perfectly good bootable USB stick connected or I would have a perfectly good bootable SSD connected; I probably also had 1-2 working HDD-s but on top of that I accidentally connected one dead or dying or otherwise broken HDD. This messed my boot process entirely. Starting to boot was taking ages - like it is for you - and then I would end up booting not from the device I expected. Seems BIOS was utterly confused. Disconnected that HDD and all went back to normal.

Interesting.

I'll double-check the ultrabay drive. Easy enough to pop it out and boot. It's a storage drive, no OS on it.

Well, problem #2 solved! Thanks atagunov!

The Intel SSD in my ultrabay slot has bit the dust. Without it installed, everything boots as normal. Checked it in my windows10 t410 and same problem there.

Now on to problem #1!

Any suggestions on getting the esata drive to work? I was hoping it was a bios or hardware thing, but maybe it's an ubuntu issue.

When I plug the esata cable into the esata port on the win10 t410, everything works as expected. On the ubuntu t410, nothing happens.

This is a powered external enclosure with an esata connection.

Are you connecting the esata to both machines in the exact same manner with the same enclosure / cables, etc?

How old was that SSD and how extensively was it used?

Yeah, same esata on both machines. It's plugged into a wall-wart power supply. I'm unplugging the one (and only) esata cable I have from one machine and putting it into the other machine. Nothing else is getting moved or disconnected. Works in the W10 T410, but not the Linux T410.

The SSD is pretty old I think? I think it came in my W530 as the main drive. I bought that machine in....2016. It was used/refurbished, so hard to say how new the drive was at the time. My understanding is that it has a 5 year warranty on the drive (intel SSD 520 series)

I'm fine with the SSD being kaputz, but I'd really like to use this esata to back up the files on my OS drive so I can do a clean install and get rid of all the W7 stuff that is lingering on various partitions.

Well, is appears that you are changing only one item, the computer it is plugged into and that suggests the esata port on the T410 is bad. Are there any BIOS level or thinkvantage diags that you can run on it?

One other thing to check:
Have you tried swapping the OS drives on these two T410s and seeing if the problem stays with the machine or travels with the OS?

I'm not familiar with TW 410/510. They came with an esata port? the T500s didn't I have a T530 and W530 and they each have a blank in a pop-out slot that looks about the size of a half pack of virginia slims. It's on the right side at the front. Is that the esata port?

chromatest wrote: ↑

Fri May 29, 2020 11:15 am

Works in the W10 T410, but not the Linux T410

Probably put Linux machine's SSD into the Windows machine and see what happens?

I'm less sure if it's a good idea to put Windows machine's SSD into the Linux machine, will Windows get upset that it's running on a different machine and require activation?.. Otherwise swapping the boot drives and checking seems like a reasonable thing to do..

I've swapped the OS drives and the problem of the eSata port not working stays with the hardware. I was able to backup all of the files from the linux OS drive to the eSata drive.

I'll have to reopen the "linux" T410 and see if a connector is loose, though I'm thinking that the eSata port is direct on the mobo.