Thinkpads Forum

So I've got myself a ThinkPad Serial Hard Drive Bay Adapter III for my T400.

It works just fine but the drive sends all the vibrations over the metal body to the table which makes this thing pretty loud and brings annoying headache.

Those of you, who have this type of adapter (or predecessors), have you tried padding the space between the drive and adapter or something similar? It's strange that I couldn't find anything about this in google.

Also, the drive keeps running constantly at the highest speed, never going to some slower (and less loud) waitstate, as I'd await. Is there some setting I'm missing?
I couldn't even find a way to turn it off manually (windows "hardware safe removal" - or what's it's name - just marks it as "preparing for safe removal" and stays that way, the drive running; disabling in Device Manager doesn't help either).

Thanks in advance!
(my head is already banging )

Czechnology wrote:the drive sends all the vibrations over the metal body....

What brand and model drive have you mounted in the Ultrabay Slim adpater?

Cheers,

Bill B.

I meant the metal body of the adapter (when compared to the rubber mount of the main disk).
The disk is WD Scorpio Black 320GB, 7200, so it was clear it will be a bit louder, I'm fine withe the noise of the disk itself (e.g. when I have the notebook on my lap) but the vibrations echoed by the table are pretty strong.

That drive is known to vibrate even in the regular SATA Hard Drive bay, so it's the drive not the SATA adapter.

Oh

Anyway, is there some way to turn it off or let it go to standby when not used? (in Windows)

For example, when I was running a Live CD, the main drive was asleep, although I was able to access it.
The Bay drive however keeps running at high speed although I'm not trying to access it at all.

Any ideas?

WD Scorpio Black 320GB is what I have been using in my T400s with Ultra bay adapter III ever since July, and it whisper quiet. As a matter of fact, this drive is very high rated because of being so quiet and reliable and it also very popular among Macbook users. Since you have T400 and not T400s, you should be using Ultra Bay adapter II, not III which is specifically designed for T400s. Otherwise, you probably have a faulty drive.

I don't think the drive is faulty, it runs pretty ok. As I said, the noise is produced mainly by the echo of the table
And according to the IBM/Lenovo site the III version of the adapter should work just fine in the T400. What is actually the difference compared to the II version? (furthermore, I was only able to find the III version in the shops in my city)

How come that you two have exactly the opposite information on this drive?

I have a Seagate Momentus 7,200 in my UltraBay. It runs fine. That said, there does seem to be some play between the side of the drive and adapter. The documentation shows some kind of rails that can be mounted on the side of the drive for a snugger fit. But neither my adapter or the drive came with them

miketoro, if you mean the picture on the adapter, I think it means only that you have to remove the rubber side parts if you take the drive from the thinkpad's main drive slot.

Czechnology wrote:miketoro, if you mean the picture on the adapter, I think it means only that you have to remove the rubber side parts if you take the drive from the thinkpad's main drive slot.

Guess I should read the words on the page, eh? Thanks for the check.

Still, though, there is definitely some play between the sides of the drive and the sides of the adapter. This could cause noise with some drives. I also worry that it knocks around when carried.

Czechnology wrote:I don't think the drive is faulty, it runs pretty ok. As I said, the noise is produced mainly by the echo of the table
And according to the IBM/Lenovo site the III version of the adapter should work just fine in the T400. What is actually the difference compared to the II version? (furthermore, I was only able to find the III version in the shops in my city)

How come that you two have exactly the opposite information on this drive?

I don't have a link to the picture, but someone has posted this before on NBR forum where the bezel of Adapter II was sticking out while plugged into T400s. So the fit can not be perfect and I would suspect such vibrations due to mechanical fitting of the adapter. Adapter I'm using fits WD Scorpio like a glove and it sits perfectly in T400s. I was told specifically when I placed an order for T400s (back in June when it was first announced to be available ) that Adapter II is for T400 and Adapter III is for T400s.

Regarding "opposite" information, the other person based his answer on what he heard or read somewhere. I'm telling you my first hand experience of using the same drive and the same adapter. If you go to Newegg website and search for this HD drive you will find that 90% of 800 reviews gave it 4 or 5 stars. That is another piece of info you can be sure about.

Yeah it seems you have the incorrect adapter for your machine. FYI, there have been reports of that particular drive having some vibration issues. I can personally attest to this. I picked one up for my MBP and the vibration was very annoying, but I've seen many reports of people having no issues. So there may just be some bum drives out there.