Thinkpads Forum

I've recently picked p a T410 and am a bit lost on what Ultrabay HDD caddy will work in it. I've read in some places that the ones from the T400 will work and in others that it wont.

Are these caddys third party only or does Lenovo make them also? Does anyone have a reccomendation on where to buy one and or what part number?

Thanks - James

Can't say if any other adapters work, but in my T410 I've got the ThinkPad Serial Hard Drive Bay Adapter III, Lenovo Part #43N3412.

sqldba wrote:Can't say if any other adapters work, but in my T410 I've got the ThinkPad Serial Hard Drive Bay Adapter III, Lenovo Part #43N3412.

Excellent, thanks for the info!

- james

Did anyone succeed on booting from the T410 ultrabay?

I have done it on a T400 which is very similar.

I had a lot of difficulty getting a caddy tho. A lot of firms wont ship to the UK ! From Lenovo here it would be £60 which seemed a lot when they were £20-30 in the US. Eventually I plucked up courage and bought one from China which I was very cautious of because it was so cheap.

It arrived in 7 days and fits perfectly and works perfectly so I am really happy. It cost me $9.98 and an extra $2..00 for express posting but you wouldn't know that it wasnt a genuine part ! It is shepd to match and has a blue light to indicate use. They make them for all models and if you arent sure then the guy there can tell you which model you need... I dont know if I'm allowed to do this (sorry admin but I'm new) on UK ebay they are parts-wholeseller. just I spent ages searching and if it helps someone else ))

cheers

ohhh its hot swappable and far faster than a usb caddy and you can boot os off it too..

mkoch wrote:Did anyone succeed on booting from the T410 ultrabay?

Yes, I had booted from a T410 Ultrabay drive in my previous Thinkpad.

Lenovo T400 adapters will not work in T410/T510/W510 machines. Aftermarket units may or not work.

I have an el-cheapo aftermarket adapter from ebay, and I have successfully used it in the following models:
T400
R400
T410
T410s

The one I got does not help out at all with vibration, and my original 7200rpm Hitachi drive rattles and shakes the whole computer when it spins up. Here is the seller I got mine from: http://stores.ebay.com/ny-compu-tek

Using the link from the forum sponsor above, appears to be a nicer quality 3rd party adapter. I'm not positive, as I never tried it.

I've tried the IBM / Lenovo official adapter (IBM in an R40, Lenovo in a T410) and the newmodeus in my current T420. I'd say they are basically the same quality wise and I like the carrying case the newmodeus comes with.

sorry to be awkward but I believe my specific T400 caddy will work in a T410 but it is slimmer so it leaves a gap at the top of the ultrabay entrance. There isnt a plastic lug at the back of the caddy either so it would fit a T410 without modification.

However, the supplier I used (and I am sure others) provide one specifically for a T410 and most other models which fits without a gap and looks the same as a Lenovo provided unit. It doesn't have the plastic lug at the back of the caddy either.

Of course if it didnt fit or work then you would contact ebay and arrange a refund.

I have not experienced any vibration problems and I have monitored internal temperatures and it doesnt cause any increase. APS protects it the same as the internal hdd too.

Recently bought an ultrabay caddy for my T410, also from parts-wholeseller on eBay UK (I've no relationship to the seller, just a customer). Ships from Singapore, £7 with free shipping, though I chose to pay £1.60 extra for tracking. Took just over two weeks to arrive to UK, for some reason tracking showed it taking a week to get out of Singapore.

Working perfectly in my T410, put in Crucial m4 SSD (9.5 mm, normal 2.5'' disk size) that I'd used as a boot drive via eSATA port, booted off drive in ultrabay caddy no problem. So both the eSATA (plus USB to power) or ultrabay are full SATA disks in BIOS and you can see & select them in BIOS / BIOS boot menu and boot off them and get full SATA 3 Gb/s speeds (hdparm benchmark at 260 MB/s on Crucial m4). This ultrabay caddy fits flush to the T410, fit around, gaps & wobble are actually better than the original Lenovo DVD drive it replaces. There's a blue activity LED that flashes when disk is in use, the laptop's main HDD LED also flashes to match.