How to use the HDD in the W520 express bay?

[udvranto]

If I want to swap the internal HDD with an SSD and use it in place of the dvd drive, how do I do that? Do I need to buy an enclosure to host the hard drive? Where can I get one?

[udvranto]

I found the solution. It's called the ultrabay caddy available here:http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont ... u_area=yes

[freicher]

Will all SSD-s fit into the adapter?

[Q-Ball]

Any 2.5" SSD will fit that Ultrabay holder.

[davidhbrown]

I found the solution. It's called the ultrabay caddy available here...

Note that Lenovo's caddy (which I bought without thinking twice with my W520) is only about 9mm high while the space to fill in the W520 is around 12mm. Some people have complained about the appearance; others about the flexing allowed and possible wear to the connectors; others worry about the greater possibilities for introducing dust and contaminants (the interior of the ultrabay is far from solid).

I have ordered a *much* less expensive Chinese knock-off from eBay which claims to be the full 12.7mm height required to fit flush. Should show up pretty soon (shipped from New York on Monday; I'm just across Connecticut in Rhode Island); I could post some pictures of both somewhere if you care.

[KongMD]

Would you mind posting pictures after it arrives? I was also thinking of getting an ultrabay caddy.

Also, thanks for the heads-up on the size differences. I'm surprised Lenovo's "official" caddy isn't flush with the chassis!

[craigmontHunter]

It is smaller so that it fits in the smaller models (t420...) as well, to provide more flexibility, while IIRC, you can use thicker hard drives in the W520 (12.7mm, used to be the only size you could get 1tb laptop drives)

[udvranto]

There is a long discussion on the topic here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- ... r-hdd.html

The Lenovo ultra bay caddy comes for $60, has presumably better quality, but has a gap. The third party alternatives are cheap, around $25. Has more or less acceptable quality and there is no gap.

At the end people got divided into two. One group wanted quality over beauty (the ugly gap). The other group wanted the opposite.

I am leaning towards the third party alternative. Too bad that Lenovo did not think this thru. These are the cases where Apple shines.

[craigmontHunter]

yes apple shines for these situations, with a functional and good looking solution, but they seem to prefer to avoid the situation altogether by not offering any simmilar system with a current laptop system - you get a superdrive, and if you want anything else, you are SOL.

[davidhbrown]

Yup. Steve, Avi & Co. do impart a nice sense of style and quality of fit to Apple products, but if you want something they didn't think of/approve, just STFU.

Anyway, that cheapest-of-the-cheap knock-off Ultrabay HDD adapter arrived today, Wednesday, having ordered it Sunday and shipping Monday. I've posted pictures in a Picasa gallery.

I'm not disappointed with what I got for my US$12.99; nor am I overwhelmed.

[davidhbrown]

Another thought: at $13 and 71g, this adapter might be a good choice for someone who wants to just fill the space for lightweight travel, e.g., an "air bay". The DVD Multi III comes in at 162g.

[udvranto]

Well, workstation usage is why I want an W520 not an apple product.

Anyway. Although the knock off is closer to fill the gap, it's not there yet. It got gaps as well.

Which one do your recommend? BTW, thanks for uploading the pictures!

[davidhbrown]

Which one do your recommend? BTW, thanks for uploading the pictures!

You're welcome. I forgot to mention that the fit/feel of the knock-off is stiff; note it's lacking the curved spring on the side.

Recommend? Well, given that I already purchased the overpriced Lenovo caddy and have a box full of various weatherstripping material in the garage, I might try that approach as was suggested elsewhere.

If you're planning to frequently change ultrabay devices and hard drives, the solid bottom, no-tool/no-screw drive retention, and easier insertion/removal on the Lenovo caddy are advantages that may be important.

If you're planning to add a second drive pretty much full-time (RAID?), I'm not sure you'd be getting much value for the additional US$40-$50.

[udvranto]

Since I am planning to use is almost full time I am leaning towards the knock off. Where did you buy it from? I could not find the ebay page to the product. Would you mind sharing the link?

[davidhbrown]

Would you mind sharing the link?

Not at all, but I wanted to be sure it arrived and worked first: http://cgi.ebay.com/SATA-HDD-Adapter-Ca ... 45fa00b06c Should that disappear, the vendor name is ny-compu-tek

If you go to this category link for internal laptop caddies and then restrict the results by searching for "T510" you can get a nice listing of many options. I went with one that a) specified the thickness and b) was inexpensive... I don't really trust eBay. (Though this experience was positive. Paid very little; got more than that.)

(T510 used because there are lots more of 'em and searching for W520 turns up only one $45 item.)

[KongMD]

Thanks for all the help, david. I just wanted to advise anyone looking to purchase this particular item that the ebay checkout on the US site is currently experiencing "technical difficulties" (had to call customer support). They'll probably be resolved soon enough, but don't look into buying this until later tonight or tomorrow.

[Volker]

I have the same ultrabay adapter (with the black plastic at the bottom and the square hole cut out), and it doesn't work in my W520. Though others have reported success. There is a much better knock-off on ebay thats almost indistinguishable from a real one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0292067121

This one works fine for me.

[udvranto]

Volker,
Can you please post pictures of your caddy? Like the way David did earlier. It would help the community to learn more about this caddy. Thanks very much in advance!

[udvranto]

Did anyone try this?
http://cgi.ebay.com/SATA-hard-drive-Ada ... 5d2e37af62

[pkincy]

Mine is Lenovo and I certainly don't mind the gap and even better I like that it works. Some of the ebay stuff doesn't.

Go ahead and put the SSD in the main bay to do the recovery with your R&R disks but after that, try the SSD in the Ultrabay caddy with the HDD data drive back in its old spot.

I get 10+% better speed with my C300 in the ultrabay and my Hitachi (as shipped) 500 GB HDD where it started.

Both are SATA 3 but it just seems to work faster (by benchmark) in the caddy.

Perry

[udvranto]

Perry,
Both are actually SATA III 6gbps. This was confirmed by an Lenovo blog post. I don't have the link right now. However, the main bay is forced down as 3gbps for data integrity reasons. Although, some people found that recent shipments come with the 6gbps enabled. I haven't got the chance to find out what mine is yet.

[craigmontHunter]

Both the main bays are sata 6gb/s - none of the stock drives are. if you put a 6gb/s drive in either the main bay or the ultrabay, you can use the full speed. The mini sata connector is 3gb/s, but it is designed to be a high performance boot drive, with a second drive in the main bay for storage and other tasks.

http://www.lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/

[commander]

My W520 is sata3 both mainbay and ultrabay. I have SSD in ultrabay (boot) and HDD in mainbay, because the mainbay is much better isolated and the HDD is less noisy here.

[pkincy]

And my reason is because the SSD is 10% faster in the ultrabay than the main bay.

Perry

[commander]

any benchmarks? I ran AS SSD today in both locations and the Ultrabay score was 313 and the mainbay was 310. This could be easily in a tolerance.