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Can W520 use a 4TB HDD internally? (i.e. Samsung 870 EVO)

W500/W510/W520 and W700/W701 Series
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Arf the Lab
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Can W520 use a 4TB HDD internally? (i.e. Samsung 870 EVO)

#1 Post by Arf the Lab » Thu May 29, 2025 7:37 pm

Hello, all.

Say, could someone tell me if the W520 can use a 4TB HDD such as the Samsung 870 EVO, either as its primary HDD or via the Ultrabay caddy?

Thanks in advance.

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Re: Can W520 use a 4TB HDD internally? (i.e. Samsung 870 EVO)

#2 Post by TPFanatic » Thu May 29, 2025 8:48 pm

only thing i can think of is a possible incompatibility if using MBR, which uses 32 bit addressing and just cannot recognize storage capacities above 2TB. the drive would have to be formatted in GPT to use more than 2TB anyway.

the W520 supports UEFI boot (it's of the first ThinkPad generation to) so in theory it can even boot an OS from that drive when the drive is partitioned as GPT.

as a storage drive (not boot) I see no reason why the OS could not recognize and do anything with it as it would any other GPT-formatted drive.
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jacqylfrost
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Re: Can W520 use a 4TB HDD internally? (i.e. Samsung 870 EVO)

#3 Post by jacqylfrost » Fri Aug 29, 2025 8:35 pm

Arf the Lab wrote:
Thu May 29, 2025 7:37 pm
Hello, all.

Say, could someone tell me if the W520 can use a 4TB HDD such as the Samsung 870 EVO, either as its primary HDD or via the Ultrabay caddy?

Thanks in advance.
Big consideration is drive height, a lot of 2+ tb drives run pretty thick, and one may or may not have clearance in the internal bay or ultrabay (not sure if they are different)

The drive should work if it fits though.
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R40 (Light Retro Gaming, I wanted something with a 4:3 screen!)
Inevitably more to come.

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