Two drive questions about X230 T Tablet

[barrywohl]

Where can I find a link on the acceptable height/thickness of drives in the SATA hard drive bay. I just ordered a couple of Seagate Momentus XT 750gb drives. These are 9.5 mm high but I think I read in this forum that 7 mm was the max in the X230T. (I have a few X201T tablets that will take the new drives.)

Where can I find a thread about purchasing an SSD drive to fit in the WWAN slot and putting the OS on that drive and booting from there. I would probably like fast boot and fast OS more than 4G connectivitiy. Is 32 gb the largest drive I can put in that slot?

Here is the drive I purchased. Seagate Momentus XT ST750LX003 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Solid State Hybrid Drive -Bare Drive

[Soul_Est]

You can most likely find the information you need in the Hardware Maintenance Manual for the X230 T.

In the future though, you should create you threads for the X230 in the ThinkPad X230 Series forum here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewforum.php?f=69. You will get the help that you need there as many in this forum may ignore threads that aren't about the X200, X201, X220, X300 or X301 Series.

[barrywohl]

Stupid me!
I was wondering why this forum was so quiet about the X230T.
I hadn't noticed that there was an X230 forum.
Somehow I thought Thinkpad X2xx included X230.
I'm headed there now to read every post.
Thank you.
Barry

[barrywohl]

Thanks to the moderator for moving my thread to this forum.

I've downloaded and read the hardware maintenance manual, but I must have missed the hard drive specs. On page 57 of the hmm it shows how to replace the drive, but I can't tell from the drawings whether the machine will accept a 9.5 mm drive like the one I just bought.

If I buy an X230T WITHOUT a wireless lan card, does it automatically come with a 32 gb mSATA card in that PCI slot? The hardware maintenance manual says so on page 73, but I didn't find that in the spec sheet. The tech spec sheet does specify HDD drives up to 500 gb 7200 rpm. Do those come in 7 mm form factors?

Thanks for reading.

Barry in Sheridan, Wyoming.

EDITED: Lenovo sales (plus a youtube video) confirm that 7 mm is the maximum hard drive height. Lenovo sales said that the 32 gb mSata drive in the PCI slot is an OPTION if you don't get the wireless wan card.

Barry

[loyukfai]

If there's a mSATA drive as the main drive, is it possible not to spin up the HDD bay drive at boot, but only when it's accessed...?

Cheers.

[Starlight5]

Delete.

[RealBlackStuff]

I assume you modded the 7mm chassis-bay to make room for 9.5mm drives?
I also assume that the first drive is an mSATA in the WWAN slot?
If 9.5mm drives now physically fit, you should be able to use any SATA drive as the second drive.

[Starlight5]

Delete

[RealBlackStuff]

Well then, after reading up a bit on the X230T, these are your drive options:
Drive 1: mSATA drive in the WWAN slot
Drive 2: a HDD or SSD in the 7mm regular drive bay
Drive 3?: NO WAY, option does not exist.

A rotating 9.5mm HDD will NOT fit in the regular drive bay (Drive 2).
You can probably remove the cover from a 9.5mm SSD to make it fit in the 7mm space.
A 9.5mm HDD won't let you remove that cover.

[dr_st]

Drive 3: Goes into the Ultrabase

It is possible to jam a 9.5mm drive into the 7mm bay if you don't use the caddy. You will need some padding to keep the drive in place. I've actually had the seller who sold my X220 to me do just that. He used some velcro. The drive seemed to feel secure and not wobble, but I wouldn't trust it long term. I have since moved that drive to my T60 and got a proper 7mm SSD with a caddy for the X220.