Which thinkpads have space for two hard drives?

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soapcase · #1 Post by **soapcase** » Sun Jan 13, 2013 8:43 pm

Hi,

Firstly, apologies if I am posting this in the wrong category.

I am wondering if anyone could tell me the various thinkpad models that come with two hard drive bays? I want to buy a new laptop and plan to have one 128gb SSD and another 320gb HDD.

Thanks so much,

Brad · #2 Post by **Brad** » Sun Jan 13, 2013 11:54 pm

Welcome to the forum!

The W700 and W701 were the recent models that offered two drive bays. These models are no longer in production so used would be your only option for this model.

New models offer a solid state drive that can fit in a slot used for a WWAN card and along with the drive in the primary bay could offer two drives. On new models with optical drives the optical drive can be removed and a second or third drive could be installed in its place. If you used both the WWAN card slot and the primary bay you could then have three drives.

Brad

LegendaryKA8 · #3 Post by **LegendaryKA8** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 2:22 am

Also, if you're willing to do without an optical drive most T, W, and R-series systems will allow you to swap out for a caddy which will hold a second hard drive. Most of these will only let you use a standard 9.5mm height drive, however.

#4 Post by **underclocker** » Tue Jan 15, 2013 2:17 pm

Brad wrote:New models offer a solid state drive that can fit in a slot used for a WWAN card and along with the drive in the primary bay could offer two drives.

So, the bottom line is, nearly all new ThinkPads. Just verify that the model supports mSATA SSDs.

FYI, mSATA SSDs are currently offered up to 512GB. And note, some mSATA slots/ThinkPad models do not support SATA III speeds, so performance may be better via an SSD connected to the standard SATA connector.

edik · #5 Post by **edik** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 5:50 pm

Why oh why did they stop the philosophy of THREE drives in the ThinkPad?

A sort of a modern A31p would be nice....

The disturbing trend of lack of innovation isn't a welcome one!

jdrou · #6 Post by **jdrou** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 7:56 pm

edik wrote:Why oh why did they stop the philosophy of THREE drives in the ThinkPad?

A sort of a modern A31p would be nice....

The disturbing trend of lack of innovation isn't a welcome one!

Another old 3-spindle is my Latitude C840 (a.k.a. Inspiron 8200/Precision M50).
The floppy drive became obsolete and users started expecting more compact systems.
Pretty much only 17" laptops offer two internal drive bays now and unfortunately Lenovo pulled out of that market.

Which thinkpads have space for two hard drives?

Which thinkpads have space for two hard drives?

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