R61 2nd hard drive

[banhammer420k]

I ordered Part #40Y8725 so I could have a 256GB SSD and 1TB HD in my R61.
This should be compatible, right?
It's a 15" R61i, but I don't know the actual model # of it, is there anything I can do regarding getting a Ultrabay HD caddy if it turns out to be one of the unsupported models?

"Not supported on ThinkPad R61e/R61i 15.4-inch wide Machine Types: 7649, 7650, and 7657"

Thanks in advance!

[Cigarguy]

So what's your machine type? If it's not "7649, 7650, and 7657" then it should work. A link to where to bought it from would also help.

[banhammer420k]

My apologies.
That is the issue, I don't actually know the machine type, and wanted to prepare if it was one of the incompatible ones.

I just bought it a day or two ago from ajkula66 on the buy/sell forum here. I asked him for it (he may even see this) but wanted to know if it was an impossibility should it turn out to be one of the incompatible machine types.

(I only just noticed I said model # instead of machine type in my original post, sorry about that)

[Cigarguy]

There's a sticker on the bottom of the laptop with the 7 digit machine type. When you go into BIOS (hit F1 at start-up) it will also tell you the info. HWMonitor will also tell you the info. For example on my T500 HWMonitor shows "LENOVO 2055RM2" with 2055RM2 being my machine type.

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html

I think I saw that listing a while back. That's a nice machine you got there. Still very capable.

[ajkula66]

You're in for some dismantling.

The HD carrier *should* work in UltraBay but it's not swappable, meaning that you have to open up the machine, push the media drive out and install the caddy.

That's my understanding, which may be incorrect. I know one can't install a 2nd battery because there are no connectors for it, but a HD carrier should use the same connector as the media drive.

[banhammer420k]

Thank you ajkula66!
I am not scared of breaking it open
It is a 7650 though.
I'll report back if I have any success, or need to do anything crazy to make it work.

As soon I saw I could get a machine like my old T61p (which I miss very much) without a trackpad I was "sold"!

Anyway, if anyone has experience with these specific machine type ThinkPads, I would appreciate your input.

@Cigarguy - Thank you for your help but the problem was I actually don't have the machine in my hands yet

[banhammer420k]

Well, just in case anyone is curious -

It ended up being very simple. The caddy I got on eBay (same FRU as in my 1st post) fit just fine.

With the 7650, since there was no hotswap, I just needed to remove the keyboard and give it a little push in a slot meant to be able to wedge a flathead screwdriver inside.

Second hard drive is working just fine.

[banhammer420k]

I am having just 1 problem here. I occasionally got a 2102 error at boot, that the drive in the UltraBay was not initialized.
I tried setting a jumper on the drive to force it to 1.5Gbps but this did not work.
Since rebooting with a jumper in place it's been recognizing my 1TB drive as 16GB maximum.

Even in Linux I can not seem to get it to think the drive is bigger than 16GB. This is with no jumper.

Is there a way to get R61 to deal with a 3gbps SATA Hard Drive in an UltraBay Extended?

Recognized in BIOS!

[axur-delmeria]

The issue might be with the IDE to SATA bridge chip in the HDD tray not being able handle 1TB drives correctly.

[RealBlackStuff]

Good observation.
A lot of these 2nd HD caddies can only handle up to 500GB drives.
(And there are also a lot of fake caddies on eBay!)
Back when these were introduced (ca. 2006) they did not even have any 500GB disks yet.

BTW, have you installed Middleton's BIOS yet?
That supports SATA II drives, which might just make life easier...
(original BIOS only supports SATA I).

[ajkula66]

I installed Middleton's BIOS when I first put the machine together.

The Ultrabay on these (and all other *61 models) is limited to SATA I anyway, so I guess that as long as the HDD is recognized in BIOS it should work...I've had a 1TB drive in a genuine Lenovo carrier in T61p and it worked well.

[banhammer420k]

Yes, certainly Middleton BIOS.

I was able to restore the drive to its proper size of 1TB using Seagate's SeaTools (on a Toshiba drive, haha!). For whatever reason, since then I haven't run into a 2102 error once. I was suspecting the size of the drive was part of the issue, though.

I got a "workaround" (I know, I hate that word too) by mashing F12 at bootup to get to the Boot Devices List. Otherwise it would hang at the boot screen while the activity light on the HD caddy stayed on.

However, I haven't run into any more of the 2102 errors. That said, I'll probably move the 1TB into a different machine and leave a 320GB in here and see if that helps with the hang at boot issue.