has the 2.5" form factor changed?

[jawhitti]

I have a pair of 48GB drives from some T23s that I was all excited to use in my T42. I bought a secondary HDD adapter for theultraBay only to find that the drives in question (P/N 07N7358) are a few mm too tall to fit in the adapter. (in fact the drives are taller than the bay itself). I had the same problem with some external USB housings I bought too. Comparing these drives to some newer drives suggests yep, they're taller alright.

Did the 'stadard' size for 2.5" drives get smaller in the last few years, or were these drives just freakishly tall? I'd swear they fit in the ultrabay of a T30. (a friend bailed me out with one of those a few years ago). Or am I a moron and there is some plate I need to remove? It doesn't look that way.

Just curious...

[mysbca]

Yes, current notebook harddrives are thinner. They are 9.5mm thick.
The 48GB drives that you have are probably 12mm thick.

[hausman]

I bought a secondary HDD adapter for theultraBay only to find that the drives in question (P/N 07N7358) are a few mm too tall to fit in the adapter. (in fact the drives are taller than the bay itself). I had the same problem with some external USB housings I bought too. Comparing these drives to some newer drives suggests yep, they're taller alright.

Yup. Older 2.5" drives are 12.5mm and newer ones are 9mm. All (I've never seen any other) external enclosures accept only the 9mm drives and most eBay listings explicitly warn bidders of this fact.

FWIW, if you're handy with a Dremel tool you can cut some generic enclosures (like this one http://www.byteccusa.com/product/enclosure/ME-930U2.htm ) to accept a 12.5mm drive, then hold the thing together with tape of a fat rubber band, etc. It looks ugly but it works.

Also the older drives draw more power than the newer ones so it's unlikely they can be self-powered from USB. You'll need to use the AC adapter.

[awolfe63]

Well - actually for a long time there were 3 standard sizes. 9.5mm 12.5mm, and I believe 18.5mm.

The earlier T series would take 12.5mm or 9.5mm. drives although I'be pretty sure that at the time of the T23/Y30 only the 48GB and 60GB drives were 12.5mm - the smaller drives were 9.5mm.

The T4X machines only take 9.5mm drives. New 12.5mm drives are pretty much gone.