Trouble trying to add a 2nd hard drive my T41p

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sharpie · #1 Post by **sharpie** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 10:04 pm

I bought the 2nd hard drive bay tray thingie and after talking to an IBM rep who told me that I could use any standard EIDI ATA laptop drive, I purchased a 2nd Hitachi 60GB drive (from a 3rd party reseller) to have a total of 120 (both running at 7200rpm)..

Well imagine my surprise after finding that the Hitachi did not fit the IBM 2nd HD bay tray.

What am I to do? Is there a 7200rpm drive that fits this bay that is bigger than the smaller 40GB drive?

Humpa · #2 Post by **Humpa** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 11:11 pm

Here is a thread on the 2.5" hdd form factor:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=3617

The Hitachi Travelstar 60Gig 7200rpm (7k60) is the largest 9.5mm 7200rpm laptop hdd at the moment. I think Toshiba or someone else might make one now too.
There is also a 80Gig 5400rpm (5k80) Travelstar, which is quite popular.
You can get either one for under $200 new with warranty (ie, zipzoomfly.com or newegg.com).
You can find tons of posts on those drives if you want.
Seagate is coming out with a 100Gig 9.5mm hdd, but I hear they have a bad reputation in the laptop hdd community.

sharpie · #3 Post by **sharpie** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 11:32 pm

Thanks but I think you misunderstood me. I have the Travelstar 60Gb, and it fits sizewise, but the male pins don't fit the female connector on the IBM Ultrabay holder, there are more pins than the ultrabay takes.

So, how do I properly connect the drive to the bay? They don't seem to connect. Am I missing something?

Humpa · #4 Post by **Humpa** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 11:45 pm

sharpie wrote:Thanks but I think you misunderstood me. I have the Travelstar 60Gb, and it fits sizewise, but the male pins don't fit the female connector on the IBM Ultrabay holder, there are more pins than the ultrabay takes.

So, how do I properly connect the drive to the bay? They don't seem to connect. Am I missing something?

Ahhh ...

I have not read about/experienced that.

MadeInJapan · #5 Post by **MadeInJapan** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 12:15 am

This is very very strange...whether 30, 40 or 60GB, the number of pins are suppose to be the same. You sure you don't have your HDD in upside down or something. That, or whoever you purchased the adapter from sent you a defective one. How many pins are on your HDD and how many holes for it in the adapter? There will be a place in the middle of your pins where a pin is missing, but this is normal.

I did think of something else. There is a space and 4 pins (2 on top and 2 on the bottom) which is used for jumper pins of you want to set your HDD as a slave drive, such as in a desktop computer. If that is what you're talking about...it's possible that the adapter you bought doesn't have the female connectors for the jumber pin area. If that's the case, then slide the HDD over so that the other 40pins or so are aligned with the correct holes. Another issue could be the HDD cady that youre HDD is in. I had a 600E HDD caddy that didn't work in the UltraSlimBay2000 adapter and had to get a T series HDD caddy for it to fit properly.

Anyway, good luck and let us know how you get along with this problem.

johniii · #6 Post by **johniii** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 2:35 am

I use the same combo, and it works fine. MadeInJapan is correct, the 4 drive select pins are not used.

The drive goes in to the 2nd hard drive adapter circuit card side down, so if you do not have a second caddy to put on the drive (the insulated shell that IBM puts on its drives), add some type of insulation (I use a sheet of plastic) in the bottom of the adapter to keep from shorting out the circuit card pins.

sharpie · #7 Post by **sharpie** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 7:30 am

Well it sounds like I got confused by the extra pins..

But now I am scared by the last post that talks about shorting something out. I don't know about that, I never put it fully in, or turned the PC on, and its still possible I shorted the drive? AGH! That would really piss me off. The only warning on the drive was not to touch this little round pad about the size of the penny because it would short the drive, but that was on the top from what i can tell (face up)..

MadeInJapan · #8 Post by **MadeInJapan** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 10:42 am

Don't use plastic and don't be scared. I've never screwed up a hard drive using the adapter, whether with the HDD caddy or not. If you have an antistatic mylar bag...or wrap...like what hard drives, mother boards, etc. come in, then cut a piece to fit under the Hard drive in the adapter. Mylar looks like plastic but it's got a dark tint to it and it's not. PLASTIC tends to conduct static electricity, so avoid that. If you absolutely have nothing, then fold a piece of notebook or printer paper to the size of the adapter hole and use it under the hard drive.

If there's a will, there's a way!

Trouble trying to add a 2nd hard drive my T41p

Trouble trying to add a 2nd hard drive my T41p

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