t61p and advanced dock

[jimlenz]

I made my purchase today and can't wait until it is delivered. I ordered the advanced dock since my t43p dock would not work. It says the dock has an expansion bay for an additional lenovo hard drive? Does anyone use the dock and added an additional hard drive? I was thinking of adding the 7k200 drive? Is this possible or do I have to purchase a hard drive from Lenovo?

Thanks

Jim

[RonS]

Yes - you can put a 2.5" hard drive right inside the dock, in the dock's slim bay. You need to get a slim bay hard drive adapter to "hold" the drive in the bay. They come in ATA and SATA flavors.

[foodle]

If you add a drive not purchased from Lenovo into the ultrabay using the adapter, remember that you will need the harddrive caddy (thin aluminimum/plastic harddrive holder) for it to fit securely in the adapter. Drives from Lenovo come with the caddy. You don't need the caddy for things to function, but I wasn't comfortable with the bottom of the harddrive controller board sitting against the aluminum plate of the adapter.

People have hacked up various simple substitutes for this. Or you can take a pair of tin snips to a T40 harddrive caddy like I did .

[jimlenz]

Is there anywhere that you can purchase one of these caddies? IF I am swapping the 7k2000 for my 100 gb inside the computer now, will that have the caddy?

Jim

[RonS]

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 61161.html
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... yle=lenovo

OR

http://cgi.ebay.com/40Y8725-Lenovo-Thin ... dZViewItem

Remember that if you have a SATA drive, you need SATA. For PATA, get PATA. Either will work interchangably in your Ultrabay.

[furrycute]

I have the SATA adapter. Right now I am using a 120GB hard drive in conjunction with my 160GB primary. It's super neat. 2 hard drives in a 15" notebook!

[pae77]

There is no need for a hard drive caddy for the second hard drive. I have never used a hard drive caddy with hard drives in the second hard drive adapter. They work just fine without them. There is a little plastic bar in the back end of the hard drive adapter that swivels and locks the hard drive securely into place without any caddy.

[RonS]

There is no need for a hard drive caddy for the second hard drive. I have never used a hard drive caddy with hard drives in the second hard drive adapter. They work just fine without them. There is a little plastic bar in the back end of the hard drive adapter that swivels and locks the hard drive securely into place without any caddy.

The caddy IS the hard drive adapter. The terms are used interchangably.

[foodle]

The caddy IS the hard drive adapter. The terms are used interchangably.

I don't think the terms are interchangeable. The "adapter" that I'm refering to is the piece that changes the form factor and connections of a SATA (or whichever) drive to fit in the ultrabay slim. The "caddy" I'm referring to is the piece of thin aluminum/plastic that is screwed on to the harddrive that insulates the bottom of the harddrive and allows it to fit securely in the "adapter." I may be mis-using the terms here, but I needed both pieces to fit my 2.5" SATA drive into the ultrabay slim slot of my T60p.

Adapter --> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834995069
Caddy --> http://newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?mai ... ucts_id=36

As others have mentioned, you don't HAVE to have the caddy, and the drives seem to work fine. However if you want a more secure fit, or you're paranoid about the bottom of the drive resting on a conductive surface, you can buy/make a caddy. You can purchase the caddies either on ebay or from some retailers (for $28, ouch). Even if you don't use a caddy, I would suggest screwing in the side screws of the drive as they fit underneath some tabs in the adapter and will help hold the drive in place if the adapter is ever inverted.