T61 Ultraslim SATA bay/caddy questions.

[n1hilist]

Hi guys.

I've searched and read quite a number of the threads here regarding SATA Ultraslim bays for the T61 but I can't quite make out exactly what I"ll need. Sorry for the dupe

I'm urgently looking for an Ultraslim bay, I can't seem to source any in my country so I'm resorting to eBay.

Are the third party ones worth getting? If so can someone suggest which ones I should be looking at or avoiding? If there's a cheap official Lenovo one I'd be willing to pay but all the original ones I've found cost a lot and shipping will just inflate the cost even more

Also, do I need the rubber tails / caddy for the Ultraslim adapter? Some folks on the internet said you don't for the Ultraslim bays, but you do for the larger bays? If I do need the caddy, where could I get one cheaply?

I've already asked on Notebook Review's forums, but I'd like more opinions before I fork out money.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Jus to clear up, the 'caddy' is the drive rail/rubber pads, right? May have the wording wrong :\

[EOMtp]

You need one of the following:
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=%28Len ... m270.l1313

plus one of the following:
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=%28IBM ... m270.l1313

Note: You do NOT need the rubber rails for the UltraBay adapter. You need the rubber rails only if you intend to place the drive in the primary bay of the Thinkpad.

[n1hilist]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sata-2nd-HDD-Caddy- ... 335c7c194b

Does that one seem okay? I'm a little shy about how reliable these third party ones are.

[richk]

I use them all the time

[Ralf Hutter]

plus one of the following:
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=%28IBM ... m270.l1313

?

You don't need (nor will the drive even fit into the UltraSlim bay adapter with it attached) one of those caddies to install a notebook HDD into the UltraSlim Bay adapter. Just the bare drive with 4 screws attached to it (to fit under the retention "nubs" in the adapter.

[Ralf Hutter]

I use them all the time

Yes, me too, in both T4x and T60s. The knock-offs that I have work just as well as the Genuine IBM versions. There are no issues with either fit or function.

[n1hilist]

Thanks for the tips guys.

My 500GB 7200.4 Seagate arrived this afternoon, busy imaging it from my 320GB, when the Ultrabay adapter arrives I'll have the 320GB in there. Will report back with my results.

[yak]

"UltraslimBay" was in ThinkPad 600. What you're talking about here is "UltraBay Slim".

Just to clarify the terms.

[n1hilist]

"UltraslimBay" was in ThinkPad 600. What you're talking about here is "UltraBay Slim".

Just to clarify the terms.

Pedantic biaatch!

Okay well my Ultrabay Slim adapter arrived today, a very slight lil dent/kink in the base of the metal (who cares). Slotted out the DVD-RW and slapped in the HDD and plugged her in.

Didn't work at first, errors in my syslog, rebooted the PC and it's okay now, works very nicely. AFAIK in Linux I need to mod something or use a script to tell the controller for hot swapping. I found some stuff on Google I'm going to try, but a reboot sorted me out proper.

Speed tests using hdparm:

Code: Select all

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   2218 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1109.08 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  200 MB in  3.02 seconds =  66.21 MB/sec

/dev/sdb:
 Timing cached reads:   2252 MB in  2.00 seconds = 1126.56 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  306 MB in  3.01 seconds = 101.54 MB/sec

/dev/sdb is the 7200rpm 500GB I just bought,
/dev/sda being my older 5400rpm 320GB Seagate.

The chassis is a little flimsy, the plastic buffer/spacer that's to keep the HDD snug is very cheap, feels like it's gonna break. But otherwise it's relatively well made. It fits very snugly without wobbling inside the laptop, that's all that matters really.

Thanks for all the help guys.