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X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

X200/X201/X220 (including equivalent tablet models) and X300/X301 Series
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Quiet1
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Location: York, Pa

Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#31 Post by Quiet1 » Sun Mar 11, 2012 1:44 pm

Just wanted to provide some feedback. Based on this thread, I purchased the caddy from here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2nd-SSD-hard- ... 956wt_1344 and the Micro SATA 1.8" to 2.5" adapter from here http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-1-8-In ... B004HPDDG2. I also bought the Intel 320 160GB drive, I originally wanted the Crucial 300 but the 1.8 version is no longer available. I am using the Intel as my main drive running Suse 12.1 and using the original Samsung SSD 120 GB drive that came with the X301 in the caddy. I did not have to make any changes to the configuration of the Windows XP installation (Working in AHCI mode). Both drives come up without any issues by hitting F12 on boot and selecting the appropriate drive (OS) I want to be in. My next step is to be able to run VirtualBox in Suse and access the Windows SSD in RAW mode.

Thanks for all the info guys.

--
Mark

cb474
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#32 Post by cb474 » Mon Apr 16, 2012 12:47 am

nando4 wrote:X301 schematic confirms Lenovo added a sata-to-pata bridge for the X301's optical drive.
1) I'm confused. That link shows three schematics for three different X301 motherboards. Only one of them (the last one) shows a SATA to IDE bridge for an Opitcal drive. The other two show an show a PCIE connection to an Express card slot. What's going on with that?

2) In any case, assuming the optical bay is a PATA connection, what is the speed of that connection? I'm wondering if it would be worth getting one of Hitachi's newer 7mm 7200 rpm drives, the Z7K500, which has a maximum transfer rate of 171 MB/s, but I can't find any benchmarks for it's random read/write peformance? Or is it going to exceed the PATA connection anyway? In which case, the 7mm 5400 rpm Z5K500, with a maximum transfer rate of 136 MB/s and 20-50 MB/s random read/write transfer rates will be just as good?

In other words, at what point is the PATA connection going to be the bottle neck and the drive won't matter?

(One advantage of the 5400 RPM drive is a .55W low power idle vs. .8W for the 7200RPM drive.)

warp-drive
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#33 Post by warp-drive » Wed Oct 31, 2012 10:05 am

TXFI wrote:Thanks for everyone posting to this thread, I've been wanting a second hard drive for my X301 for quite some time now.

Based on what you guys said, I ordered this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0914686538 and this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822145530.

I got those yesterday and installed them but in my case Windows 7 32-bit didn't boot with the caddy + hard drive in the UltraBay until I changed to IDE mode. Windows startup repair (press F8 at boot) wasn't able to fix the change from AHCI to IDE for some reason so I had to do it manually. Some/all of these steps may/may not apply to you, depending on your setup.

1) Turned on the laptop without the caddy in the UltraBay
2) enabled IDE in Windows Registry by setting the value for "Start" to "0" in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Pciide
3) rebooted and changed the BIOS setting for SATA from AHCI to Compatibility
4) rebooted and let Windows install the "new" IDE hard drive (=my Toshiba 128 GB SSD)
5) Shut down the laptop, inserted the caddy + drive in UltraBay and rebooted to Windows
6) Windows detected and installed the drive. Rebooted once more just for fun.

Depending on your current setup the caddy might work just fine without any of those steps. I guess my problem was the lack of IDE devices/drivers (I always used the travel cover in the UltraBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0521459188) and hence the IDE drivers were not enabled. I tried re-enabling AHCI after step #6 but Windows didn't boot again, even with AHCI enabled in Registry, so I guess I have to run my 128 GB Toshiba SSD in Compatibility/IDE mode from now on.

The seller Nimitz shipped the caddy promptly and it arrived from China to Seattle, WA in only nine days, despite the New Year holidays in between. He also answered my question in under 24 hours. The product itself appears to be of high quality and fits well in the slot. As of writing this I've had it running only a couple of hours but it seems to work fine and writing dummy random data to it with TrueCrypt shows a consistent 70 MB/s write speed to my non-SSD hard drive.

I highly recommend using the bottom screw to hold the caddy in place. Happy 2012 to everyone.
Thanks, TXFI! I recently got my hands on an x301 in great condition with a 64GB SSD and wanted to add a larger HDD in the Ultrabay. I bought a caddy similar to the one mentioned here and installed a 500GB Toshiba HDD, but the Thinkpad wouldn't recognize it. I edited the registry and changed the BIOS setting according to your post, and now it works perfectly. Thank you!

Pr0metheus
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#34 Post by Pr0metheus » Tue Dec 11, 2012 2:33 pm

warp-drive, can you post some HDD benchmarks in Compatibility/IDE mode? Thanks.

u751920
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#35 Post by u751920 » Fri Dec 28, 2012 8:03 pm

Does anybody know the model of the largest capacity 7mm drive?
X301 SU9600 1.6Ghz 256SSD 8Gb RAM WWAN&GPS BT Windows 7 Pro 64bit Batteries 6 Cell & Bay

Pr0metheus
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#36 Post by Pr0metheus » Sat Dec 29, 2012 3:22 am

HDD 2,5'' 500GB Seagate Mom.Thin 5400 SATA 16MB 2R
Model Nr: ST500LT012


Edit 17.1.2014:
Do NOT BUY this (Seagate) drive for Lenovo X301 !!! This drive does not work properly.

Buy HDD 2,5'' 500GB Western Digital WD5000LPVX instead, works 100%!!!
Last edited by Pr0metheus on Fri Jan 17, 2014 4:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Pr0metheus
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#37 Post by Pr0metheus » Fri Jan 11, 2013 4:22 pm

Installed 500GB Seagate Momentus Thin ST500LT012 (does not work properly - freezing!) with Hard drive SSD Caddy Tray for IBM ThinkPad X300 X301 S70 bought on eBay for US $26.99.

If you want to use your DVD drive as an external USB drive, buy this:
Black USB 2.0 External Enclosure Caddy Case for Panasonic UJ-844 on eBay for US $13.99.

Edit: 500GB Western Digital WD5000LPVX
Last edited by Pr0metheus on Fri Jan 17, 2014 4:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

piledriver
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#38 Post by piledriver » Sat Feb 02, 2013 1:21 am

(RE: PATA bridge, same on X300/X301)
For my X300, I picked up a similar>same adapter off Ebay, $26 (Looked Lenovo branded, not sure if real or faux Lenovo, but it works perfectly), and a $32 zero hour "pull" 320GB momentus thin. (can recommend sellers if you like)

Win8 benches and boots about as fast off the HDD as it does off the original SSD, but with a newer model SSD and a SATA2 enabled BIOS things may very well be different. The PATA bridge does not appear to be a bottleneck ATM.

Boots to desktop in 10-12 seconds including finger swipe login.
(still loading stuff in the background but desktop is usable)

(I (IIRC) have SATA2 enabled + WL bios, but it made ~no detectable difference on the 4+ year old 1st gen SSD)

It came with a dead bay battery, so I picked up an external DL DVD writer for a netbook for $20. Comes in a sturdy little box that keeps the cables together and packs away nice.
(does anyone rebuild those bay batteries? rebuildable?)

All told (new fan,+2G RAM, the drive+adapter+USB DVD + Win8--- which is ~like installing a blower on old hardware despite its initial issues like ...Metro) it may be about the best ~$200 investment I have made. The little thing seems much faster than the specs would indicate, and generally runs circles around the x200T with significantly faster processor and DDR3 RAM.
(but the X200T has a ~4 year old HDD)
X300---My first Thinkpad and still my favorite. various Linux and Win11 (seriously)
X200-201--"Krunchy" Tablet/Ultrabase, Win10 Pro + Linux+Android-x86
X260, 32GB ram and 2TB p41 NVME SSD. runs Win11 in hardware or Virtualbox just fine.
My Year of Linux on the Desktop was 1993.

piledriver
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#39 Post by piledriver » Fri Feb 08, 2013 6:56 pm

FWIW I ran a quick benchmark for random reads on the stock SSD in the x300, the new Momentus thin also in the X300 (media bay), and the 160G WD blue that came with my X200 to figure out why the X200 seems filled with molasses.

"benchmark" was only random reads using Defraggler, YMMV.

Original 64M X300 SSD: 34.79 MB/S
Momentus thin 320G (2012) 32.23 MB/S
Original WD blue circa ~2009: 2MB/S

I see either a Samsung 128G 840 SSD or a Momentus XT 750G in the X200s immediate future.
(EDIT--750GB XT now installed, gets ~24 MB/sec, surprisingly slower than the std Momentus thin in the X300... Need to double check the BIOS and see if SATA2 is really enabled, it is on the X300)

Looking for a good/cheap/fast msata SSD that could migrate to either machine in an adapter.

Curious--- Are any of the minicard slots on the X300/X301 or X300 msata capable?
X300---My first Thinkpad and still my favorite. various Linux and Win11 (seriously)
X200-201--"Krunchy" Tablet/Ultrabase, Win10 Pro + Linux+Android-x86
X260, 32GB ram and 2TB p41 NVME SSD. runs Win11 in hardware or Virtualbox just fine.
My Year of Linux on the Desktop was 1993.

agy100
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Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2014 2:15 pm
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland

Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#40 Post by agy100 » Fri Jan 17, 2014 2:43 pm

Hi everyne,

This thread is very useful, esp the procedure from TXFI:

1) Turned on the laptop without the caddy in the UltraBay
2) enabled IDE in Windows Registry by setting the value for "Start" to "0" in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Pciide
3) rebooted and changed the BIOS setting for SATA from AHCI to Compatibility
4) rebooted and let Windows install the "new" IDE hard drive (=my Toshiba 128 GB SSD)
5) Shut down the laptop, inserted the caddy + drive in UltraBay and rebooted to Windows
6) Windows detected and installed the drive. Rebooted once more just for fun.

Thank you, TXFI!

I have duo-boot setup on my 128GB SSD,with widows XP and Win 7. The above procedure has worked for me to get Win 7 running nicely, but I still cannot boot up XP with the BIOS SATA in "Compatibility" mode, even with my 2nd caddy removed.

I suspect that I need to install an IDE controller driver for XP - is there such a thing? The only thing I can find is the "Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver" (http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloa ... MIGR-70477), but this seems to install the "SATA AHCI Controller" which I have already on the X301.

I am lost at this point, and I would really appreciate any suggestion to get this working. I still would like to use XP as I have certain programs that only run on XP. Many thanks in advance.

RealBlackStuff
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#41 Post by RealBlackStuff » Fri Jan 17, 2014 2:47 pm

XP does not have a built-in SATA driver, you need to install that right at the XP-install start when XP asks to press F6 to install any other driver(s).
SATA in the BIOS needs to be set to "Compatibility" for XP to work.
No point installing an IDE driver for a SATA drive, is there now?
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
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agy100
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#42 Post by agy100 » Fri Jan 17, 2014 3:29 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:XP does not have a built-in SATA driver, you need to install that right at the XP-install start when XP asks to press F6 to install any other driver(s).
SATA in the BIOS needs to be set to "Compatibility" for XP to work.
No point installing an IDE driver for a SATA drive, is there now?
Thanks for the reply, but I don't quite understand. I am okay with the SATA driver as I had it slipstreamed in at the time of installing XP. The fact that XP boots up okay with the BIOS SATA is set at "AHCI" means that the SATA driver is working okay.

As the XP does not boot up with the BIOS SATA set at "Compatibility" --- my theory is that I might need to install an IDE driver. But I could be totally wrong. There might be some other issues I need to resolve to enable XP to boot up with the BIOS SATA set at "Compatibility", which presumablywould enable the 2nd caddy+HDD to be recognised. Is there any validity in this line of thinking?

alambert01
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#43 Post by alambert01 » Tue Jul 29, 2014 5:01 am

If anyone has succeeded in installing a second HDD in a drive bay caddy perhaps you can help me.
I am installing a Seagate momentus thin 500gb sata drive in a replacement caddy bought off ebay.
I have been able to format the drive using a separate usb cable connector and have fitted the caddy with the drive into my lenovo x301.
I am running windows 8.1.

The drive is visible in Device manager: Disc drives. Under properties it says it is running properly.
It is also visible in Computer management/storage/disc management here it is detected and asks me to initialise it.
However it fails to initialise (despite being externally formatted already) and reports an I/O error.

I haven't changed any dirvers and expect the problem is to do with the caddy being IDE when the computer sees the drive is sata.

If anyone can help It would be much appreciated. I'm very happy with the x301 apart from the limited storage.
Thankyou.

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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#44 Post by rkawakami » Tue Jul 29, 2014 2:21 pm

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

I have several X301 systems and HD caddy at home so if you can check back (your) tomorrow morning, I can report on my exact setup. Unfortunately, I am not running Windows 8 in any of them. From memory, I too have a Seagate Momentus thin SATA drive. I'm fairly sure that I initialized and formatted the drive inside the caddy in probably an X300 system using Windows XP. I would have done the same thing as you; Disc Management, initialize, partition, format.

This is the caddy I'm using: http://www.ebay.com/itm/300689145212

Regarding the IDE-ness of the caddy... there should be a SATA-to-IDE bridge inside the adapter so I wouldn't think that Windows would have any problems with it.
Ray Kawakami
X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
NOTE: All links to PC-Doctor software hosted by me are dead. Files removed 8/28/12 by manufacturer's demand.

alambert01
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#45 Post by alambert01 » Tue Jul 29, 2014 5:13 pm

Thanks Ray , I'll check in tomorrow. Yes that looks the same as the caddy I'm using.
Much appreciated.
Alistair

Pr0metheus
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#46 Post by Pr0metheus » Wed Jul 30, 2014 2:04 am

HDD in BIOS must be in setup in IDE/Compatibility (not AHCI) mode, then you can install Windows.

Or, do it the way agy100 explained.

alambert01
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#47 Post by alambert01 » Wed Jul 30, 2014 2:44 pm

Well, after it not liking being made to be compatible and having to boot from the windows disc, all is now well.
The best oldish laptop I've ever owned has a new spring in it's step and my life has got a bit easier.
Acres of virgin real estate now lie before me!
Thankyou all very much for your help.
Long live this forum! :D

alambert01
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Location: London, UK

Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#48 Post by alambert01 » Mon Aug 04, 2014 6:24 am

Hello, Me again.
For some reason my machine seems to intermittently lose the new second drive.
It just vanishes from explorer completely and Google drive and Dropbox (which are pointed at it) get upset. A reboot sorts it but it's not good if it keeps falling over.
Any ideas what's going on?
Thanks.

RealBlackStuff
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#49 Post by RealBlackStuff » Mon Aug 04, 2014 6:47 am

I would seriously look at that Seagate drive as the culprit.
Earlier on it was mentioned as UNFIT...
My daughter has an X301 with 120GB SSD and 320GB/7200 Hitachi second HD (Official Lenovo P/N 42T1158/FRU 42T1159) in the Ultrabay, using the same caddy as Ray.
OS is W7-Pro 32-bit, 4GB RAM.
No problems whatsoever.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

alambert01
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#50 Post by alambert01 » Mon Aug 04, 2014 8:29 am

Hmmm, thanks for the tip.
Nothing is ever straight forwards is it!

Pr0metheus
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Re: X301: replacing DVD drive with HDD *PIC*

#51 Post by Pr0metheus » Wed Aug 06, 2014 2:24 am

alambert01 wrote:Hello, Me again.
For some reason my machine seems to intermittently lose the new second drive.
It just vanishes from explorer completely and Google drive and Dropbox (which are pointed at it) get upset. A reboot sorts it but it's not good if it keeps falling over.
Any ideas what's going on?
Thanks.
As I said before, do not use Seagate drive, they do not work properly. Use WD instead.

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