Putting a second storage drive in a T420 or T420s

I'm thinking about getting a T420 or a T420s (it's coming out soon, right?). I want to put a SSD in it, and I have a few questions about it.

I should be able to replace the optical drive with a storage drive, right? I saw this adapter: Lenovo Support - ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter III - Overview
It doesn't say that it supports the T420 or T420s though, although I am assuming it hasn't been updated yet. Do you think it should fit? If not, are there other alternatives?

If I can do that, should I put the SSD in the adapter, or should I put the SSD in the primary storage drive slot, and put the HDD in the adapter slot? Does that make a difference? I read that there is less padding in the adapter slot, so it might be best to put the more durable SSD there? On the other hand, it would be nice to have the easier-to access drive be the HDD in case I need to swap data or something. Is there any difference in difficulty in changing out either drive?

Thanks for your help!

 

Answer in...
http://www.lenovo.com/psref/pdf/tabook.pdf

page 63 and 84

 

Ultrabay hdd.

 

Awesome, thanks!

Do you have any thoughts on the SDD/HDD placement? These are the two configurations I'm considering. Are there any significant differences between these or is it negligible?

Config 1:
- SSD as the boot drive in the primary drive slot
- 7200rpm HDD as a data drive in the Ultrabay

Config 2:
- SSD as the boot drive in the Ultrabay
- 7200rpm HDD as a data drive in the primary drive slot

 

Appears T420 can take a msata SSD so could put your HDD in the primary 2.5" bay on a T420 and keep the optical drive.

 

...but loose out on WWAN and GPS functionality if you choose to use mSata SSD.

 

want to know the same...

 

The primary drive bay and the Ultrabay "should" be functionally equivalent. This of course assumes they are both fully supporting SATA III 6GB speeds. If that's the case, then it won't matter.

Why would you want to use the Ultrabay for the OS?

 

For separate OS boots. For separate system/application configurations for different clients/projects.

 

If you are going to natively boot the OS I can buy that design. Certainly for a linux distro or Windows XP.

I rarely native boot either of them so I use VMs and they can be on either bay.

Since I always native boot Windows 7 or R2, they are typically installed on the primary bay and I am launching other environments on the Ultrabay with virtualization or native boot from VHD.

 

Note that the internal drive bay holds 7mm drives, not the "regular" 1/8H, or 9.2mm drives that most SSDs are. I own an OCZ Vertex 2 which is the regular 9.2mmm height, and that doesn't fit out-of-the-box in the T420(s). However, this morning I took it apart, and discovered that the actual height of the innards without the cover is ~6mm, so some hacking and the warranty void should let you fit one of these drives in it.

 

If you put your primary HDD into the Ultrabay, if - for whatever reason - you want to use something else in the Ultrabay, you are in trouble. If you need the CD drive, you cannot use it. Yet another HDD? Nope. Ultrabay battery? Nope. I would highly recommend putting the primary (boot) drive into the primary drive slot.

As others have pointed out, this might cause problems because of the 7mm high drive bay in certain cases, so some further investigation might be needed, but I would say it is worth the effort.

The also mentioned mSata solution is probably the best (putting the OS on that). I would personally go that way if I would get a new ThinkPad.

I usually have 2 HDDs in my T500. The primary is the boot drive, and the secondary is in an ultrabay adapter. Now I sometimes need the DVD drive, I can just hotswap that (without switching off). We have several notebooks in our household, and sometimes I need/like to play with the other ones (switching HDDs, bachking up, etc). It is very convenient to put the other HDDs into the T500, because I can just switch the HDD in the ultrabay adapter. Perform any operation, and take it out. Most of the time, I do not even need to reboot.

Using the ultrabay adapter would also allow you to expand beyond 2.5" drive limits by having multiple drives that you can switch. If your primary drive is in the ultrabay, it will be troublesome to switch (not imposibble, just requiring a bit more work )

So I would recommend Config 1 to you

If you have multiple boots that you need to perform, I would still put the primary OS you use in the primary drive bay, and have the "secondary" OSes in the ultrabay. At boot time you can just press F12 and select the ultrabay HDD to boot from.