T400 Hard Drive Adapter?

I looked through the TABook and I could not find the answer to my question. What I am looking for is to buy spare HD carriers for the main hard drive in my T400. The scenario is that I want to switch hard drives and I want the spare hard drives to already have the carriers on them to reduce the time for switching and to reduce the number of screws I need.

So, other than an actual SATA Laptop hard drive, what parts do I need from Lenovo to do this?

Thanks for the help!
~George

 

This what you're looking for?
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/UltraBay_Slim_SATA_HDD_Adapter

It replaces your DVD to augment the existing HDD.

 

No,

I am looking to replace the actual main HD. Imagine your main HD failed, and you wanted to hot swap in another one, this is the part I need.

For my Dell laptop I have like 5 of these adapters and it is very simple to switch HDs for the notebook, surely it is just as easy with the Lenovo?

 

Seriously? No one?

 

hmm.. i think no one's responding is due to the fact that the part your asking for won't be an easy thing to get. Basically from my understanding you want that HD frame that holds the HD so that you can place it in the HD slot (NOT the optical bay area).

It is pretty easy to do because you're just basically unscrewing that HD door then sliding in and out the HD. However to order that actual frame you would have to get the part # first to even have something to search with.

To get that part's # easy thing is to online chat/call lenovo because what you're looking for is more of a replacement part and not an accessory.

I would also recommend calling service centers.. see if they'll sell that part to you.

 

Why would you need anything special for the HDD anyway? I don't know how other laptops are, but switching the T400 HDD out is extremely simple. You just take one screw out, take the plastic drive 'door' off and the HDD slides straight out. You slide the new HDD in and put the door back on. Done.

I am a laptop newb, but I have no clue what you're talking about with a 'HDD carrier' on the T400.

 

isn't there a casing for the HD? I have that in my Asus laptop and also shown here. http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/R61_T61/index.html
(click on the side FRU Removal/Replacements then Hard Disk Drive)

Unless they changed it, that's what I'm talking about. It seems like he just wanted that frame? Am I wrong that they don't have that anymore?

 

The HDD has rubber pieces that fit over the two longer sides of it. Those easily come off and can be put on the new HDD. Other than those, there is nothing else special needed. Like I said, the HDD just slides right out and back in.

 

It also has a metal carrier the drive screws to with four screws. Took only a minute to swap over when I changed out the original HDD to the new 7200rpm drive.

 

You sure about that? I'm not pulling my HDD back out again right now, but I don't remember seeing any screws on the drive itself that needed removing. The manual even details the exact steps I described before, with only the rubber side rails needing to be changed over.

 

100% sure. The Hardware Maintenance Manual doesn't mention removing the carrier, just the rails; you're correct there. I suspect if you ordered a drive from Lenovo it would come with that carrier and so the HMM doesn't mention needing to do anything with it.

When you pulled your drive out, remember pulling on a plastic tab? That's part of the carrier assembly. I had to move that over to the new hard drive. Like I said, it was simple and took less than a minute.

BTW, the WD Scorpio Black 250GB 7200rpm drive is dead silent. I can hear it only if I put my ear down to the palmrest. I'm pretty impressed with it.

 

You can watch the removal of an HDD here,

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-63909

 

Hmm, it does appear like this is not as needed as it was in the past. On other laptops I have owned there was a fairly beefy metal frame and many screws involved. If one had the carrier, it was a very easy switch but without it it was a pain.

That video is actually a little disturbing because it seams like the HD is barely even held in there. In any case, I would still like to have spare of those rubber things and whatever that attachment he pulled out with the screw driver is.

 

This is probably what you're looking for:
http://insidecomputer.stores.yahoo.net/hadrcaforall.html

I'm not sure if it's the exact same thing because it doesn't mention compatibility with T400 (to be expected because it's a new model).

edit: see below

 

Found one on ebay too that should definitely be compatible and it includes the rubber things:

http://cgi.ebay.com/IBM-Thinkpad-T6...ryZ74949QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I just ordered one.

 

Having changed the hard disk in my T400, I can say that the picture of the items at the ebay links looks exactly like what's in my T400.

And for what it's worth the 250/5400 drive mine shipped with was very clearly labelled as a Seagate Momentus.

 

My 160GB 5400 just said "Lenovo" on it. I didn't see a brand name strangely.
Maybe it was just relabeled.

 

Thanks for all the replys. I think the one shown on Ebay is definitely what is needed. I had a long chat with Lenovo support, which was pretty bad btw, and I finally figured out the FRU's for this stuff:
41V9756 - Rubber Bracket
43Y9654 - Cover

It sounds like these other sites might be much cheaper though because www.thinkpad-parts.com shows the above totaling $65.

 

I just got the item from ebay today. I compared it to the original. Looks exactly the same including the rubber rails and even screws. I guess it's an original part or at least Lenovo buys parts from the same supplier as the ebay seller.

 

is it working in the t400?