Ultrabay HDD caddy for T430

Hello,

I have a few questions about the HDD caddy. I need to buy one so that I can upgrade to an SSD.

1. Do the HDD caddy do anything else instead of holding the SSD?
2. If the answer to question 1 is a 'No' can I just buy any HDD caddy's that fits the size?
3. What are some HDD caddy's that works on the T430? Any 12.7mm?
4. Are there anything that I should watch out for when I buy mine?

Thank you!

 

1. The UltraBay HDD caddy adapter is a mechanical, passive device that provides: (a) a place to hold a 2.5" HDD/SDD, and (b) the slimline SATA electrical/power connector for the drive, i.e. when you push the whole enclosure properly into the UltraBay, you are connecting the drive to the motherboard.

2. You have to buy an UltraBay HDD caddy adapter that fits your specific notebook (T430) and is compatible with the Lenovo-supplied one.

3. You can buy one that is advertised for T410/420/430 and T/W510/520/530. I would recommend this. (The photos on that page may be helpful.)

4. Just the above points, I suppose. (You could have up to 3 drives in the T430: an mSATA SSD drive, a HDD/SSD in the primary bay, and a HDD/SDD in the UltraBay.)

Good luck!

 

A few more points to you question #4:
1. You need to make sure that you buy SATA 3 and not an old SATA 2 caddy.
2. The size matters - some adapters leave a 3-4mm gaps when inserted into a laptop.

I bought mine here. It has been working perfectly fine.

HTH

 

Huh? The UltraBay HDD caddy adapter has nothing to do with SATA speed.

 

That vendor explained me that they sell two versions of the caddy adaptor - an old one for SATA 3GB and a new "advanced" capable of SATA 6GB. I was also curious as what "advanced" means.

 

Perhaps pure gold is used in the "advanced" version?

 

So, I am about to do the same thing...I have bought a T530 with 500Mb main drive and a DVD in the Ultrabay. I want to take the DVD out and put into an external carrier, move the 500Mb to the Ultrabay and put a 256Gb Samsung 340 Pro in the main bay as the boot drive. Speed, speed speed...Some questions...
1. One option I assume I do have is to leave the 500Mb drive where it is, and put the SSD in the Ultrabay (which is SATA 3 I believe) and simply change which drive to boot from. True?
2. If I put the Lenovo-supplied 500Mb drive in the Ultrabay, what size caddy/carrier do I need to buy for it (# mm?)?
3. If the SSD goes in the main bay, do I need to put a caddy/carrier for it in the main bay and if so, what size?

Much appreciated guys.

TIA.

Ralph

 

True.

Nothing to do with the height of the drive. It's the height of the black plastic bezel (or the UltraBay hole in the chassis) that matters. Just buy an UltraBay caddy adapter that is explicitly stated to be compatible with T530.

No. What you're referring to applies to the drive that sits in the main bay.

 

So, sorry to be dense Kaso...
1. On the Ultrabay, are you saying the caddy will hold whatever thickness drive goes in there? The same caddy will accomodate the SSD or the 500Gb HDD?
2. Similarly in the main drive compartment... as you say no caddy is needed, this means that it can accomodate either thickness drive (SSD/500Gb) ... doesn't it need some sort of packing to sit the drive in snugly, or are there standard positioned fixings, that apply to either drive, obviating the need?
3. The SSD as boot drive, I assume I can simply do a clean install of the opsys, copy over drivers and bobs your uncle. With the 500Gb drive then, do I have to do anything with it in terms of software? I don't think so, as it won't be booted from, it just sits there with all its software as a regular drive. Correct?
4. Your confirmation of my original point 1... that I could put the SSD in the Ultrabay and simply change the setup for which drive to boot from... did you kinda imply that this was possible but not best?

Mucho thanks for your assistance.

Ralph in Auckland

 

It's quite OK to be dense.

Yes. Yes.

Well, the "stuff that holds the drive nicely" (caddy/tray + rubber rails) is supplied by Lenovo together with the stock HDD. You can re-use that "stuff" for your new SDD. On the T530, the stock 500GB HDD may likely be 9mm thick. You may want to confirm this to yourself before you buy the SSD.

Once the SSD officially becomes the boot drive (either by a complete clean installation of everything, or by a direct cloning of everything on the stock HDD), the stock HDD can be completely formatted to serve as a storage drive.

It's a conscious choice. Whether such a choice is "best" depends on how it serves a particular purpose.

(In some situations, I set up the boot drive in the UltraBay because I want to be able to use the same laptop exclusively for a certain client's software/apps/tools environment at any one time. So, I have a few UltraBay boot drives lying around, one dedicated for each client.)

 

Very good sir. Many thanks.

 

I have a 1TB SATA3 drive with 6.0gb/s and I would want it to be able to run it's fastest...

How do you know that this caddy is built for SATA3 ?

Has anyone actually bought one and installed it using a SATA3 drive with 6.0gb/s and it actually ran at 6.0gb/s ?

That would be the one I would want.

 

The UltraBay caddy adapter only provides a "passthrough" -- it does not control the speed of the SATA port. The engineering design of the T430 motherboard determines whether the port that the caddy adapter connects to is SATA 6Gb/s or SATA 3Gb/s.

Last I checked, the main bay's port and the UltraBay's port are operated at 6Gb/s.

People on this forum have been wanting "the one you would want" for years now! "Has anyone actually bought one?"

 

k00L... thanks for letting me know.

I was looking at the one at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009OLJD0Y...UTF8&colid=GDEPGCX59WSP&coliid=I1KE0YGFUGD78L until I saw the description say; Add a 2nd drive to your ThinkPad T410s T420s, T430s (not compatible with the T420 T430

So, I just need to find one that works with the T430

 

The "s" ThinkPads are slimmer, hence UltraBay caddy height smaller -- main/only difference is front plastic bezel.

 

Well, since it says it does not work with the T430... I'd rather get one that says it is for the T430 which I'm assuming would be thicker.

 

I did not tell you to buy it! I was explaining the difference!

(All my ThinkPads -- and I have many -- have UltraBay caddy adapters.)

 

I know, and when I thought about what you said, it helped me understand why some of have a gap when install... because they are too thin.

So, I found one at 2nd SSD HDD Hard Drive Caddy for Lenovo ThinkPad T430 W530 T530 | eBay that claims to be a second design that eliminates the gap, and it claims to allow for 6Gb/s since it shows to be tested for this rate of data transfer.

This lookin like it be the one to git

 

Yeah sure. Unless the thing is built with some Chinese conductive material that significantly slows down the signals that flow through it...

As I said, the caddy adapter has ZERO say in the speed of the SATA port. But if you want to make it one of your life concerns, be my guest.

 

Was simply relaying what they claim in their ad...