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    Ultrabay SATA adapter

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by chrisroman, Dec 21, 2007.

  1. chrisroman

    chrisroman Notebook Enthusiast

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    Anyone using an ultrabay SATA adapter on a T61p?

    Q: How is performance and heat
    Q: Is it hot swappable?
    Q: How do you store drive when not in laptop?
    Q: Is 200GB the largest supported drive size?
     
    chrisroman, Dec 21, 2007
    #1
  2. Chanchin

    Chanchin Notebook Geek

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    250GB is the largest.
     
    Chanchin, Dec 21, 2007
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  3. Rambler

    Rambler Notebook Consultant

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    performance is about 40Mb/s and heat isnt too much an issue for me. the adapter is also only SATA 1.5Gb/s, but this isnt an issue as you wont be breaking that barrier anyway.

    no its not hot swappable I have to reboot.

    the adapter with the drive in it live in a draw.

    a 200gb seagate is the largest Ive used.
     
    Rambler, Dec 21, 2007
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  4. LaptopGuru

    LaptopGuru Notebook Evangelist

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    There is no limit to the size of the drive, it just needs to be a mobile 2.5 inch hard drive with a SATA interface. The Ultrabay adapter is limited to SATA 1.5. Heat is not a problem, the drive doesn't get any warmer in there than it does in the main drive bay. I use a drive in the ultrabay adapter constantly in my T60p, as it only has a 100GB main drive and I rarely need an optical drive. It *is* hot swappable. There has been some FUD out there that it is not. The only time you will have issues is if the drive is password protected. If it is, you will need to standby or hibernate to get the "DOS Mode" password prompts from the BIOS to make the drive visible to windows, but that's just a minor annoyance. I don't password protect my personal drives, just my work drives.
     
    LaptopGuru, Dec 21, 2007
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  5. JabbaJabba

    JabbaJabba ThinkPad Facilitator

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    That is not correct.

    As for the OP, LaptopGuru pretty much covered it.
     
    JabbaJabba, Dec 21, 2007
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  6. chrisroman

    chrisroman Notebook Enthusiast

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    Great info thx!

    I currently am using a 200GB Hitachi 7K200 and as I fill it up Acronis backups are becoming time consuming and impractically large. I was thinking to add a second 200GB Hitachi 7K200 in the ultrabay and setup software RAID 1 (Mirror).

    My daily work files are backed up daily offsite using mozy pro, but I still fear a drive failure since I use this laptop as my primary work machine.

    If setup on software raid, will the raid set need to be rebuilt everytime the ultrabay drive is removed?
     
    chrisroman, Dec 21, 2007
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  7. TonyCMC

    TonyCMC Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have 200g Hitachi 7k200 in my ultrabay adaptor, however I dont see the drive in windows(Vista Ultimate). I plug the DVD drive back in then I see the DVD, what did I do wrong? any one help, please!
     
    TonyCMC, Dec 21, 2007
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  8. laptopbuy131

    laptopbuy131 Notebook Guru

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    i know this is a very newb question but what is an ultrabay adapter? is it like an external hdd holder?
     
    laptopbuy131, Dec 22, 2007
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  9. Rambler

    Rambler Notebook Consultant

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    hi

    you need to setup the drive under windows in disk management

    right click my computer > manage > disk management

    from there initialize the disk and format it.

    it will then show up in windows.
     
    Rambler, Dec 22, 2007
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  10. Rambler

    Rambler Notebook Consultant

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    the ultrabay is where your dvd drive currently sits.

    an ultrabay adapter is an adapter that allows you to insert a pata or sata disk into it and then allow you to use it in the ultrabay.

    I use one of these sata adapters as well as a battery in addition to a dvd drive in my ultrabay.
     
    Rambler, Dec 22, 2007
    #10