Re: [Thinkpad] 770 ED: hard disk to go in floppy drive slot.

Michael,

You need two things: A Ultrabay 2nd HDD adapter, which is basically a
plastic adapter the size of the Ultrabay that a HDD fits into (see
example at:
http://www.xtradisk.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?p_prodid=329&sid=8y4GGl0lj0SoDAW).
  You also need drive caddy. This is the small metal part that fits
over a bare laptop HDD and provides the appropriate plug as well as a
tab that you can use to pull the drive out. The adapter is usually
about $40-60 depending on where you find it and if it is new or used. I
don't know prices of the caddy. You might be able to try contacting
Bill Morrow (www.thinkpads.com) from this list to help you find these items.

As to your other questions:
  - IBM should be happy to sell just the 2nd HDD adapter, though at list
price. They might have the drive caddy too, but I'd try to find another
source.
  - As far as brands of accessories go, any name brand of laptop hard
disk should be fine. You're just looking for a 2.5" drive and the
height doesn't matter because the 770 can take them all the way up to
17mm or so, which is old technology.

HTH,
Rob

mje@foxall.com.au wrote:
> I would appreciate any answers to a few questions that may seem too obvious
> to need asking, but to which I've bafflingly received conflicting answers from
> people I've asked. I'll put each broad category of question in a separate
> posting.
>
> I have a 770 ED which is about 6 years old, and it has a (nearly) 8-Gb.
> hard disk which is getting full; I need to get a new, larger disk, but
> preferably in a configuration such that I can simultaneously use the old disk,
> copy from one disk to the other, and the like. I've been told that it is
> possible to get a hard disk that will fit into the slot where the floppy disk
> drive is (and where a D.V.D. drive can also go). But the obstacle seems to be
> this: while I can get the disk drive itself (I've been told), it appears to be
> very difficult to get the special little box it must go in, maybe impossible.
> To be sure, the current hard disk has a box, but I need another box for two
> reasons: (1) so I can use both disks at once; and (2) presumably the box would
> have to be a different one to go in the floppy disk slot instead of the hard
> disk slot on the other side of the laptop.
> I can get the disk from I.B.M. along with the box, but very expensively,
> whereas I have found various dealers who can supply a disk drive for a fraction
> of the price, but they can't supply the box.
> There are reasons why I don't merely want to get a hard disk that can
> *replace* the current one, mainly relating to the fact that I will have at least
> a fairly long transitional period when I have to be able to move stuff from one
> drive to the other. Alternating the drives in the same slot would not allow
> this; and I have also been told that it's a bad idea to take those drives in and
> out of the slot too often, because with the slightest clumsiness in changing the
> drives you can break the little pin connection sockets where the drive connects
> to the computer, and that might cause the complete loss of data on that drive.
> That's why I want the new drive to go where the floppy drive and D.V.D.
> drive currently go.
>
> Can anyone please make suggestions on how to deal with this?
> Would I.B.M. be likely to supply the box by itself? I somehow feel they
> wouldn't, because they would know I intended to get the disk from someone else,
> not them, and of course they would not want to encourage that.
> Are there other sources for the box?
> Should I take seriously the warning from I.B.M. I once read against using
> any other brand of accessories with the laptop other than their own? Are there
> good reasons for this, or is it just an attempt to persuade people to buy only
> I.B.M. equipment, and pay their prices?
> My thanks for any suggestions.
>
> Regards,
> Michael Edwards.

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Received on Fri May 30 18:58:55 2003