9.5mm HDD in T420s/X1/X220

So it looks like 9.5mm does fit at least in the X220.

I'm now almost certainly going to go this route instead of the Z5K500 since it gives the options of 640 and 750gb. 640gb 9.5mm drives are the same price as the Z5K500. There's only a .05 lb weight penalty and no power consumption difference.

However, I just tried the method in the link above I don't like it. Good news is that a 9.5mm does fit fine in the bay and the cover goes on no problem. Getting the drive in is easy enough, but getting it out is a total b*tch. The drive goes in at an angle which means you have to push the hdd down with one hand to keep it from pulling on the sata connector on the systemboard up; this is fine. But when removing it, unless you have someone to push down while you pry it out the drive does make the connector on the motherboard deflect enough to make me nervous about doing this more than once.

The root cause of all this is is four small tabs on the upper part of the chassis (facing down) where the hard drive cover goes on. I don't why they even bothered adding that as it does nothing (there are hooks at one end of the hdd cover, a couple along the line and the screw at the end). The fit is so close and tight that once I removed the stickers from the spare Seagate I had it's possible to slide the drive straight in.

So the solution is to just file/grind down those four tabs and 9.5mm hdd's will slide in/out without any problem at all.

 

Can you take a picture of those tabs? I would love not to waste money on 7mm drives, and am considering simply waiting a bit so I can get a 1TB drive in there. (Take that, MBA!)

 

Or you could just use a 7mm drive.

 

To clarify, just removing the stickers from both sides of the spare Seagate allows it to slide in but with quite a bit of force (there'd be no hope of getting it out without taking the bezel off again). Once the tabs are ground down it will definitely slide in with ease (I haven't done it yet, need to find my Dremel grinding attachment <- magnesium chassis.)

Drive installed, hdd conver on, all good:



You can see the tabs just are just barely in the way:



You can clearly see them now. Started using sandpaper before realizing magensium is metal and will need to be ground down with the thin Dremel grinding attachment. It'll be much more accurate than the sandpaper as well.

 

people actually want large, heavy, mechanical HDDs in their ultraportables?   what's next... everyone wanting to go back to windows 3.11 to speed up boot times?

joking aside, kudos for figuring out the geometry.   hopefully pushing on the HDD cover when typing or the lack of rubber rails doesn't cause any issues down the line.   it'll be interesting to see how this plays out long-term.

 

I ordered the 500GB Z5K500. I hope it comes, but if it doesn't, I'll make due with the 320GB I have now. It's already 300GB more than my X200 or X200t could offer me.

 

I've got to think that, if one seems to fit but little things were put in to prevent them, there's got to be a serious design constraint that required that.

I doubt the Lenovo engineers would be like "Let's add a 9.5mm height bay, then toss in some tabs that stop you from putting the drive in."

I can't think of any problems it would cause though, and I hope you don't experience any.

 

I did try putting a 9.5mm drive (without the rubber rails) into my T420s. It went in part way and then hit resistance. There seemed to be insufficient height in the bay nearest the front edge of the computer but the shortfall is small. Perhaps if I had forced the drive in it would have gone, but would never come out again.

John

 

I needed more space for my virtual mashines so I ordered 640gb drive from https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.ph...00rpm-SATA2-16MB-Notebook-Hard-Drive-2-5-inch ( best price I found , and no, I'm not affiliated with them).
Putting the drive was a royal PTA. Basically you are forcing the drive in. I had to wiggle it to get it going and to get it out, you had to pry a little on the side of the drive. This is on x220t.
Works like a charm now.

 

Thanks for the pictures vinunero.
Is it difficult to use a dremel tool effectively for this if I've never done it before?
Eh. In any case, it's difficult to justify a basically unnecessary HDD purchase right now. Let's see if I could hold off for a yr and then go for a 1TB drive. This Samsung looks very tempting though:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152290

 

if you have to ask, it's probably safest to assume the answer is "no."   then again, i've seen an equal amount of damage done by people who say "i can do that."

 

That's right. All recommendations in this thread are "do at your own risk."

That said, no it's not hard. Check on youtube to see what you're dealing with. Use an attachment like this one.

953 Aluminum Oxide Grinding Stone / Model: 953

Btw, thinking about it I can't really see any disadvantage of going this route. Hard drives are rated for very high amounts of shocks these days. Between that and Thinkpad APS, there shouldn't be much risk of damage in an accident. As for the pressing on the hard drive cover when typing, how much of a concern is it really? You don't push down on keys very much, and the keyboard itself is pretty rigid so I can't see transmissibility being very high. Whatever force does go through is spread over that grid in the keyboard bezel above the hard drive, so pressure on the cover will be really pretty tiny.

 

Ok I just ground down the tabs with the dremel. Seriously, this can't possibly be any easier. It takes 2min to do all four tabs since magnesium is a soft metal. Just go back and forth across each tab slowly (don't stagnate over on point to avoid peaks and valleys) and don't apply too much pressure.

The Dremel attachment I used is probably just some wood grinding material. Since magnesium is so soft you don't need something hard like aluminum oxide or a carbide bit.

End result: You can slide a 9.5mm height hdd in and out with the caddy. There's no room to fold the tail though so cut off enough so there's around .5" left. With this much you can put the hdd cover on no problem and still have enough to grab to pull the hdd out with ease.

I feared that maybe vibration would be a problem with no rubber rails, but I can't feel any at all with this Seagate 7200.4. Hopefully the current 750gb 5400rpm drives are just as good.

12.5", 3lbs, IPS, insane processing power for occasional video encoding, 80gb ssd boot drive, 750gb internal storage (1TB like by the end of the year), will drive 2-3 monitors. WOW.

 

Do at your own risk and will obviously void warranty.

If all that needs to be done is shaving down 4 tabs, Lenovo should have done this a long time ago.

 

Fyi these tabs are maybe .25mm tall. What component's warranty are they going to void, the chassis? Is that something anyone has ever had replaced except under accident protection. And when are they going to discover that four shallow tabs underneath the hard drive cover, facing down, have been very slightly been reduced in height.

Btw, this 7200rpm drive is at <35C right now for anyone concerned about heat like a couple people were in the German forum.

This is a far more innocent and less invasive mod than the infamous AFFS swap in the X200 and X201, not that that was very much so.

 

Anyone care to recommend an actual model Dremel tool for me? I feel like there are a few things it may be useful for, even if I decide to hold off for a 1TB drive.

 

Where do you live? I initially started off with one of those starter kits from Sears which comes with the dremel tool and an assortment of attachments (one of which I used for this). Eventually ended up buying a ton of cut-off wheels when I needed to cut some really rusted exhaust bolts in my car.

Looking at prices, this is such a no brainer. The 750gb 9.5mm Hitachi is almost exactly same price as the 500gb 7mm Hitachi (and actually available). Just debating now whether I need 750gb or spend less and get the Hitachi or WD or Samsung 640gb.

 

Lol, Brooklyn. dw, we've got a Sears here I was looking to see if there was a specific model I can just order to amazon (no car, see).
I'm seeing a $60 kit, but it looks like overkill:
Amazon.com: Dremel 300-1/24 300 Series Variable-Speed Rotary Tool Kit: Home Improvement
Yeah I know; the prices totally make it a no brainer. But I can also afford to put off this project for the time being.

 

Is it actual pure Magnesium in the frames, or an alloy?

I'd be careful with cutting Magnesium, that stuff burns and does so in a blindingly bright light.

 

That looks like the exact same kit I've got. If I had to buy one today (got mine years ago, it's still going strong despite heavy use), I'd look at the cordless ones too. Make sure to check reviews on the cordless ones before buying.

Amazon.com: Dremel 8000-03 10.8-Volt Lithium Ion Cordless Rotary Tool: Home Improvement

I'm now considering putting off getting the 750gb one and maybe going for something like a WD5000BEVT or 5K500.B for the time being and wait for high-density drives to mature a bit more. They're also 50% cheaper ($50+ vs $75+). WD is the only one that's got decent experience with these Advanced Format drives and the initial 5400rpm ones were so so in performance. The WD7500BEKT is very fast though so maybe they've come to grips with the firmware and the 5400rpm ones are ok now too. I have my eye on the 5K750 since it's the cheapest at $75, but have the same fear of unoptimized firmware since it's their first Advanced Format drive out (along with the Z5K500).

Of course it's an alloy. Pure metals are rarely ever used for anything. And no it doesn't burn like pure Mg would.

 

What's the mechanic's adage?

If it doesn't fit, get a bigger hammer!

 

Do note that the current 1TB notebook drive on newegg (the Western Digital one I believe) is actually larger than 9.5mm.. for those of you trying to go this route.

I found out recently when I purchased them and realized they were like 13mm or something crazy like that. Luckily this wasn't a problem as we were just putting them into the SAS slots on our server, but its a good thing to note that not all 2.5" drives are 9.5mm or 6.5mm

 

Hmm I missed that link in his post. Now I'm really confused. I was already having trouble deciding between the Toshiba and Hitachi 750gb drives (both 9.5mm).

Probably going to rule out Samsung since their rma service is supposed to be terrible. Hitachi consumer drives are on their way out now that Western Digital has taken them over for their enterprise products. Guess that leaves Toshiba.

 

You guys might want to consider Seagate's hybrid drive's. 500 gig I think is the max. Its part SSD part reg spin drive. So you get the best of both worlds.
I have them in 11 client laptops so far and they have proven to be very solid drives and pretty darn fast.

 

It's here:

Samsung Spinpoint M8 puts 1TB drives on a diet, just in time for bathing suit season -- Engadget

 

I wonder how much it'll actually cost (they say $125 but it won't be that much) and when it'll get released. Either way, I won't go for a Samsung drive. Both them and Seagate (their current owners) are my least favorite as far as reliability goes.

I'm going with the 750gb Toshiba MK7559GSXP for now ($80). It's performance seems to be very very good (rivaling 500gb 7200rpm drives) and even 750gb is much more than I need, although I tend to fill up every drive I get quickly . The Hitachi 5K750 seems to be pretty good as well but the user feedback so far have indicated potential reliability issues and I'm not sure what's going to happen with their consumer drives now that WD has bought them. In that regard, I do like the Toshiba since it's been around for a year and their rma process is very good; it's something needs to be considered with hdd's. For the Samsung fans, their 750gb just came into stock at newegg (wasn't yesterday). $5 cheaper than I got the Toshiba for.

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint M8 HN-M750MBB 750GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Notebook Hard Drive

 

Samsung 1TB 9.5mm drive for $98:

PROVANTAGE: Samsung HN-M101MBB 1TB 5400RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0 GBPS

 

There's no point getting a Momentus XT for a data drive.

 

Slid right in. No vibration and quiet. 37C max temp when copying everything from the 7mm Seagate to it.

 

Way to go, man. I'll be taking it to my e220s very soon -- as soon as I can decide what hard drive to put in it. I might hold out for the inevitable 1TB WD Blue, unless it has weird quick-sleep issues like the 750GB Blue. I don't really want to run my 750GB Black, as it uses substantially more power than the 5400rpm. I'm speaking primarily of the idle and sleep draw.

 

What are the sleep issues with the 750gb Blue? Afaik, most of the complaints related to the Blue drives frequently parking the heads and/or spinning is a Mac power management compatibility issue.

The 750gb Black only uses .15W more than the Blue when idling. But even that should be a non-issue because you can set Power Manager to spin down when the hdd isn't in use on battery power. It's a beast of a drive, and reviews I've read say it's quiet and vibration free unlike the 320 and 500gb I've used before. I'm a big Western Digital fan and would've gotten it if it was cheaper. If you don't have any qualms with Samsung, their 9.5mm 1TB drive is worth a look.

 

Ah, I wasn't aware it was a Mac-only thing. But now that you mention it, that does seem familiar in all those stories.

I guess I should just give the Black a try anyway. It'll spend most of its time in sleep mode, really... So it will be good to have a strong performer when it's up and running. I remember being scared off by the idle draw in the review below, but I should at least try it.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/20255/9

 

vinuneuro, thanks for shedding more light on this. Just a question though, If i don't shave the tabs and don't plan on removing the 9.5mm HD ever, do you think any damage will be caused to the connector/motherboard overtime because of the tight fit? I understand you feel this way when you remove it, but when it is all installed in place, do you think there is a chance of damage over time without shaving the tabs?

Thanks!

 

Nope, you should be fine.

 

Great! Thanks a bunch... looks like i am going to buy a x220 after all

 

ok, ok... I started this thread here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/599193-best-layed-plans-new-x220-2.html

on the 2nd page it was stated that a 9.5mm drive can be used in the x220

I've read allot of the forums and owners thread, and this is the first time I've seen anyone mention this.

My digging around I did find that some are removing a plastic spacer on the 9.5mm drive to allow it to fit in the 7mm slot. But the drives that they were discussing in the above thread don't seem to have these spacers

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!

Can anyone shed some light on this?

I don't have my laptop yet, next couple of days, I haven't ordered a larger/2nd drive yet, but it would be nice to fit a 1TB drive, but if I have to stick to a 500GB 7mm, well, so be it

 

My X220 is on order from Lenovo, but I do have one of the new Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD10JPVT that I can't wait to try this out on.

'Will report back on how it goes.

 

Not so good.
BIOS does not even see the HDD.
I used the method 1 on that German site linked to earlier in the thread.

The drive is all the way in as far as I can tell.

 

The spacers are in Crucial SSDs (I think others too), I don't think that solution works for mechanical drives (HDDs) because they don't have those spacers.

 

Silly question, you're sure the drive pointing up/down in the right direction and is plugged in right? No issues with the stock drive?

 

The new 9.5mm WD drive is right-side-up and tests good in my desktop.
I'll just try a full removal of the new HDD and reinsertion and see if that does not change anything.
Getting in and out of there is such a hassle.

 

Put the stock drive in and make sure it still works fine. As in the first post, the main reason I don't like the German method is it stresses connector on the motherboard. Be very careful when removing the drive.

 

I plugged the old one back in and it was recognized.

I pulled it and tried again with the WD and this time was able to back it out and re-slide it in and... IT WAS RECOGNIZEDED!

Yeah, I see what you mean vinuneuro. Doing that change-out with the WD 1TB was nerve-racking.

I felt like I was always on the edge of seriously breaking either the new HDD or the laptop plastic. Personally, I think I got lucky. This is not for the faint of heart.

 

The German method is hazardous and a pita having to remove keyboard and its bezel everytime. Use my method and shave those few tabs a fraction of a mm and 9.5mm drives slide in and out normally without any issue.

 

If this drive ever has to come out, I'm absolutely using your method vinuneuro. Right now I needed fast, I have no Dremel; my options were limited.

 

Curious, but can I just use a filer to file away the tabs? (since I've no dremel handy atm). Moreover, are the tabs rather deep in the drive tray or close enough to the opening that it'd be easy to get at it?

 

The tabs are right at the front. File should work fine.

 

you guys think this would be a problem with exactly 9mm HDDs?

 

Has anyone done this with SSDs like OCZ Vertex 3 or Corsair Force GT?

I will be doing it as soon as get my X220, as I'll probably need to use a 2.5" SSD as the system disk. I agree the ideal solution is an mSATA SSD system disk + a 2.5" storage disk, but I think I need to to use the the full size mini PCIe port for a 3G/4G-module.

Related to this, but a little OT for this thread, is there such a thing as a joint network and 3G/4G module on a half size mini PCIe card? Or how about a half size mini PCIe mSATA SSD and full size WWAN+WLAN card?

thanks

 

so does it matter which 1TB 9.5mm drive I choose?
From reading here, there's a samsung and a WD to choose from?