T61p & Ultrabay slim & solid state drive

[njr]

I'm trying to use a Corsair X128 SSD in an T61p Ultrabay* with no success so far:

• Nothing happens at all when I plug the SSD in the UltraBay into the slot (no new device / hardware, looking for drivers messages etc.)
• If I reboot with the SSD in the UltraBay the system says during boot that there's an uninitialized device in the Ultrabay - <ESC> to continue
• The SSD works fine in a caddy with USB connection to this machine & others, plus esata to others (thanks to help from Corsair forum - didn't expect to have to prep the drive!); I've been using the SSD for + two weeks and it's great...

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Sadly, my T61p doesn't have an ExpressCard slot so I can't work around this with an e-sata adapter, as per my original plan for moving my work between a number of computers (numpty here didn't realize they had a SmartCard slot instead of an ExpressCard slot, doh!).

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Any ideas welcome: I'd be gubbed to have to run this lovely speed monster at USB rates on my main work machine - would render it a very expensive accessory (mistake)!

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Cheers...

*T61p: 6457-7XG Vista 32U; UltraBay 40Y8725 compatible

[sktn77a]

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njr wrote:

Any ideas welcome: I'd be gubbed to have to run this lovely speed monster at USB rates on my main work machine - would render it a very expensive accessory (mistake)!

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Well, you could use the SSD as your main internal drive - much faster than whatever you're using now.  And the mechanical drive should work no problems in you ultrabay adapter.

[njr]

Aye, I might have to consider this as a last resort, to save "wasting" it... BUT my only reason for getting the SSD was to have a fast data drive that was sharable via esata connections on the various computers that I use. Had to dump esata option on T61p due to no ExpressCard slot

Dear Lenovo - please, pretty please, what can I do to get my T61p to recognize the SSD in the ultrabay?! xxx

[sktn77a]

Check out the Thinkpads.com forum, there was a post similar to this earlier this week.

[jimmyau]

Hi, njr,

Can you configure your Corsair X128 SSD from SATA-II (3GB/Sec) to SATA-I (1.5GB/Sec) with jumper setting?

Just make sure the root cause is the configuration of T61p BIOS to cut the transfer speed in Ultrabay in order to use PATA Harddisk in Ultrabay.
If T61p can see the SDD in Ultrabay with SATA-I (1.5GB/Sec), then you can make the further decision with SSD.

Good luck.

[TheDude]

If you can't get this to work, consider an external enclosure with Firewire for the T61p and eSATA for your other machines. Personally, I would rather have the SSD as a boot drive on main machine (I just put one in my T400, and it makes by T61 boot time with a 7200 rpm drive real slow) and use a WD Scorpio Black as my data drive - but that is less robust if you drop it.

[TheDude]

Or here is an eSATA option that should work:

http://www.amazon.com/IOGear-CardBus-Tri-language-Package-GPS702W6/dp/B000XJJRKC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&...

Only PCI speed, but stil better than USB.