ThinkPad P50 has the option to install two 2.5" HDD.  However, "Hard disk drive cable" is needed.

Per Lenovo, there are two different part numbers:

00UR835 Cable,HDD,slot3
00UR836 Cable,HDD,slot4

Obiously, one is the the bay on the left and the other one if for the right.

I just ordered a 20EN0013US.  It comes with a 500GB HDD, which is on the right bay.

If I shall add a 2nd HDD, I'm going to use the bay on the left.  Now, my question is - is the bay on the left slot 3 or slot 4?  Which cable I'll need?

Thanks!

http://imgur.com/gallery/RYOr5

Are you talking about a P50?  Or P70?

I don't think the the P50 supports two HDDs. From the P50 spec sheet there is only one primary HDD bay, and no optical drive bay which might be converted to house a second HDD.

It is the M.2 bay which has two slots for one or two PCIe SSD's.  But I don't believe this bay can't be converted for use by a second HDD as far as I've heard or read.

Can you point to a page or diagram in the HMM or elsewhere which discusses TWO 2.5" HDDs possible in the P50?  P70, yes (if you convert the optical bay for a HDD).

But I didn't think the P50 offered that option.  In other words, where are these "slot3" and "slot4" locations you refer to on the P50?

The two M.2 bays can be converted into a 2.5" HDD bay (if you don't use M.2 at all).

Please refer to http://www.ok1.de/thinkpad/HMM/p50_hmm_en_sp40j71944.pdf page 64 (page 70 of 118 in PDF).

Thanks!

I had already looked at the P50 HMM on those pages, and do not see any drawing or mention of an optional adapter/tray that converts the bay and its two M.2 PCIe slots for use as a second HDD bay (is that SATA3??).

Where is the mention or documentation of this option, and what that adpater looks like, and where the cable would connect (another SATA3 connector inside the M.2 bay?).  Does the adapter for the 2.5" HDD have a built-in SATA3->PCIe converter, so that it plugs into one of the two PCIe sockets in that bay?

I just didn't know this was available.  Where is it written up?  I don't see it on the HMM pages talking about the M.2 bay.

In the HMM, the two 2.5" drives are referred to as ATA HDD0 and ATA HDD1.  The two M.2s are referred to as ATA HDD2 (or NVMe0) and HDD3 (or NVMe1), depending on your M.2 is a SATA or NVMe interface.

If you look at the diagram on page 64, the two dotted line blocks indicates 2.5" drives (you can tell by their size).

If you look at the diagram on page 66, the two dotted line blocks indicate M.2 drivers (you can tell the difference by size).

To connect the 2.5" drive, you'll need two flex cables:

00UR835 Cable,HDD,slot3
00UR836 Cable,HDD,slot4

Per the FRU lookup website https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/partslookup if the system comes with a 2.5" drive, it will also comes with two cables.  If the system comes with M.2 drive only, it will NOT come with the cables.

Please also take a look at this picture http://i.imgur.com/HJQl9xm.jpg .  The two interfaces on the green circuit boards are for 2.5" HDDs.

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Please refer to http://www.ok1.de/thinkpad/HMM/p50_hmm_en_sp40j71944.pdf, page 64 (page 70 of 118 in PDF).

 

Thanks!

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In passing, the way you've posted the link to the P50 HMM PDF is not right.  It ends up going to a German web site.

The actual P50 HMM can be found using this link.

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wrote:

 

Per the FRU lookup website (https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/partslookup), if the system comes with a 2.5" drive, it will also comes with two cables.  If the system comes with M.2 drive only, it will NOT come with the cables.

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Just another aside, the way you've posted the above link is also not right.  It gets 404.

The page for Lenovo parts lookup is here.

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wrote:

In the HMM, the two 2.5" drives are referred to as ATA HDD0 and ATA HDD1.  The two M.2s are referred to as ATA HDD2 (or NVMe0) and HDD3 (or NVMe1), depending on your M.2 is a SATA or NVMe interface.

 

If you look at the diagram on page 64, the two dotted line blocks indicates 2.5" drives (you can tell by their size).

 

Per the FRU lookup website https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/partslookup if the system comes with a 2.5" drive, it will also comes with two cables.  If the system comes with M.2 drive only, it will NOT come with the cables.

 

Please also take a look at this picture http://i.imgur.com/HJQl9xm.jpg .  The two interfaces on the green circuit boards are for 2.5" HDDs.

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Yes, you're right.  It certainly looks like HDD1 was meant to represent a second 2.5"" HDD installed in that left M.2 bay as an alternative configuration to having one or two PCIe SSD's there (either SATA or NVMe).  I hadn't picked that up.

It's also clear that's why that left bay is "taller" than it really needed to be if just the PCIe SSD's were meant to go there.  That's why there needs to be a tray into which these PCIe SSD's must go, and then the tray plugs into the PCIe socket... because of the height of the bay.  So I would now agree with you that there obviously must be some kind of way a 2.5" HDD can go into that left bay, and be HDD1. 

There is no schematic showing an adapter or mounting bracket for that 2.5" HDD, nor is it clear how that drive (which is presumably SATA3) would connect, other than I assume through a cable for that left bay with that second part number you mention.  But since there are only PCIe connectors in that left bay, I'm guessing this "left cable" must have a SATA3->PCIe conversion, which is why it is different from the "right cable" which is probably just SATA3->SATA3 since the right drive bay is built for a SATA HDD.

It would really have been nice if any of the documentation anywhere in any manual would have discussed this, and showed a schematic drawing, and made mention of the cable required, and maybe shown how this second 2.5" HDD would be screwed in and installed. After all, you'd think the HMM would describe it.

Yes, it now appears everything you said is accurate.  But you found the parts yourself in the PSREF, and it's only the special cable for that left bay that you located along with its part number.  And I am only assuming that this left cable must have that SATA->PCIe converter, unless there is also a SATA connector in the left bay (which I don't think is true). And I still don't know how the 2.5" drive itself gets installed into that left bay.

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wrote:

ThinkPad P50 has the option to install two 2.5" HDD.  However, "Hard disk drive cable" is needed.

 

Per Lenovo, there are two different part numbers:

 

00UR835 Cable,HDD,slot3
00UR836 Cable,HDD,slot4

 

Obiously, one is the the bay on the left and the other one if for the right.

 

I just ordered a 20EN0013US.  It comes with a 500GB HDD, which is on the right bay.

 

If I shall add a 2nd HDD, I'm going to use the bay on the left.  Now, my question is - is the bay on the left slot 3 or slot 4?  Which cable I'll need?

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Not clear to me which one is which one.

Lenovo's English terminology in referring to "slot3" and "slot4" unfortunately does not correspond to those terms in any diagram.  They should have used "bay" or "slot" when applicable.

There are obviously two drive bays, left and right.  These should have been called "left bay" and "right bay", or maybe "bay0" and "bay1" rather than "slot0 and "slot1" as the diagram on page 64 shows.

And then inside the left bay for M.2 there are actually two PCIe connectors/slots, also designated as "slot0" and "slot1" in the diagram on page 66.

Ambiguous and confusing terminology, to call a "bay" a "slot", and use the identical "slot0" and "slot1" for two different laptop locations.

So, it's now clear what HDD0 is, i.e. the factory drive in the right bay).  And HDD1 would be the optional second non-M.2 drive installed in the left bay, if you choose to use it that way.

And HDD2/NVMe0 would be the leftmost PCIe slot inside the left bay, and HDD3/NVMe1 would be the rightmost PCIe slot inside the left bay.

As to what "slot3" and "slot4" pertain to in terms of which of the two different HDD cables are available as shown in the PSREFs document, well it's anybody's guess.  Lenovo obviously meant them to distinguish between the cable needed for use in the left bay vs. the cable needed for use in the right bay.  But the terms "slot3" and "slot4" are not used in the HMM, so who knows which is which.

I would hope Lenovo updates the HMM to clarify, revising it to use proper non-ambiguous and non-duplicated English terminology. It would also be nice if they added another diagram showing this optional alternate configuration supported which places a second 2.5" HDD in that left bay, including how the drive gets physically installed and where the proper left cable for the left bay connects to.  Mention of the proper part number for the required left cable would also be very useful (and would, of course, be the answer to your fundamental thread question).

But again, I suspect one of these (right cable) is a straight SATA->SATA cable, for use in the right drive bay where a SATA connector to the motherboard must exist.  And I'm guessing the other cable (left cable) is a SATA->PCIe cable, for use in the left bay where there are only two M.2 PCIe connectors.  As to which one is for use in the theoretical "slot3" and which one is for use in the theoretical "slot4", well maybe Lenovo Parts can clarify with a phone call.

If you look at the very clear image linked above by the OP, you can see the two SATA connectors on the exposed green areas of the board above and sort of outside the HDD bays

The connector for the right bay is located above and toward the left side of the bay.  This is the diagram shown in the HMM.  You can see that the adaptor cable runs up the left side of the HDD straight to the connector.

For the left bay, the connector is located above and toward the RIGHT side of the bay.  So I assume that the adapter cable will run up the right side of the HDD in that bay.

That is why there are two different part numbers -- for a righty and a lefty cable.

(The PCIe connectors are accessed from inside the slots through the top of the bay and are separate from the SATA connectors.)

However, this does not answer the original question of which part number is for which bay.  And I believe that slots, bays, and disk numbers are mislabeled in the HMM.  They make no sense at all.

@DSperber -- Does the cable that came with your HDD have a part number on it?  It would probably be a different number than the FRU number, but might at least be a clue.