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Y500/Y400 Aftermarket HDD Caddy


bedlam13

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So I risked $12 for a HDD caddy off ebay hoping it would work.... and IT WORKS!

It's not PERFECT but it fits, it works, and I saved $150+ compared to the OEM one from Lenovo.

Comparison with the dvd drive

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Putting the stock bracket on the caddy

I took out the L shaped black bracket from the DVD drive and put it on the HDD caddy, it's attached by 4 screws.

2 in front

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2 on the side

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After

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Install

Put my 2.5" HD in

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Slide it in

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Not a perfect fit, but I think you can remove the front plate from the stock DVD drive and put it on this caddy... I didn't want to tear mine apart cuz I still need to ship it back to Lenovo for my GT750M SLI model.

Hope this helps Y500/400 owners decide which HDD caddy to get :D

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Nice! I knew it would work. Some people have doubted my advice but I've always said that you could remove the mounting bracket from the Ultrabay DVD module and use it on a generic HDD caddy.

Despite the lack of a front plate it looks like it fits very well and I guess you could live with the appearance. It would be useful if you could provide a link to where you bought this specific caddy.

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Nice! I knew it would work. Some people have doubted my advice but I've always said that you could remove the mounting bracket from the Ultrabay DVD module and use it on a generic HDD caddy.

Despite the lack of a front plate it looks like it fits very well and I guess you could live with the appearance. It would be useful if you could provide a link to where you bought this specific caddy.

Yeah, it's a little tough to pull it out since it doesn't have the grip edge from the dvd front plate, but just slowly sliding it out will work.

This is the one i got http://www.ebay.ca/itm/281069196038?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_5683wt_1166

Thank you so much! That looks like a perfect solution. Can you tell me who made the caddy? model?

Not sure who made it... but just search 'y500 hdd caddy' on ebay and you'll see a couple going for around $12.

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Not a perfect fit, but I think you can remove the front plate from the stock DVD drive and put it on this caddy... I didn't want to tear mine apart cuz I still need to ship it back to Lenovo for my GT750M SLI model.

Hope this helps Y500/400 owners decide which HDD caddy to get :D

I have done exactly the same as you, except that I had the SLI version. I've removed the faceplate from that, but there doesn't seem to be a non-destructive way to attach it to the hard drive caddy... :(

Also, what do you mean 'ship it back for my 750M', are you exchanging it for a whole new laptop with the 750M or are the installing it?

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

I purchased the $12 caddy from eBay and it works fine too! Had to add a small piece of cushioning so that the HDD didn´t move upwards though... And I took the bezel off the BluRay reader and fitted it onto the caddy. Success!

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  • 2 weeks later...

ON my dvd drive. the two back screws do not budge.

I've tried heating it a bit to see if that would loosen glue or something.

that's the only thing I need in order to finish my hdd dvd swap. :(

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This is awesome news! I just received my Y400 and I have been wanting to do something with the ultra bay dock, but paying 150 plus shipping to do so just didn't seem right. Overpriced for sure, so this option will do me fine. Thanks a ton for posting this. Ordering one tomorrow.

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ON my dvd drive. the two back screws do not budge.

I've tried heating it a bit to see if that would loosen glue or something.

that's the only thing I need in order to finish my hdd dvd swap. :(

I was finally able to install it :)

looks and works great.!!

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  • 2 weeks later...
Truely ingenius! I need this to host my big virtual machine files.

Thanks.

Same here. Running W9 with some huge VMs. I replaced the stock HDD with a Samsung 840 Pro 256. I need a lot of space for my VM. Planning to put the HDD caddy instead of the 750m and recycling the original hdd. Since I am not really gaming for now. Here is the link to the caddy I bought. I will report back once I receive it.

New 9 5mm 2nd SSD HDD Hard Drive Optical Bay Caddy Adapter for Lenovo Y400 Y500 | eBay

Does anyone know if Lenovo also whitelisted the msata?

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Pimsley - Did you ever get it and did it work for the y400 formfactor?

machin - I would ask you the same, do you have a 500 or a 400..

Though I imagine that the form shouldn't matter I would be using my current faceplate, and the caddy size should be fairly stock, I will have to measure my 410p caddy when I get a chance.

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Same here. Running W9 with some huge VMs. I replaced the stock HDD with a Samsung 840 Pro 256. I need a lot of space for my VM. Planning to put the HDD caddy instead of the 750m and recycling the original hdd. Since I am not really gaming for now. Here is the link to the caddy I bought. I will report back once I receive it.

New 9 5mm 2nd SSD HDD Hard Drive Optical Bay Caddy Adapter for Lenovo Y400 Y500 | eBay

Does anyone know if Lenovo also whitelisted the msata?

I'm guessing with the bios mod, the whitelist was removed.

Do you have pix of the caddy in your laptop? I've been searching for one and I want it to look as natural as possible.

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Same here. Running W9 with some huge VMs. I replaced the stock HDD with a Samsung 840 Pro 256. I need a lot of space for my VM. Planning to put the HDD caddy instead of the 750m and recycling the original hdd. Since I am not really gaming for now. Here is the link to the caddy I bought. I will report back once I receive it.

New 9 5mm 2nd SSD HDD Hard Drive Optical Bay Caddy Adapter for Lenovo Y400 Y500 | eBay

Does anyone know if Lenovo also whitelisted the msata?

I'm pretty sure the msata isn't whitelisted, judging by the variety of msata drives I've heard people throw in their machine since day 1 from other forums. But, I could be wrong.

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Ordered one of these yesterday and just installed it. Works well, except it a super tight fit in the Y400 (with a little bit of bluging on the plastic bottom cover). There's a bit of a gap between the faceplate and the laptop body, but you can only see that from the bottom.

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I ordered the same caddy off of Amazon and use it without the bracket without problem. (Amazon.com: Universal 9.5mm SATA Hard Drive Caddy for hP lenovo: Computers & Accessories) I'm planning on doing a mold of the drive cover and shaping a new HDD cover without all the bells and whistles of an ODD or GPU cover that, at the same time, will have the inner mounting point that the HDD caddy cover has. When I do get around to that I'll probably put up a sale thread elsewhere for others who want a drive cover at-cost.

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this was also my first option in extending the storage of my y500, but i figured it would be more of a hassle swapping ODD and HDD when needed. so i just bought my self a crucial m4 256G mSata to replace the sandisk 16G mSata installed, and made it my primary hard drive

btw, noticed any differences in access and transfer rates between the primary HDD and the one in the caddy?

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  • 5 months later...

lol old post... anyways i found a y400 caddy from a seller in China and found it to be a prefect fit, not plate lifting.

2nd HDD SSD Hard Drive Caddy for Lenovo IdeaPad Y400N Y410N Y410P with Bezel | eBay

Easy to follow directions. Try it out =] I replaced my internal drive with and SSD and put in the stock internal HDD into the caddy. The cons of this is that it drains a little more power and also adds some weight to the laptop.

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