Paul wrote:

FreeMantle wrote:
Can Lenovo T500 laptop accept a Samsung SSD to replace the HDD?

Will it fit ?

Looking at Samsung 860 PRO 256GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD
(MZ-76P256BW) .

How do I open the T500 to do installation ?


Overview here.

https://support.lenovo.com/ca/en/solutions/pd001509

Seems to use a "storage converter". Good lord, what
will they think of next.

https://support.lenovo.com/ca/en/solutions/migr-71259

*******

Normal laptops, there's a cover on the bottom of the
laptop you remove, to access the drive bay.

The drive bay may be 9.5mm deep. Or on an older
machine, maybe 12.5mm or so. The list of actual
drive heights for 2.5" drives is here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...e_form_factors

5mm SSD (they only need to be as thick as a PCB+chip)
7mm Drive bay on a thin machine, but also SSD height
9.5mm Drive bay
12.5mm Drive bay
15mm WDC Passport external (not inside laptop), around 5TB max capacity
19mm No idea

SSD drives are 7mm. If there are 5mm ones, I don't
own one yet.

To keep an SSD secure in a regular drive bay, plastic
(rectangular) spacer rings can be obtained, to take
up the "slack space" and prevent the drive from
rattling around and busting off the SATA connector.

In your machine, it looks like there is an adapter
of some sort, to fulfill the same function. Your
machine appears to allow "sliding" insertion of
a drive, with one screw for retention.

You might have to go looking for an adapter, making
sure the adapter is for a 7mm drive. Then verify the
SSD is also 7mm. All of this care and attention
is intended to allow the SATA connector to mate
properly (one requirement), plus keep the drive
secure when the bay is larger than the drive
(the second requirement).

Paul

IBM Lenovo T500 Hard Drive Replacement Installation ThinkPad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCN8jp78VMQ

That shows replacing the HDD (with another). The drive fits into a
caddy (because it slides into the case from the side) instead of just
getting inserted into a recess to hold the drive (as with a backpanel
plate to access a recess for the drive). No idea why the rubber rails
are needed. Maybe they're vibration insulators. The ribbon is a grab
handle to make easier the extraction of the drive+caddy. A recess
accessed via a backplate just has the drive sit in the recess. No caddy
required. For sliding in the drive, yeah, I can see they'd want to use
a caddy to ensure proper alignment of the drive's and laptop's
connectors. I suspect the cage keeps the drive aligned when sliding the
cage into some rails inside the laptop; however, seems there would be
some slop in alignment due to the rubber rails that slide over the cage.

Since the dimensions for an SSD should be the same for an HDD (just be
sure the SSD isn't any thicker than the HDD), I don't see why the SSD
won't fit inside the caddy used for the HDD.

The video never did show the connectors on the HDD to check if they were
standard SATA connectors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-Pxx7tptoo

That video shows replacing the HDD in the T500 with an SSD. The cage
gets reused for the SSD, along with the rubber rails. That's what I
would expect because the SSD cases are made to the same size as the HDD
cases. Just watch for thickness of the HDD and the SSD to match.