T61: HDD initialization error at boot

[cb474]

I run a second hard drive in the ultrabay on my T61.

I've never noticed it behaving weirdly, but today for some reason I could see the files on the hard drive, but none of them were readable. So I rebooted my system, twice, and both times got an HDD initilization error from the BIOS, specifying the ultrabay drive. I then removed the ultrabay caddy, removed the drive, plugged it back in, and started up. Things are working fine now.

Looking at the SMART data for the drive it says everything is okay. This is a regular magnetic hard disk.

Should I be concerned that this drive is failing? Or was this just a fluke?

Thanks for any feedback.

[kfzhu1229]

I run a second hard drive in the ultrabay on my T61.

I've never noticed it behaving weirdly, but today for some reason I could see the files on the hard drive, but none of them were readable. So I rebooted my system, twice, and both times got an HDD initilization error from the BIOS, specifying the ultrabay drive. I then removed the ultrabay caddy, removed the drive, plugged it back in, and started up. Things are working fine now.

Looking at the SMART data for the drive it says everything is okay. This is a regular magnetic hard disk.

Should I be concerned that this drive is failing? Or was this just a fluke?

Thanks for any feedback.

It's entirely possible to just be bad/oxidised contacts in one or more connectors between the propietrary IDE based connector to the converter board and then to your SATA hard drive.
I have had slow or failed initialisations of a 3.5" HDD on my desktop before and that turned out to be a bad SATA cable!

[cadillacmike68]

Take it out and slide it back in. It happens to me every so often as well.

[cb474]

Thanks for the replies.

It happened again today and removing and replacing the ultrabay, as well as removing the drive from the ultrabay adapter and replacing it, seemed to solve the problem.

It's strange though, because I've had this thinkpad for twelve years and this is the first time this has ever happened. I wonder if I can clean off the contacts or if I should look for a replacement ultrabay adapter?