T420 and ultrabay HDD, they don't quite fit...

Purchased the Lenovo genuine HDD ultrabay SATA adapter for my Thinkpad T420 to keep a 500gb HDD in for storage.
Doesn't quite fit perfectly, as you can tell from the pics. As a result, you can hear the HDD spin/"whir" in the bay in a dead silent study room.
This is how I fixed it to make everything work much better, and solved all the problems. The pics tell all of the story.

1) Picture of the ultrabay of the T420:


2) Ultrabay SATA and HDD


3) Again:


4) Again:


5) Here you can see exactly what I'm talking about, quite the gap!


6) So buy some of this for $3 at Home Depot:


7) And all of your problems are solved:

 

You would think Lenovo would use some of that thinking power they're so fond of promoting and engineer a bezel we could buy for $5 bucks. Especially since they had the nerve to do this now on the W510, W520 and T420.

Hammer smack.

 

I'm just grateful they at least offer an end-user option of adding a 2nd HDD to a thin, powerful laptop.

But yes, engineering thought would be appreciated.

 

That's a pretty large gap, it almost looks like it was designed for the T420s. But I thought their ultrabays were the same height?

 

It is claimed to be compatible with quite a few of Lenovo's new Thinkpads from several series. I don't know anything about the T420s.

Honestly, with the $3 foam tape applied it is perfect, I really don't mind it at all.

 

The T420 bay is apparently 12.7mm like it's big brothers. Odd, really odd.

 

What part number is it for the caddy of yours? I know Lenovo made some revisions of the Ultrabay caddy over time, their latest one is the "Ultrabay Slim ThinkPad Serial Hard Drive Bay Adapter III” with FRU number 43N3415 but I find no documentation that it supports the T420 (only goes up to T410). Their previous one the "Ultrabay Slim ThinkPad Serial Hard Drive Bay Adapter II" has a FRU number of 43R1984.

The gap is really disappointing should it turn out to be the latest one though I commend your ingenuity with the foam.

 

sprtnbsblplya, why did you take out your 64gb ssd? Just wondering.

 

The caddy is probably designed for the T400/T500 and previous T-series Thinkpads, which used the 9.5mm UltraBay slim drive. Strange that Lenovo doesn't provide a properly-sized UltraBay caddy for the new standard-thickness UltraBay, though...

 

Yeah it would be nice if Lenovo design one that is compatible with the new 12.7mm ultrabay. The t410 and the t400 still uses the old 9.5mm drive, so this ultrabay is design with 9.5mm in mind. The only new Thinkpad that uses the 9.5mm ultrabay are the t420s.