Lenovo Thinkpad X220 HDD Replacement

Introduction

Here, I'll replace the hard disk of my ThinkPad X220 in a few steps.

What you need

Step 3

You will arrive to something like this.
Pull the black tab popping out to remove the HDD from its tray.
The little black tab can be fragile. I recommend you to put tape on it when you have removed the HDD from the bracket to make it tougher.

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Step 4

Congratulations! You got the HDD out of the laptop. We can now put the laptop somewhere else and focus on the HDD.
On each long side of the HDD, two rubber bands are located. Pull them to remove them and access to the screws.

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Step 5

Unscrew the 4 screws located on the two long sides of the drives...
...and push the HDD outside from its retention bracket.

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Step 6

You're done! To reassemble, place a new drive in the bracket and follow the steps in the reverse order.

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When obtaining a replacement hard drive, be aware that many 2.5" laptop drives, particularly older ones, are too thick (9.5mm) to fit in the X220 drive bay. You need one with a drive height (thickness) of 7mm.

Michael Field - Mar 14, 2023 Reply