Thinkpads Forum

Recent thread(s) have established that although not "supported" by Lenovo, a PATA drive in a PATA ultrabay slim adapter, is usable in a T60 even though the design of those PATA ultrabay slim adapters harken back to the T4X series.

So here's the opposite question; can you use a SATA notebook drive in a SATA Ultrabay slim adapter in a T43? I read some speculation in a prior thread here that all ultrabay adapters work in fact as PATA devices even though they may hold SATA drives. I don't know if this is true, just that I read it on this board.

If this is true, then one would surmise, perhaps incorrectly, that a SATA drive HDD adapter with a SATA drive in it, would work in a T43, whether "supported" or not.

My guess is that it won't, but I'm curious to know if anyone has tried it.

ken

Ken Fox wrote:Recent thread(s) have established that although not "supported" by Lenovo, a PATA drive in a PATA ultrabay slim adapter, is usable in a T60 even though the design of those PATA ultrabay slim adapters harken back to the T4X series.

So here's the opposite question; can you use a SATA notebook drive in a SATA Ultrabay slim adapter in a T43? I read some speculation in a prior thread here that all ultrabay adapters work in fact as PATA devices even though they may hold SATA drives. I don't know if this is true, just that I read it on this board.

The answer is that a SATA ultrabay HDD tray CANNOT be used in a T43 system and presumably in other PATA drive based Thinkpads even though it looks at first blush like the adapter would fit. There is a tab on the leading edge of the SATA tray that is not present on the PATA versions. This tab blocks the tray from seating when it is pushed in most of the way. An adventurous soul might use a hacksaw or other implement to remove this tab, to find out if it would work, however I am nowhere near that adventurous.