Thinkpads Forum

I'm picking up an excellent T400 which uses a SATA optical drive which is new technology for me. My question??

Can I take a bare PATA optical drive, attach the rails and plastics from a SATA optical drive and will it work in my T400?

The drive will be the older technology but the rails and connector will be from new technology?

Just curious as I can't find any info when I Google it............

Thanks,
Ron

Don't think that would be possible. If the newer SATA Ultrabay devices are like the Ultrabay Slim (PATA) drives, there's no "adapter" that is bolted onto the rear of the bare drive. That is to say there's a SATA connector inside the T400 Ultrbay that mates directly to the optical drive's matching SATA connector.

ref: http://www.laptopparts101.com/cd-dvd-optical-drive/

edit: It seems like there are adapters that enable one to connect an IDE drive to a SATA port:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Opti ... B0024CV3VW

However, you still have two issues that I can see: 1) No room to place the adapter between the drive and Ultrabay SATA connector and 2) Physical location of the SATA port on the adapter may not match where the SATA connector is soldered onto the motherboard.

Thanks Ray. I thought so but just wanted some verification from an "expert"..........

Ron