Thinkpads Forum

Forgive me if this has been asked before, I did a bunch of searches but didn't find anything:

Can I use any notebook SATA150 drive (like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822116023)
in the Ultraslimbay Hard Drive Adapter?

It looks like it would work, but the packaging and user manual say use only Thinkpad Drives.

Thanks.

karms99 wrote:Forgive me if this has been asked before, I did a bunch of searches but didn't find anything:

Can I use any notebook SATA150 drive (like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822116023)
in the Ultraslimbay Hard Drive Adapter?

It looks like it would work, but the packaging and user manual say use only Thinkpad Drives.

Thanks.

You should be able to use any SATA drive in the SATA ultrabay adapter and it will work fine; no need to buy an overpriced IBM labelled drive.

You could also buy one of the older style PATA ultrabay adapters and that will work fine in the T60, Z61t, and probably other current models such as the X60 with the X6 dock.

The one combination which WILL NOT work is to try to put a SATA drive ultrabay into an earlier laptop such as a T4x; I have tried this myself with my T43 and it will not fit. There is a plastic tab on the SATA ultrabay drive adapters that make it so that they will not fit into a T4x ultrabay compartment, nor presumably in other similar bays such as on the dock for the X3x or X4x systems.

What is the best place to buy PATA ultrabay adapters? How much should one expect to pay for one of them?

syedj wrote:What is the best place to buy PATA ultrabay adapters? How much should one expect to pay for one of them?

This is the part,

https://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... Id=1201232

Lenovo has jacked the price up recently; it used to be available from the Visa card Lenovo link for not much more than $30. Pricegrabber doesn't show any good deals at the moment.

You might want to prowl around on ebay.

One word of warning if you go the eBay route...

This is a genuine IBM Ultrabay Slim Hard Drive Adapter:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0085739210

and this is a knockoff:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0084654843

While I can't comment on the quality or functionality of the knockoff, it's something that you should be aware of when buying Ultrabay HD adapters from eBay. At least this particular seller admits it to being a "cheap solution". Most of the sellers I've seen that offer this adapter make no reference to it being a non-IBM part. They mainly include a photograph of the right corner where "IBM" has been printed. But if you look closely, it says "For IBM".

The previous posts to this thread have referenced the IBM HDD adapter that works with PATA drives. Although this will work in the Ultrabay of the T60, if you want to use SATA drives in the bay you will have to buy a different adapter.

The SATA HDD adapter Model 40Y8725 (which is NOT the same as the PATA adapter Model 41U3148 that works in earlier models of ThinkPads) is here:

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/cont ... 00478166B3

I bought the SATA adapter because I bought an new SATA drive to install in the internal drive bay of my T60. In order to use the original SATA drive in the Ultrabay I had to buy the SATA adapter.

I hope this makes sense to everyone. If not, write to me.

Thank you wallybear.

I have a bunch of PATA hard drives laying around that I keep switching with a T41 with various OSes installed on them. I think I will go by the PATA Ultrabay adapter way and then use BIOS to boot from the PATA drives whenever needed.

you dont need to spend time and wait till bios gives the option what to hdd to boot. just make in the boot.ini in the first drive a link to the second hdd and it boots straight from it. simple and clear (now, after few hours trying to solve it)

If I buy the SATA adapter and put an SATA HDD in it, can I dual boot from the Ultrabay Slim HDD?

Yup, no problem booting from it

dorin wrote:you dont need to spend time and wait till bios gives the option what to hdd to boot. just make in the boot.ini in the first drive a link to the second hdd and it boots straight from it. simple and clear (now, after few hours trying to solve it)

Pray tell... can you post your modified boot.ini (and maybe save others a few hours )?

here it is

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ight=dorin

next step, os-x on x40, as soon as i buy a atheros card..

Thank you dorin!!!

I don't know about SATA drives, but for PATA drives, if you get a generic drive and get the PATA ultrabay adapter, you still need to get a frame (same as if you're installing the drive into your ThinkPad), otherwise the drive will be loose inside the ultrabay adapter.

FRiC wrote:I don't know about SATA drives, but for PATA drives, if you get a generic drive and get the PATA ultrabay adapter, you still need to get a frame (same as if you're installing the drive into your ThinkPad), otherwise the drive will be loose inside the ultrabay adapter.

Not true. I have both the sata and pata trays and no frame is specified in the installation instructions or required.

FRiC wrote:I don't know about SATA drives, but for PATA drives, if you get a generic drive and get the PATA ultrabay adapter, you still need to get a frame (same as if you're installing the drive into your ThinkPad), otherwise the drive will be loose inside the ultrabay adapter.

I agree with Steve; this is 100% untrue. Like him, I own both a SATA and a PATA version, both genuine IBM models, and they are not designed to need the mounting hardware that is used by the main drive bay.

I just picked up the OEM SATA version and I noticed that there are little plastic tabs, facing inward, that grip the 4 screws on the side of hdd frame for a more secure fit. Also, on the T60 HDD frame, it has a little "rail" on the back, which is securely locked down by the SATA black plastic gate. After installing a SATA HDD on in the adaptor with no frame, I did not like how a good size bump would pop the HDD forward. Installing it with the T60 frame, and no amount of bumps knocked the out like before. So I am currently trying to get the T60 frame, which isnt listed yet on Lenovo. I checked the X and T series frames pre T60, and they dont have the metal rail on the back (not really needed, but if they all cost about the same, I figure getting the newer one).

syedj wrote:Thank you wallybear.

I have a bunch of PATA hard drives laying around that I keep switching with a T41 with various OSes installed on them. I think I will go by the PATA Ultrabay adapter way and then use BIOS to boot from the PATA drives whenever needed.

Small question: When you use the hdd ultrabay adapater, how can you install a system on it when you don't have the cd rom installed any longer?

AlexanderT wrote:Small question: When you use the hdd ultrabay adapater, how can you install a system on it when you don't have the cd rom installed any longer?

You can swap it with the internal drive, install the OS and swap it out or you can use an external usb cd rom drive.

steveg47 wrote:

AlexanderT wrote:Small question: When you use the hdd ultrabay adapater, how can you install a system on it when you don't have the cd rom installed any longer?

You can swap it with the internal drive, install the OS and swap it out or you can use an external usb cd rom drive.

Good suggestions, thanks. Since I don't have an external USB cd-rom, I guess my only choice is to temporarily swap it with the internal drive.

rkawakami wrote:One word of warning if you go the eBay route...

This is a genuine IBM Ultrabay Slim Hard Drive Adapter:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0085739210

and this is a knockoff:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0084654843

While I can't comment on the quality or functionality of the knockoff, it's something that you should be aware of when buying Ultrabay HD adapters from eBay. At least this particular seller admits it to being a "cheap solution". Most of the sellers I've seen that offer this adapter make no reference to it being a non-IBM part. They mainly include a photograph of the right corner where "IBM" has been printed. But if you look closely, it says "For IBM".

I have actually just received one of the "knockoff" PATA versions for my Ultrabase X6, intending to use it with a 4200rpm 100GB notebook hard disk I have spare.

When I have some more time spent with it (my X60s and Ultrabase only arrived today! ), I'll let you all know how it fares with regard to temperature.

The non-genuine Ultrabay HDD adapter seems to work just fine. There isn't any real significant change in temperature, nor does the hard drive feel appreciably warm.

That being said, keep in mind I'm using a 4200rpm drive with it, and it respects the HDD spin-down timers set in the OS -- as I don't use the Ultrabay HDD all the time, it remains spun down a fair bit.

Thanks for that follow-up information on the knockoff adapter. I only wanted to point out that there's some sneaky stuff going on with all three types of HD adapters; Ultraslimbay, Ultrabay Slim and Ultrabay 2000.