A22e: CDRW/DVD drive compatibility to generic drives

[agarza]

I'm wondering if a generic Gateway CDRW/DVD drive would work on a Ultrabay 2000 bay on a Thinkpad A22e.

[agarza]

It seems Thinkpad Ultrabay drives uses a different connector? Would getting a used non working Thinkpad Optical drive and swapping the adapter connector and front bezel would work?

[rkawakami]

Shhhhhh.... you're going to let out the secret of getting cheap optical drives .

Yes, you can use some 12.7mm high optical drives from other systems if you change the connector on the back and use the two side rails. You must be sure that the IDE connector on the back of the drive matches the one on the IBM adapter:

http://www.kawakami-ca.com/images/ultra ... nector.jpg
http://www.kawakami-ca.com/images/drive_connectors.jpg (difference between UB Slim and UB2K)

The other problem is that the opening of the Ultrabay 2000 has the notch in the lower front right side. If your Gateway drive has a flat bezel, then you can simply trim that corner. There are some drives that use a standardized position for the clips, eject button, LED lens and emergency eject hole, and that will accept a replacement bezel already designed for the Ultrabay. For example, I've used this eBay seller many times:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0001397308 (eBay ID: bogielives)

Bezel #9 is for Ultrabay 2000. There's a list of compatible drives with the bezel #1 description, which has the same mounting system.

And as you asked in your follow-up post, yes a good source of Ultrabay 2000 rails and connector would be from a broken drive. Just be careful because I'm looking for some on eBay and I snipe !

edit: Corrected bezel # for UB2K and clarified relationship with bezel #1.