Thinkpads Forum

ieee488 wrote:Will I be able to boot off this if I put in a TP600 CD-ROM drive?

Will it work with other laptops?

You will most probably NOT be able to boot from a CD drive in a Portable Drive Bay.

I don't own a 570, but a 240x and a Portable Drive Bay (not PDB2000!).
The 240 and 240x can not boot from the drive bay, only from floppy and harddrive.

As the 570 series and the 240 series were released around the same time and share many components, it's almost certain that the 570 also will not boot.

I tried a $10 best offer with the guy on eBay with the 264 Portable Drive Bays but received no response.

For $10 + shipping, I was willing to give a try. Oh, well.

moronoxyd wrote:You will most probably NOT be able to boot from a CD drive in a Portable Drive Bay

Correct - for the 240 see http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... Q2KLY.html where u can download a boot floppy for booting a 240 to use a portable drive bay(pdb) and a readme - so you need both an external floppy and a PDB ... this will also apply to the 570.
Only cd direct boot on a 570 will be from an ultrabase.

Another thing to note is that the PDB only really works with w2k - functionality under XP is at best patchy!!

I have a PDB with cable and CD drive for Sale if any UK members are interested (also have an external floppy I could be persuaded to part with) - see the Marketplace

bobgarty wrote: Another thing to note is that the PDB only really works with w2k - functionality under XP is at best patchy!!

Are you sure about that?

Apprently there is a PDB 1 - I see drivers for it on IBM website - and PDB 2 aka PDB 2000.

ieee488 wrote:I tried a $10 best offer with the guy on eBay with the 264 Portable Drive Bays but received no response.

For $10 + shipping, I was willing to give a try. Oh, well.

I've done the same - we'll see if he responds!

He's probably thinking where these idiot cheapskates, ie you and I, are coming from.

I'd like to know what he is saving those 264 Portable Drive Bays for?

In another 5 years, these laptops will be too ancient to be of much use.

ieee488 wrote:

bobgarty wrote:Another thing to note is that the PDB only really works with w2k - functionality under XP is at best patchy!!

Are you sure about that?
Apprently there is a PDB 1 - I see drivers for it on IBM website - and PDB 2 aka PDB 2000.

I'm running 2-3 Portable Drive Bays (the first versions, not PDB 2000s) with my 600X, 770E, and 770Z machines in various docking configurations. I've found the bays to be reliable under both win 2000 and XP. Note that in order to get them working under XP, you have to manually "update" the driver for the device to the Win 2000 version. For some reason, Win XP SP2 automatically recognizes these old PDB's as Portable Drive Bay 2000s, and then they don't work right with the drivers XP installs by default. They only work correctly after manually changing the drivers (when you do this, the device name will change as well).

I think you might have slightly more hot/warm swapping features available in Win 2000 than in XP: under Win 2000, you can actually hot-swap secondary hard drives in the PDB by stopping the device with a tray icon, but if you try that under XP I don't think the new IDE device is recognized properly.

I don't think any of my machines can boot from a Portable Drive Bay.

Also, it is VERY important to double-check that you have fresh batteries installed in the PDB when you are troubleshooting it -- even though it draws power from the PCMCIA slot. Several times I have run into inexplicable issues reading/writing/transferring data, only to realize that they went away after I installed fresh batteries.

Phil.

pkiff wrote:

ieee488 wrote:Are you sure about that?
Apprently there is a PDB 1 - I see drivers for it on IBM website - and PDB 2 aka PDB 2000.

I'm running 2-3 Portable Drive Bays (the first versions, not PDB 2000s) with my 600X, 770E, and 770Z machines in various docking configurations. I've found the bays to be reliable under both win 2000 and XP. Note that in order to get them working under XP, you have to manually "update" the driver for the device to the Win 2000 version.

I thought I was using the W2k driver - I will try again when I get a chance ..