UltraBay Enhanced Adapter works in A31?

[tbessie]

Hey all...

People here have implied that the UltraBay Enhanced Adapter will work with the UltraBay 2000/Plus bays on an A31 with no problem.

However, the web page for the adapter on IBM's website (now Lenovo, I guess) doesn't list the A31 as compatible.

Does anyone know about this for sure? Anyone used that adapter with an A31 or A31p?

- Tim

[slagmi]

I don't believe the connector on the back of the drive is physically compatible
Even if IBM's adapter is removed from the ultrabay drive I don't think you can just plug it into the ultrabay enhanced drive.
I'll take a look at each drive later tho to doublecheck

[tbessie]

You talk about plugging a drive into a drive... where do you mean "bay" and where do you mean "drive"?

- Tim

[slagmi]

Okay
All notebook optical drives are pretty much the same
But the interface on the back of the drive has evolved a little over the years

IBM UltraBay, as you already know, is proprietary
What IMB does is attach an 'adapter' to the back of the drive
And also BTW a couple of plastic side rails and a custom bezel.
It is possible to remove the adapter and put it on a similar drive.

But I dont think you will be able to put that adapter on a drive that the UltraBay enhanced bay will take. Things won't match up physically.
Plus I believe the ultrabay enhanced drives are a bit thinner.
You wouldn't really want to have it loose in there anyways.

[tbessie]

there seemed to think it would work.

I ordered it, and I'll report back as to whether it works or not.
Thanks for your warnings... I'll find out soon enough, I guess.

- Tim

[tbessie]

I found I could just trim a bit of plastic off a NEC slim burner, attach the UltraBay connector to it, and it worked fine. Far cheaper and far better performance. Weird how IBM/Lenovo never provided those better (DL) burners.

- Tim