Can anyone walk me through putting a DVDRW into ultrabay?

[BlueDevilTide]

I currently have an IBM dvd drive for my T23. I would be interested in buying a third party notebook DVDRW multi drive and putting it in.

- Can someone suggest a good model at Newegg around a $40-$50 price point? Something that'll fit and is a good model and such.

-After that, I don't know what happens. Apparently it won't fit in right away. How do I adjust the new drive to make it fit? Or do I remove something from the old DVD drive to do so? Do I have to buy anything else besides the drive? What level of technical ability does one need to undertake this?

Thanks a whole lot. I currently have a huge external DVDRW but it's getting to be a hassle at times.

[rkawakami]

I would say that any 12mm (height) drive that you can find will eventually fit inside the Ultrabay 2000 (U2K) of the T23. I've done it many times with various drives meant for other laptops. The main sticking point is what to do about the "notch" in the bezel of the drive. If you buy a drive specifically made for the IBM U2K then the bezel is already cut out for you. If you use any other drive, you will have to perform some surgery yourself. I find using a Dremel mounted in its drill press stand to be quite useful for performing this mod.

Once you have the bezel modified to fit inside the U2K, then all you need to do is transfer an existing "caddy" (drive rails) from your old U2K device onto the new one. Held in by 6 small screws, it takes only a few minutes to switch the three plastic (and one small metal spring) pieces. There may be some brackets on the new drive which you would have to remove first, but it's a very easy operation to do.

As far as the DVD-RW drives go, I have used both UJ-820 and UJ-840 drives in my T23s. Support for these drives may a problem, as I believe that the dual-layer (UJ-840) does not work correctly with the (old) Easy CD Creator 5 program that I have. I would assume that if I buy a newer burner program that this wouldn't be an issue.

[TomKroscavage]

I've also had to trim the top and the sides of a Matshitu DVD ROM drive brezel not just the notch. It was fun for me I had this drive laying around not being used along with a broken ultrabay CD drive. I followed the instructions similar to the one above on switching drive rails, and now I have the DVD in this T23 that I am typing on.

[Noslen]

I would say that any 12mm (height) drive that you can find will eventually fit inside the Ultrabay 2000 (U2K) of the T23.

I was looking at some 'slim' DVDRW drives and it looks like the connection in the back is totally different from the t22 OEM DVD ROM

[smugiri]

Here's how to do it thanks to those great Aussies.

[alagregg]

some knowledge of IDE is also useful.
in the T23 the hard disk and ultrabay use different IDE lines, because of this both are usually set to be master.

some laptop CD/DVD drives come set as secondary, these will not be bootable in the thinkpad, althougth they will otherwise work (at least this is my experience).

it is very hard to change the master/slave setting of a laptop CD/DVD disk drive. you either have to find a firmware (usually not avaible) or have to perform some soldering to the drive (which only works on some models).

This problem is made worse by the fact the majority of sellers on ebay are unaware if they are selling master or slave drives.

- Al

[smugiri]

some knowledge of IDE is also useful.
in the T23 the hard disk and ultrabay use different IDE lines, because of this both are usually set to be master.

some laptop CD/DVD drives come set as secondary, these will not be bootable in the thinkpad, althougth they will otherwise work (at least this is my experience).

it is very hard to change the master/slave setting of a laptop CD/DVD disk drive. you either have to find a firmware (usually not avaible) or have to perform some soldering to the drive (which only works on some models).

This problem is made worse by the fact the majority of sellers on ebay are unaware if they are selling master or slave drives.

- Al

This might not matter since the CD Rom is on the secondary IDE channel on most new laptops. I do not know if this is the case for the T23.

[mysbca]

Can someone suggest a good model at Newegg around a $40-$50 price point? Something that'll fit and is a good model and such.

The only model under $50 is the Samsung and they are out of stock:
Slim dvd burners at Newegg

I have used the NEC ND-6500 in a T23 and it has worked great. See this thread for more details:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=14420

Looks like the current NEC model is the 5540.

[alagregg]

some knowledge of IDE is also useful.
in the T23 the hard disk and ultrabay use different IDE lines, because of this both are usually set to be master.

some laptop CD/DVD drives come set as secondary, these will not be bootable in the thinkpad, althougth they will otherwise work (at least this is my experience).

it is very hard to change the master/slave setting of a laptop CD/DVD disk drive. you either have to find a firmware (usually not avaible) or have to perform some soldering to the drive (which only works on some models).

This problem is made worse by the fact the majority of sellers on ebay are unaware if they are selling master or slave drives.

- Al

This might not matter since the CD Rom is on the secondary IDE channel on most new laptops. I do not know if this is the case for the T23.

whilst it is the case that the cdrom is on the secoundary channel, the bios is not programmed to boot from a slave.

At least this is why i assume my slave drive is not bootable (as my masters from other laptops that i swapped in were bootable). but i only have one slave drive, and have no desire to buy another to check my guess.

i would assume it is only a minority of drives which are slave. As all the laptops i own, including IBM, toshiba and maxdata all have master DVD drives by default.

- Al