eBay Ultrabay adapter reporting SATA I with OEM Seagate 500g

[JRHAWK9]

I purchased -THIS- recently and when I installed it along with the OEM 500GB Seagate HDD (which is SATA II), RST is only reporting it as operating at SATA I (1.5 Gb/sec). I then removed the HDD from the adapter and put it back into the main spot and RST then correctly reported it as a SATA II drive.

Have any of you come across this when using similar eBay Ultrabay adapters? I am thinking about trying another one on eBay, but don't know if I want to take the chance or not. Has anybody purchased a Ultrabay adapter off of eBay and having it report the correct SATA interface for an OEM SATA II HDD?

BTW, I have a W520


thanks!

[davidhbrown]

That sure looks like what I purchased from the same vendor, though I paid a little less and mine was marked for the W510 even though I'm using it in a W520.

I just put a Seagate Momentus 7200.3 320GB drive into the one I got; the Intel Rapid Storage Technology tool is correctly reporting the 3 Gb/s SATA transfer rate.

[JRHAWK9]

It does look to be the same auction. Although when I look at the one I received, it doesn't have a black plastic bottom as pictured in both auctions. Mine has a sheet metal bottom. I ended up ordering -THIS- one that was confirmed to give SATA II speeds by members of other Lenovo/ThinkPad forums.

[Volker]

The ultrabay adapter with the black plastic bottom with the square hole didn't work at all for me. The one with the metal bottom (and no hole) works fine at SATA II speeds.

[davidhbrown]

I do find insertion to be somewhat stiff on the square-hole/black version... and removal even more so. I would not be surprised if there are loose tolerances that might cause its connector to fail to properly connect in some individual devices.

The Lenovo ultrabay adapter includes various niceties such as a plastic protrusion on the back to aid in alignment, a gently curved leaf spring on the left to avoid binding, and a catch on the bottom right that engages with a satisfying "click" -- none of which are present on the cheap knockoff.