Ultrabay Slim SATA HDD Adapter

2011-06-28T12:49:07Z

Dsg: Add warning regarding poor performance with some 3rd-party adapters

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=== Ultrabay Slim SATA HDD Adapter ===
This is an adapter to connect an additional hard disk drive to the Ultrabay Slim.

=== Features ===
* Takes any ThinkPad SATA 9.5mm thick, 2.5" HDD

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[[image:UltraBay Slim SATA HDD Adapter.gif|Ultrabay Slim SATA HDD adapter]]
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{{NOTE|This SATA HDD adapter only works with select ThinkPads as listed below, for other machines with UltraBay Slim, use the PATA base [[UltraBay Slim HDD Adapter]] instead.}}

=== Part numbers ===
Marketing PN: 40Y8725
FRU PN: 26R9246

=== Linux support ===
The adapter contains a PATA to SATA bridge chip, which means that although the disk is SATA it connects as a PATA (IDE) device.

If connected at boot time, the drive is normally located at {{path|/dev/sdb}}

=== Supported with ===
*ThinkPad {{R60}}
*ThinkPad {{T60}}, {{T60p}}, {{T61}}
*ThinkPad {{Z60m}}, {{Z60t}}, {{Z61m}}, {{Z61p}}
*ThinkPad {{X60}}, {{X60s}} with UltraBase X6
*[[ThinkPad Advanced Dock]]

=== Unsupported use with ===
The adapter has a black plastic grommet at the back that restricts its use to the 60 series ThinkPads. Some people have successfully removed this grommet with a pair of channel lock pliers, or sliced it off with a Dremel after which it will fit into older ThinkPads like the T40 series. This works because the adapter actually bridges the SATA HDD to PATA as those older machines have no SATA support.

This has been tested with the following ThinkPads, although this is obviously not supported!
*ThinkPad {{T40}}, {{T40p}}, {{T41}}, {{T41p}}, {{T42}}, {{T42p}}, {{T43}}, {{T43p}}

=== Poor performance with 3rd-party adapters ===
Many (most?) of the SATA adapters listed on eBay are 3rd-party clones, whose poor build quality limits them to UDMA/33 speeds. They are therefore slower than the common IDE adapters, and especially unsuitable for SSD use.

A kernel log showing such an adapter being limited to UDMA/33:
<pre>
[ 55.610787] ata2.00: ATA-7: FUJITSU MHV2020BH, 0093002C, max UDMA/100
[ 55.610793] ata2.00: 39070080 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
[ 55.610801] ata2.00: limited to UDMA/33 due to 40-wire cable
[ 55.650666] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/33
[ 55.650676] ata2: EH complete
</pre>

[[Category:Components]]

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Ultrabay Slim SATA HDD Adapter