Ultrabay

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Revision as of 15:53, 13 April 2005 by Whizkid (Talk | contribs) (Changed Ultrabay FX icon)
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UltraBay drives

IBM UltraBay

UltraBay is IBM's name for the swapable drive slot. Introduced back in the times of the 770 Thinkpads, this technology has gone through redesigns with almost every new generation of Thinkpad models, possibly leading to some confusion that is hopefully cleared up here. The following table gives an overview of the different UltraBay types, in which models they occurred and what drives are available for them. Note that the optical drive bay in G series Thinkpads is not an UltraBay in that the drives are fixed and not removable.

On the media side different UltraBays relate to the form factor of the drives they accept, e.g early A, T and X series models can accept UltraBay devices up to 12.5mm in thickness, whereas current T and X series machines are limited to devices no more than 9.5mm thick.

Overview over UltraBay types and available devices
UltraBay Type featured in available drives
Icon20 ultrabay.png UltraBay II 770, 770E, 770ED, 770X, 770Z Icon20 floppy.png Icon20 cdrom.png Icon20 dvd.png Icon20 hdd.png Icon20 battery.png, ZIP-100, ZIP-250
Icon20 ultrabayfx.png UltraBay FX 390, 390E, 390X Icon20 floppy.png Icon20 cdrom.png Icon20 dvd.png Icon20 hdd.png Icon20 cdrw.png
Icon20 ultraslimbay.png UltraSlimBay 570, 570E, 600, 600E, 600X Icon20 floppy.png Icon20 cdrom.png Icon20 cdrw.png Icon20 dvd.png Icon20 hdd.png Icon20 battery.png, ZIP-100, ZIP-250, LS-120
Icon20 ultrabay2000.png UltraBay 2000 A20, A21, A22, A30, T20, T21, T22, T23, X20, X21, X22, X23, X24 Icon20 floppy.png Icon20 cdrom.png Icon20 cdrw.png Icon20 dvd.png Icon20 combo.png Icon20 multiburner.png Icon20 hdd.png Icon20 battery.png, ZIP-100, ZIP-250, LS-120, LS-240
Icon20 ultrabayplus.png UltraBay Plus A30, A30p, A31, A31p, R30, R31, R32, R40, T23, T30, X30, X31, X32 Icon20 floppy.png Icon20 cdrom.png Icon20 cdrw.png Icon20 dvd.png Icon20 combo.png Icon20 multiburner.png Icon20 hdd.png Icon20 battery.png, ZIP-100, ZIP-250, WorkPad Cradle, Numpad
Icon20 ultrabayslim.png UltraBay Slim R50, R50p, R51, R51p, T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p, T43, T43p, X40, X41 Icon20 dvd.png Icon20 combo.png Icon20 multiburner.png Icon20 hdd.png Icon20 battery.png

mechanical Characteristics

  • UltraBay FX: The combined floppy drive and CD-ROM, DVD or CDRW mechanism found in the 390/390E/390X.
  • UltraSlimBay: Frame, rectangle like blending
  • UltraBay 2000: Frame, blending has cut out egde on the right
  • UltraBay Slim: notably thinner than UltraBay 2000, cut out right edge in blending

Linux Support

Since the UltraBay interface is merely an IDE controller, all drives are supported by the IDE driver in the linux kernel. Hotswapping is supposed to be supported as well, using hdparm to (un)register devices. NOTE: This seems to be broken with 2.6 kernels. If UltraBay Plus devices are supported is not known.