Ultrabay

Ultrabay Ultrabay was IBM's, now Lenovo's name for the swappable bay. With IBM's definition2: "The ThinkPad UltraBay1, also standard with the system, is an intelligent bay that switches its pin-out signals to allow the installation of standard and optional features in what would normally be just the floppy disk drive bay." First introduced in the 355 and the 750, this technology has gone through several redesigns with almost every new generation of 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 came from and what devices are available for them.

Overview

Over the course of time, a number of different form factors have been used for the Ultrabay. They are generally not cross-compatible, but there are some exceptions to that (see below for more details). Current ThinkPads no longer use the Ultrabay, due to severe space constraints. Only a few models do feature the Ultrabay nowadays, but they are unfortunately crippled in such a way that they no longer support Ultrabay batteries and hot-swapping.

Keep in mind that not all Ultrabays are made equal, as some lack an eject mechanism or pins that are needed to charge and discharge an Ultrabay battery. Some Ultrabays might also not support hot and/or warm swapping, even if they are capable of doing so in a different model (e.g. a high-end model supports hot, warm, and cold swapping, but the other lower-end model supports only cold swapping despite having the same Ultrabay type). These crippled Ultrabay variants are generally found on the low-end models, although they can also be rarely found on high-end models.

Linux support

The pinout switching is performed by the BIOS and embedded controller, so that it is completely transparent to the operating system.

• Floppy drives are supported by the standard floppy driver.
• ZIP drive support is possible through the ide-disk driver.
• IDE hard disks and optical drives are supported by the ata_piix or older ide-disk driver in the linux kernel.
• Batteries are automatically handled by the hardware, but can be controlled further by using tp_smapi.
• Ultrabay Plus devices should be handled by the USB subsystem, but if the actual devices are is not known.

Compatibility

type	featured in (internal)	featured in (external)	available devices
UltraBay	355, 355C, 355CS, 360, 360C, 360CS, 360P, 360CE, 360CSE, 360PE, 370C, 750, 750C, 750CS, 750P, 755C, 755CE, 755CS, 755CSE, 755CV, 755CX, 760C, 760L, 760E	N/A
UltraBay Thick	755CD, 755CDV, 760CD, 760E, 760ED, 760EL, 760ELD, 760LD, 760XD, 760XL, 765D, 765L	SelectaDock I, SelectaDock II
UltraBay II	770, 770E, 770ED, 770X, 770Z	SelectaDock III
UltraBay FX	390, 390E, 390X, i Series 1700, i Series 1720, i Series 1721, i Series 1780, i Series 1781	N/A	+ +
UltraslimBay	6003, 600E, 600X	ThinkPad UltraBase3, Portable Drive Bay3
Ultrabay 2000	i Series 18003 4, A20m, A20p, A21e3 4, A21m, A21p, A22e3 4, A22m, A22p, A30, A30p, A31, A31p, T20, T21, T22	ThinkPad Dock3 4, ThinkPad Dock II3, ThinkPad X2 UltraBase3, Portable Drive Bay 20003
Ultrabay Plus	A30, A30p, A31, A31p, R303 4, R313 4, R324, R40, T23, T30	ThinkPad X3 UltraBase
Ultrabay Slim	T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p, T43, T43p, T60, T60p, T61, T61p, Z60t, Z61t	ThinkPad X4 UltraBase, ThinkPad X4 Dock3, ThinkPad X6 UltraBase, ThinkPad X6 Tablet UltraBase
Ultrabay Enhanced	R50, R50e3 4, R50p, R51, R51e3 4, R52, R60, R60i, R60e3 4 5, R61, R61i, R61e3 4 5, G413 4 5, G503 4 5, Z60m, Z61e3 4 5, Z61m, Z61p	ThinkPad Advanced Dock3
Ultrabay Thin	X300, X301	N/A
Serial Ultrabay Slim	Template:P703 4 5, Template:P713 4 5, W500, W5403 4 5, W5413 4 5, T400, T400s, T4103, T410i3, T410s, T410si, T420s, T420si, T430s, T430si, T440p3 4 5, T500, T540p3 4 5, L4403 4 5, L5403 4 5, Template:L5603 4 5, Template:L5703 4 5	ThinkPad X200 UltraBase3, ThinkPad UltraBase Series 33
Serial Ultrabay Enhanced	W5103, W5203, W5303, W7003, W700ds3, W7013, W701ds3, T4203, T420i3, T4303, T430i3, T5103, T510i3, T5203, T520i3, T5303, T530i3, L4103 4 5, L4123 4 5, L4203 4 5, L4213 4 5, L4303 4 5, L5103 4 5, L5123 4 5, L5203 4 5, L5303 4 5, R400, R500	N/A

Compatibility Table

type	slot	slot	slot	slot	slot	slot	slot	slot	slot	slot	slot	slot
device	yes	yes	Adapter	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no
device	no	yes	Adapter	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no
device	no	no	yes	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no
device	no	no	no	yes	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no
device	no	no	no	no	yes	no	no	no	no	no	no	no
device	no	no	no	no	no	yes	yes	no	no	no	no	no
device	no	no	no	no	no	no	yes	no	no	no	no	no
device	no	no	no	no	no	Adapter	Adapter	yes	yes	no	no	no
device	no	no	no	no	no	Adapter	Adapter	no	yes	no	no	no
device	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	yes	no	no
device	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	yes	yes
device	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	no	yes

Characteristics Table

type	cold-swapping	warm-swapping	hot-swapping	bay bezel shape	bay connector	bay height
	yes	no	no	flat rectangle, no cut-outs or bevels	unknown	15 mm
	yes	no	no	flat rectangle, cut-out on the bottom right corner; no bevels	unknown	19 mm
	yes	yes	yes	flat rectangle, cut-out on the bottom right corner; no bevels	unknown	17 mm
	yes	yes	no	wedge, cut out on the top right corner; no bevels	unknown	19 mm
	yes	yes	yes	flat rectangle, no cut-outs; has a beveled bottom	proprietary 80-pin Molex	12.7 mm
	yes	yes	yes	flat rectangle, cut-out on the bottom right corner; has a beveled-to-flat bottom	proprietary 80-pin Molex	12.7 mm
	yes	yes	yes	flat rectangle, cut-out on the bottom right corner; has a beveled-to-flat bottom	proprietary 80-pin Molex	12.7 mm
	yes	yes	yes	flat rectangle, cut-out on the bottom right corner; bevels varies on model	proprietary JAE PM1F050N1AE	9.5 mm
	yes	yes	yes	flat rectangle, cut-out on the bottom right corner; bevels varies on model	proprietary JAE PM1F050N1AE	12.7 mm
	yes	yes	no	flat rectangle, no cut-outs; has a beveled bottom	standard slimline IDE	7 mm
	yes	yes	yes	flat rectangle, cut-out on the bottom right corner; bevels varies on model	standard slimline SATA	9.5 mm
	yes	yes	yes	flat rectangle, cut-out on the bottom right corner; bevels varies on model	standard slimline SATA	12.7 mm

See also

• How to build your own Ultrabay drive
• How to hotswap Ultrabay devices

FOOTNOTES [Δ]

1. IBM originally used the formatting 'UltraBay' with a capital letter 'B' but later switched to 'Ultrabay' with a lower-case 'b'. The reason behind this change is unknown.
2. This definition is no longer valid as of the Ultrabay Slim and newer Ultrabay types, as it is nothing more than a IDE/SATA connector.
3. This model lacks the battery terminals which are required to support an Ultrabay battery.
4. This model does not support hot or warm-swapping.
5. This model does not have an eject mechanism to eject an Ultrabay device.