ThinkPad UltraBay

UltraBay

Company type	Product line
Industry	Computer hardware
Founded	1995
Founder	IBM
Fate	Integrated into Lenovo ThinkPad and IdeaPad product lines; branding phased out since 2014
Successor	Lenovo bay adapter design (post-2014)
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Interchangeable drive bays for laptops (optical drives, hard drives, batteries, other devices)
Owner	IBM (original), Lenovo (current)
Parent	IBM, Lenovo

UltraBay is the original IBM designation for the interchangeable drive bay found in the ThinkPad laptop lineup. Following Lenovo's acquisition of ThinkPad, the UltraBay concept and terminology persisted, also being incorporated into select Lenovo IdeaPad Y Series models.

First appearing with the ThinkPad 750 series in 1995, UltraBay has undergone continuous development across nearly every ThinkPad generation, which has occasionally led to confusion. The table below outlines the various UltraBay versions, their respective model appearances, and supported devices. It is important to note that optical bays in the G series and R40e ThinkPads are stationary and do not qualify as true UltraBays, despite their mechanical resemblance to the UltraBay 2000 without a caddy.

UltraBay variants support drives of different thicknesses—some accommodating up to 12.5 mm, others restricted to 9.5 mm.

Lenovo's IdeaPad Y400 and Y500 models feature an UltraBay slot that can be exchanged for an additional hard drive, cooling fan, or Nvidia GT650M/GT750M GPU, enabling enhanced SLI graphics capabilities. However, orders for the UltraBay Y500 DVD Burner (which does not contain an integrated optical drive) were terminated in June 2013.

Beginning in 2014, Lenovo revamped the ThinkPad bay adapter design and phased out the "UltraBay" branding. For instance, the ThinkPad W540 provided a removable Serial ATA (SATA) "Caddy" that allowed users to replace the optical drive with a secondary 2.5-inch SATA storage device using just a screwdriver. This redesign eliminated battery expansion options and largely removed hot-swapping functionality.

Nomenclature

UltraBay
UltraBay type	Featured in					Available devices
UltraBay	355, 360, 370C, 750, 755C, 755CE, 755Cs, 755CSE, 755CV, 755CX, 760C, 760L, 760E					HDD, FDD, Battery, PCMCIA cartridge, IBM Wireless Modem
UltraBay Thick	755CD, 755CDV, 760CD, 760E, 760ED, 760EL, 760ELD, 760LD, 760XD, 760XL, 765				SelectaDock I, SelectaDock II	HDD, FDD, CD, Battery, PCMCIA cartridge, IBM Wireless Modem
UltraBay II	770				SelectaDock III	HDD, FDD, ZIP-100/250, CD/DVD, Battery
UltraBay FX	390, i-Series 1720/1721					HDD, FDD, CD/DVD, Battery
UltraSlimbay		600			Ultrabase (570), Portable Drive Bay	HDD, FDD, ZIP-100/250, CD/DVD, Battery
UltraBay 2000		T20–T23		A20–A22 left-sided A30/A31	Dock 2631/Dock II/UltraBase X2, Portable Drive Bay 2000	HDD,FDD LS-120/240 ZIP-100/250 CD/CD-RW/DVD/Combo/Multi Battery
UltraBay Plus	R30–R40 series	T23,T30		A30,A31	Ultrabase X3	HDD,FDD LS-120/240 ZIP-100/250 CD/CD-RW/DVD/Combo/Multi Battery PDA-Cradle NumPad
UltraBay Slim		T40–T61p series Z60t,Z61t		ThinkPad X4 Dock, UltraBase X4/X6/X6 Tablet	HDD DVD Combo Multi Battery Serial-Parallel Port Adapter (T60–61,some R60–R61)
UltraBay Enhanced	R50–R61 series R60,R61 variants		Z60m,Z61m,Z60p,Z61p		ThinkPad Advanced Dock	HDD DVD Combo Multi BD-RW Battery
Serial UltraBay Slim		T400–T430s series,W500		X200/X220 Ultrabase	HDD DVD Combo Multi BD-RW Battery (UltraBay Slim-Battery)
Serial UltraBay Enhanced	R400,R500	T510/T510i,T520,T420,T530,T430		W700,W510,W520,W530		HDD DVD Combo Multi BD-RW (3mm gap visible)
Fixed Serial UltraBay Enhanced	L410,L510, SL410,SL510, L412,L512, L420,L520, L430,L530					DVD Combo Multi Travel Cover HDD (with UltraBay Adapter for third-party devices)
Fixed Serial UltraBay Slim	L440,L540	T440p,T540p		W540,W541 P70,P71,P72		HDD DVD Combo Multi Travel Cover

See also

• Disk enclosure
• Caddy (hardware)