PATA or SATA for X41 T

[globalkiwi]

I want to add a HDD to my X41T via the UltraBay port on the X4 port, it seems like a caddy for the X4 Ultrabase will do the trick.  So far so good, but I can't seem to find out whether it should be PATA or SATA.  Can anyone help - or point me in the right direction.  Seems amazing that such a fundamental piece of information is so hard to track down.

(Apologies for the x-posts, getting a little frustrated here!)

[ajkula66 Guru]

PATA. When these babies rolled off the assembly line, the idea of going SATA for the ultrabay had yet to occur to anyone in IBM or Lenovo...

[globalkiwi]

Ok, I seem to keep getting conflicting information on this.  I know the internal HDD is both 1.8 & PATA but I thought it was possible to plug either a SATA or PATA HDD (with the respective caddy) into the UltraBay slot (as those connections are standard).  Is this incorrect?

[Soap]

Yes, you are correct.  It depends on the caddy, as there is a caddy for PATA hard drives and one for SATA hard drives.  The ultrabase connector is PATA, on the caddy.

[globalkiwi]

Wonderful - but just to be clear: if I load a SATA HDD into a SATA Ultrabay caddy, pop it into the X4 dock, I will be able to access it from my X41 Tablet?

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

The SATA to PATA converter chip on the SATA Ultrabay Caddy won't work in the X4 dock. 

[globalkiwi]

Ok, yet more conflicting information.  It's amazing how hard it is to figure this out!  Can I plug a SATA HDD (in a SATA caddy) into the UltraSlim Bay drive of an X4 dock or not?!   In this thread alone, directly conflicting opinion ...

@ lead_org: can you expand on this - do you have a link, example, experience?  Your answer seems to directly contradict that given by Soap.

[thinkpadpro]

You can only use a PATA hard drive. Yes the ICH Bridge is SATA, but all drive controllers are PATA on the x41 tablet. Thats all there is to it.

[globalkiwi]

This is confusing as the machine specs imply an IDE drive controller but the internal HDD has a PATA to SATA bridge/converter.  Everywhere I ask this question, I get conflicting responses!

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

This was listed in the help regarding the SATA ultrabay caddy in www.thinkwiki.org. I never tried it personally, but maybe some of the mod or guru have tried it, whom could give you a better answer.