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OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Hardware => Topic started by: badre on May 25, 2021, 10:04:20 am

Title: IBM Thinkpad with floppy drive
Post by: badre on May 25, 2021, 10:04:20 am
Hi,
What is the latest model of thinkpad with integrated floppy drive ?
Thank you.
Title: Re: IBM Thinkpad with floppy drive
Post by: Olafur Gunnlaugsson on May 25, 2021, 12:12:00 pm
Hi,
What is the latest model of thinkpad with integrated floppy drive ?
Thank you.
IBM stopped supplying floppie drives as standard back in the 90's, they replaced them with "Ultrabay" a hot swappable slot that can take CD-ROM's, floppies or batteries etc., depending on need. I think the last Thinkpad series that came standard with a floppy were some of the 300 series (486 era), AFAIK all the newer models had the floppy drives as Ultrabay options, the last models that could take an Ultrabay with an internal Floppy (Ultrabay 2000) were the T2x series and the A3x series.
Title: Re: IBM Thinkpad with floppy drive
Post by: badre on May 25, 2021, 12:56:02 pm
thanks for these informations.
Title: Re: IBM Thinkpad with floppy drive
Post by: Neil Waldhauer on May 25, 2021, 03:31:37 pm
As far as an UltraBay Floppy that can be swapped in place of the CD drive, I think the T540p series is the last one.

https://www.blondeguy.com/computer/strobopeep.html (https://www.blondeguy.com/computer/strobopeep.html)

Title: Re: IBM Thinkpad with floppy drive
Post by: Olafur Gunnlaugsson on May 26, 2021, 08:42:47 am
As far as an UltraBay Floppy that can be swapped in place of the CD drive, I think the T540p series is the last one.

https://www.blondeguy.com/computer/strobopeep.html (https://www.blondeguy.com/computer/strobopeep.html)

I thought the ultrabay 2000 was the last ultrabay that was hooked up to the legacy controller, was there an internal floppy drive available for the 540?
Title: Re: IBM Thinkpad with floppy drive
Post by: Neil Waldhauer on May 26, 2021, 04:25:07 pm
OK, I didn't have a floppy to try on T540p. But after Ultrabay 2000 was Ultrabay slim, and that worked for sure on T43 2xxx machines. After that, I don't remember for sure. Ultrabay slim might work in T61. But Ultrabay 2000 is the last officially supported bay for floppies.

After T43, ultrabay is serial ATA for sure.
Title: Re: IBM Thinkpad with floppy drive
Post by: Doug Clark on May 30, 2021, 03:19:14 pm
I know the question was for an internal floppy, but a possible alternative is a USB floppy.   IBM used to make them - mine came with a nice carrying bag.