TP760CD, non-ibm disk drives

[<paulwal@colum.mindspring.com>]

Hey, everyone,

I'm a new subscriber with some questions about adding non-ibm disk
drives to my 760CD. I've looked through the archived messages for late
1995 and all of 1996 (they stop in Feb), and I've learned that:

1.  2.5 inch laptop IDE drives have a 44-pin connector, which includes
the standard 40-pin IDE bus and 4 pins for power.
2.  IBM packages ThinkPad drives in a caddy with a proprietary 
centronics-lookin' 60-pin connector. If you take the caddy apart you find
a standard 2.5 inch IDE drive with 44-pin connector. Apparently this
caddy assembly is standard across the ThinkPad family lines. Sometimes
people buy old drives just to get the caddy. 
3. A company named Datastor (www.dstor.com) makes a mounting bracket (ITR210X)
that you can buy from The Internet Shopping Network (www.internet.net)
for about $60. This doesn't provide the whole caddy, but does have the
44-to-60-pin adapter and some mounting hardware. 
4.  The Ultrabay in the 760CD allows me to add a second drive using with
a $50 adapter. I assume the adapter converts from the larger centronics-lookin'
connector to the smaller centronics-lookin' connector.

I got my hands on a Quantum Europa 1080 drive the other day for a good price
and I want to make it work as either the primary or a second drive.

Physically the Quantum drive is 10mm shorter than the 1.2GB drive that came
in the 760CD, so it appears that there's enough room for the Datastor
mounting bracket on the end. The Quantum drive is the same thickness as
the IBM drive (19mm) so there's no room for a full case around the drive.

Questions:

0.  Is there a site with more information on this subject?
1.  Has anyone used the Datastor bracket with large drives in the 760CD?
The Datastor web site doesn't address the issue.
2.  If it does work, will the drive be mounted upside down? Is this OK?
What do people use to protect the circuit card on the drive?
3.  Has anyone seen the second HDD adapter for the Ultrabay? Is it just
a couple of connectors?
4.  Will any caddy work in the 760CD?
5.  Will the ThinkPad BIOS recognize the geometry of other mfgr's drives?
6.  Do I own a $190 paperweight?

Thanks in advance.

Paul Walukewicz
--------------o-------------
paulwal@colum.mindspring.com