The drives form factor is 9.5mm height, called ultra-slim. This is standard for ultra-slim drives.
The UltraBay frame parts for making it a bay / swappable drive can be re-used from the defective one.
But there’s a problem that cannot be overcome: it seems that IBM uses, in these notebook models, a vendor-unique version of the ATAPI-50 (resp. JAE IDE) connector interface.
The standard ATAPI-50 connectors are detailed (with images) in http://www.electronicworld.ch/elektronik-begriffe/A.htm , see “ATAPI-50 / ATA-50” there.
However, IBM ultr-slim drives from these notebooks use a connector of similar width but with the pins mounted on both sides of a bar. This is called “MALE (IBM) ATAPI 50” connector on http://www.ultradrives.com/product_info.php/manufacturers_id/39/products_id/1362 .
According to the thread http://club.cdfreaks.com/f34/slim-internal-drive-compatibility-117418/ , the IBM drives would contain an adaptor from ATAPI-50 to MALE (IBM) ATAPI-50. While this might be the case for some drives, for the two ones that I looked at it was not. The connector was directly connected to the drive here.
Also, it seems that no adapters are available commercially.
The only solution is therefore to buy an original IBM spare part (maybe used or refurbished), or to buy an external optical drive.
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