I have a lenovo ideapad and I want to take out the CD drive and replace it with USB ports because the laptop only has 2 ports. The CD drive is connected to the motherboard via slimline sata.
Is there a way to use the slimline sata to drive usb ports?
Could I use a regular USB-slimSata adapter in conjunction with a USB hub to multiply the ports?
"Is there a way…" - probably yes. But buying a new computer will be cheaper and easier.
"Can I use a USB-slimSATA adapter." - no. Those work the other way round, i.e. Connect a SATA device to a USB port.
Easy way: use an external USB hub.
Less easy way: find an internal USB port on the mainboard, or cannibalize one of the existing external USB ports, add a USB hub chip(set) and build a front panel (matching the drive bay) to hold the connectors.
SATA can only be used for disks, so you can't put a USB hub in there.
An external USB hub is what should do the trick. Sure, it may take up one or both of the built in ports but you can use it like that (hubs probably have like 8 ports?). I have replaced my optical drive with a HDD instead (because my Ideapad 100 came with a small SSD which wasn't enough for my storage needs)
I doubt it. The firmware thats looking at the sata connector is not expecting usb ports to be communicating to it. It would need to be a pci-e port for that kind of intelligence. Most laptops originally had docking port sockets, but only certain lenovo's have that now, and it been re-invented and called one-link by lenovo. And the laptops that have that, also have a string of extras you can plug into that. But that doesn't include ideapads.