I have acquired such a computer. It loads the BIOS properly, but I do not yet have a hard drive for it. I bought a 2.5" form factor hard disk drive, but it did not fit.

It seems to me that I must purchase an IDE HDD with a 1.8" form factor.
The document found at the following link seems to agree.
[*]http://www.lenovoservicetraining.com/ion/PSREF/X4X.pdf


I have three questions :

1. Am I correct in supposing this?

5. What are the HDD specifications for the X40, Type 2386-KLU?

3. Do I need a special connector?

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

I'm going to take your poll down as it's not necessary to get multiple opinions to this query.

The X40 requires the use of a 1.8" IDE hard drive. Those are very hard to find (new) and are slow to boot (literally ). The original drives were 4200rpm. Most people here will either use an SSD replacement or a Compact Flash adapter. Me, I'm going the route of a CF card as I received my adapter a week ago and am trying to find a fast (600X) flash card for a reasonable price.

There's a couple of threads here about alternatives to the 1.8" HDD.

P.S. I am also sending you a Private Message (PM). Please read it and respond.

Welcome to the forum!

The CF solution is kind of cheap if you manage to get a fast CF card for an affordable price. But AFAIK it requires some OS tweaking to get it working properly.

The HD way it's an interesting solution. It requires no special OS tweaking. But I would avoid the original stock drives since they're really slow. I would go for a ZIF drive solution, which you can find at reasonable prices if you check Ebay and have some patience. It requires some hardware tweaking. Please find some details in my old thread here

SSDs are the fastest solutions. But 1.8 PATA models are more on the expensive side, there is a sticky thread at the top of this subforum with lots of information.

My 2 cents...

You really want to listen what others are telling you and avoid using a 4,500 drive like the ones supplied with it. They could take minutes to boot and were the single biggest cause those X4's are sold as "Like New" because users packed them in sock drawers never to be used again.

I've used ZiF PATA SSD's and CF/IDE adapters and barely found a signifnicate performance difference, an mTron Mobi is superbly fast but didn't perform much faster than a 300x Lexar in an Addonics or UXCELL CF/IDE adapter but did cost six times more.

since you're using an x40, you could use the dual addonics and simultaenously mount two cards for extra capacity, even a RAID array.

There is an enlighetneing thread at ThinkWiki http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/CompactFlash_boot_drive along with the materials here that will help you decide.

My UDMA6 CF adapters consistenly outperfrom the Samsung SSD's which users have reported running at UDMA3.... it does make a difference when the bus speed is half and the Lenovo Samsung sells for hundreds $.

Hello all,
I've just bought x40 for approx 50USD. The only thing I need to solve for now is HDD replacement. I've read this forum..also searched ebay etc. and I decided to buy CF and the adapter. Anyway I'd like to know what the experts here would recommend..cause I am not expert Is KINGSPEC the only option? Or all 1.8 CF will work? For example http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227553.
My expectations are:
- low price
- at least 32GB
Thank you all of you for replies and direct recommendations.

Welcome to the forum!

The drive in your link won't work. You'll need a 1.8" PATA drive, there is an extensive discussion about SSDs and CFs here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41568

You can use drives with 44-PIN IDE connector or a ZIF drive using a ZIF to IDE adapter like this one: http://www.ebay.ch/itm/1-8-HDD-ZIF-CE-to-IDE-Convertor-F-Upgrade-IBM-X40-X41-/260534756639?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item3ca914e51f#ht_5724wt_905

CF solution is cheaper, unless you can grab a cheap SSD in Ebay or alike.

Hope this helps as a start...

Thank you for the reply...will be studying this forum more deeper