Thinkpads Forum

Hi guys,

I'm looking for an enclosure for the HD in my X41 tablet - it's the Hitachi style 1.8" PATA HD which connects on its long side with a 2.5" 44-pin IDE connector, but draws only 3.3v through the X41t.

All the enclosures I can find for a 44-pin IDE interface provide the standard 5v for a 2.5" HD, and none specify a 3.3v mode of operation since the combination of a 44-pin IDE on a 1.8" 3.3v HD is so rare.

Does anyone know if I can use a standard 5v enclosure with this HD, or would I need to use a stepdown converter between the HD and enclosure to reduce the 5v signal to 3.3v? (I highly doubt there is a specialized enclosure with a 44-pin IDE interface which provides only the 3.3v needed for a 1.8" HD, but please correct me if I'm wrong.)

When you hook it up to an X41, it will already (and only) provide 3.3V.
So any adapter without voltage regulator would be OK.
You'll need to remove any 5V-->3.3V regulator, because the incoming 3.3V would otherwise be reduced to ~1V.
See also here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 82#p470282

Thanks RBS. I'm actually trying to operate the HD outside of my computer, (for imaging/cloning/accessing the HD contents from my desktop, etc...e.g. right now my x41T is dead with a faulty DC-in module). So I'm looking for an external USB enclosure, but all the off-the-shelf ones seem to provide 5v for standard 2.5" IDE drives.

Can the 1.8" Hitachi Travelstar accept a 5v power supply or would I need to insert a voltage regulator inline between the HD and the enclosure's 44-pin connection?

I don't know that drive.
If you want to use a 3.3V drive in a case that will be fed by 5V from another PC/laptop, then you WILL need a regulator.

Digging out the actual HD I see right on the label that it looks like it operates with both 3.3v and 5v inputs, am I reading that correctly?

Pic - 640x480

AFAIK the original HDD for X41 does operate on 5V just fine. Some Lenovo replacement SSDs only work on 3.3V, and those have a tab sticking out next to the 44 pins.