SSD on T42p

[cchsiao]

I ordered a Super Talent SSD (FHD32GC18M) a few days ago and got it yesterday. However, when I replace the HDD by this SSD, the system didn't really know it exists, and hence I can't install any OS on it. If I put it in the ultrabay, well... my T42p still can't see it. The first two times I plugged it into the ultrabay, Windows (XP) will see something but eventually get nothing. Now when I plugged it into the ultrabay, XP just didn't respond to this action. I am almost sure that this SSD is not defective since when I use it into the ultrabay of T60 (with VISTA), T60 did see it as a CF-to-IDE flash drive (and you can perform any kind of actions on it). However, even in T60, a cold boot won't see it. Is there any people who knows what's going on here?

Well... the reason why I bought a 1.8" one is that initially I plan to use to on my X41t, and I think even if it doesn't work on X41t, it should work on my T42p but it's certainly not the case. I already sent emails to Super Talent's technical support but I don't know when I will get replies. So I would like to have some advices from all of you here. Thanks.

[mgo]

I ordered a Super Talent SSD (FHD32GC18M) a few days ago and got it yesterday. However, when I replace the HDD by this SSD, the system didn't really know it exists, and hence I can't install any OS on it. If I put it in the ultrabay, well... my T42p still can't see it. The first two times I plugged it into the ultrabay, Windows (XP) will see something but eventually get nothing. Now when I plugged it into the ultrabay, XP just didn't respond to this action. I am almost sure that this SSD is not defective since when I use it into the ultrabay of T60 (with VISTA), T60 did see it as a CF-to-IDE flash drive (and you can perform any kind of actions on it). However, even in T60, a cold boot won't see it. Is there any people who knows what's going on here?

Well... the reason why I bought a 1.8" one is that initially I plan to use to on my X41t, and I think even if it doesn't work on X41t, it should work on my T42p but it's certainly not the case. I already sent emails to Super Talent's technical support but I don't know when I will get replies. So I would like to have some advices from all of you here. Thanks.

Perhaps the drive needs to be formated. Have you gone to Disk Management to see if the drive shows up there? Does it say FAT32 or NTFS? If not, format the drive to NTFS and it will show up.

[Johan]

Wow, this is indeed an interesting thread! I have been thinking about getting a SSD for my T42p as well (to reduce noise and increase speed), but according to various user reports that I have read (on Newegg, Amazon, this forum etc.), the speed increase over a normal 7200 rpm "mechanical" HDD isn't that impressive. Anyway, I just wanted to point your attention to another thread in this forum discussing the successful use of a SSD in a T42p; see Replacement of hard drive with SSD. Perhaps you should PM SHoTTa35 and ask about for any secret SSD-tricks?

Question: How did you "transform" the 1.8" Super Talent SSD (FHD32GC18M) into a 2.5" drive... I can't possible think that the 1.8" would directly fit in a T42p??

Once you get this SSD up and running (XP? Vista?), please report back about your experience - how does it function in terms of speed; faster than a 7200 rpm or mainly the same? Thanks very much in advance for sharing your "user experience" as it evolves!

PS: A few perhaps-interesting SSD-threads on this forum are: $20 for a SSD workaround? and [Maybe FS] IBM T42, 2.0GB RAM, SSD HD 14" SXGA+ w/Warr (see the posts of Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:38 pm and onwards).

Best regards,

Johan

[pianowizard]

I have been thinking about getting a SSD for my T42p as well (to reduce noise and increase speed), but according to various user reports that I have read (on Newegg, Amazon, this forum etc.), the speed increase over a normal 7200 rpm "mechanical" HDD isn't that impressive.

Another reason some people want to use SSDs is to reduce weight. But the difference is actually very small, less than 0.1 lb. It's not worth it.

[cchsiao]

Perhaps the drive needs to be formated. Have you gone to Disk Management to see if the drive shows up there? Does it say FAT32 or NTFS? If not, format the drive to NTFS and it will show up.

I aleady formatted the SSD under T60, and T60 does see this drive, but only after login into the OS (see the following for details). Even with T60, there is one single problem which prevents T60 from seeing the SSD when booting: if you cold boot T60 with SSD inside ultrabay, a 2102 error message will show up (however, if I put a HDD inside the ultrabay, it will pass and boot). If you enter the BIOS, you cannot see anything in ultrabay (but not the case if a HDD is inside the ultrabay). Moreover, even you press ESC to continue the booting process, after login into the OS, you won't see this SSD. The only time you can really see this SSD is to put it into the ultrabay AFTER login into the OS. Amazing, isn't it?

With my T42p, well... I can't even see this SSD after login into the OS. I wonder if it's because on my T42p it's XP while I have VISTA on T60, but I really doubt it.

My personal opinion is that probably that's Super Talent's issue, not for SSD in general. I am sure that somebody succeed in putting a Transcend SSD into their Thinkpad (but not sure it's a SATA version or PATA version). The down side for Tanscend's SSD is that it's too slow. The reason I choose Super Talent's SSD is that it's much faster (according to the specification: 60MB/s read and 45MB/s write at least). Although Mtron's SSD is even faster, they don't have 1.8" one (which I wanna try on my X41t).

Concerning how I put a 1.8" SSD into T42p's main HDD bay: first of all, I have to attach a tape on it (like the one in T60 if you even see one), so that I can remove the SSD by pulling that tape. Then... just slide this SSD into the main HDD bay. You will need something to push it to connect to the IDE connector. That's all.

[cchsiao]

I already finished reading the thread Johan referred to, but unfortunately I don't get any valuable information. I guess Samsung's SSD is supported by T42's BIOS out of box, but not the Super Talent one. I don't have other brand's laptop at hand, so I cannot check if that's because I am using a Thinkpad (I only have Thinkpad at hand though).

One thing I forgot to mention is that when I see SSD in the T60, it doesn't appear to be a removable media. An Fn+F9 eject function won't work for that drive (while you can do this for a HDD in the ultrabay).

For now I will try to downgrade my BIOS and see if this trick works. If not, I will probably give up using SSD on my machine for a while, since I don't have so much time to work out the issue.

[cchsiao]

Short report: downgrade the BIOS doesn't work. The machine itself still cannot see this SSD.

By the way, when I downgrade to 3.03, the machine itself cannot recognize its own IBM a/b/g II and 1802 error message shows up. Gosh... I need to unscrew the keyboard and the palmrest in order to take the miniPCI card out... kind of a painful try

[cchsiao]

I guess the problem comes from the fact that this SSD works only under 5v. I tried to put the 7K60 into X41t's HDD bay, and X41t can not see 7k60 as well. Since 4k60 is 3.3v/5v switchable, while 7k60 works only under 5v, I think x41t only provides 3.3v on its HDD bay, and that's the reason for X41t can not see this SSD. However, this still doesn't explained why my T42p can not see this SSD

A weird thing is that when I put this SSD into X41t's HDD bay, the light of HDD indicator is on forever. That must mean something, such as X41t can somehow detect the existence of this SSD, but just doesn't know how to communicate with it. On T42p it's not the case. The HDD indicator is always off, but I do think somehow T42p knows there is something occupying the HDD bay since in the diagonistic mode it passes so fast when detecting HDD.