CF in the T2x series?

[slvrldy17]

Anyone using a Compact Flash card in an adapter to boot the T 20 - 22 series machines? If so then what card(s) and/or adapter(s) are you using? I've had problems with getting any any card/adapter combination recognized - getting a message of no physical disk present when using fdisk.

[Neil]

Well, the 600X I'm using right now is running from a CF card and before setting this system up, I briefly put the CF card in an ultra-bay adapter and booted a T23 from there.

The main thing you have to do is be very careful to get all the adapter's pins inserted in the IDE socket. On a T2x system, that is difficult because of the way the hard drive cage is made. And, it's nearly impossible without removing the palm rest so that you can see the connector and tell if some pins missed the sockets.

I had trouble too the first two or three time I tried, but once I had my adapter seated properly, I had no trouble installing my OS just like with any other hard drive.

[slvrldy17]

Making progress of sorts - with an adapter installed in a T20 the CF card is recognized in BIOS and identified properly by size and maker in the startup/boot section. Puppy Linux 4.31 boots fine running in RAM only from the CD when the regular hard drive is installed but with the adapter and card in place it hangs after the boot device choice has been made. A frugal install done running in RAM using the USB CF card adapter option in the Puppy installer behaves the same way. I suspect that a BIOS setting might be the problem but have no idea which one - boot order is set for hard drive, CD drive, then all other devices. Anyone care to make a suggestion?

[eyestrain]

1. Read through some of the x41 threads on cf as ssd. Lots of experience there. Also read the support pages on Addonics website for their CF-IDE adapter (which is ok but very overpriced).

2. Using the ultrabay can make things easier, and you're only supposed to insert/remove hard drive so many times from main ide bay. For your model, ultrabay 2000 HDD adapter is usually $8.25 on ebay, sometimes as little as $7.45 from notebookelite IIRC. But you have to wait a few weeks. With the ultrabay adapter, you can boot from either bay, and test the other bay. Of course you could also boot from cd or usb to do the same, but fewer downsides using ultrabay IMO.

3. Using puppy good start, seems most forgiving. Also try Ubuntu tho or a derivative. And windows. Boot from an os in one bay (or from cd or usb) and have the adapter in the other bay, ideally ultrabay so you can keep swapping and retrying. For most experimenting at first, not good to put the os on the cf yet if don't have to, until you can get an os to see it.

4. And try a different flash card. Especially one that is both UDMA compliant and can pretend it's a hard drive. Maybe Ridata or Adata?? Check the sources in #1. I haven't had luck with Sandisk, even using a tool to set a bit to change them to hard disk mode. (Anyone know secret, please share.)

5. Try a different ide-cf adapter, and be sure it's UDMA compliant. I've tried several, not all work in each pc, or in each bay. I've got a device that takes an ultrabay slim drive or ultrabay slim 2nd hdd adapter and converts it into a usb drive. Using that, I've been able to "see" cf-ide adapters via usb, that don't work in the ultrabay in the computer. And/or, the same cf-ide adapter might work in another model computer.

6. If you have SD cards and don't need speed (9mb/s), consider trying an SD-IDE adapter ($8ish from Asia on ebay) or using a $11ish from US SD-CF adapter in your CF-IDE adapter. The blue one worked with all my sd cards. One nice thing: write protect switch, for live boot.

7. Anyone reading this with ultrabay slim or any ultrabay that can take a sata drive (NOT T20-T23 IIUC, don't know about T3x), consider using a cf-sata adapter. If your notebook is ide, it's nuts to go CF/IDE-Sata-Ide, but may be worth it, because if your cf-sata adapter is like mine, it can hide problem of the flash card not saying it's a hard drive. I don't think in reality you lose speed, but haven't done A/B testing.

8. Make sure the bottom of the adapter isn't shorting on the metal below it, such as by putting it into a hard drive cage if needed.

9. Give up and buy an SSD


I never owned your model Thinkpad so telling you which adapter I used might not help a lot.

But I do like this one: 260516578947 on ebay. Dual, but you can use with just one. If you're in a hurry, I also like this one, but the jumper on top can be a pain, and you can't use it without a jumper: http://www.monoprice.com/products/produ ... &p_id=4623 (item 4623).