IBM ThinkPad X41 Hard Drive Type

[ThinkPad560X]

I have a IBM ThinkPad X41, "Non Tablet Series" What type of Hard Drive does the X41 take? My basic Hard Drive that my T40 has is too big. Is this Hard Drive easy to find and does bestbuy sell them?

[yak]

X41 uses a 1.8" (as opposed to 2.5" in T40) PATA hard drive. It is a rare model with the connector on the longer edge. I guess it would be pretty hard to find.

There is a long thread about using SSD drives (usually CompactFlash cards) instead:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41568

[ajkula66]

The drives used in X4x series were made by Hitachi, and are no longer in production. Expect to pay $100+ for a sealed one on eBay...the largest being 60GB/4200rpm...

Good luck.

[Frobe70]

Instead of these obsolete 1.8" IDE drives you may also use 1.8" ZIF drives (used in some iPods and some small DELL/HP computers). You will need a ZIF-IDE adapter, look for X40/X41 compatible ZIF adapters on eBay (not the generic adapters). Note that Hitachi ZIF-drives require a different adapter than Toshiba/Samsung due to cable thickness.
Modern ZIF drives are much faster than the original Hitachi drives, but not as fast as SSD.

On your X41 most new drives will give a 2010 error during boot due to they are not listed as compatible in the BIOS. Just skip it, the increased speed during use will compensate for the delay...

[sjthinkpader]

Here is some info on the range of 1.8inch storage devices I've tried.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 1&start=30

There is a thread by Harryc that is very informative in making ZIF drive work in X41.

[Frobe70]

If you use a X40/X41 ZIF adapter there is no soldering or modifications, it's plug and play using ZIF harddisks.

[sjthinkpader]

A small modification is needed on most of these IDE-ZIF adapters.

Most of these IDE-ZIF adapters are made for the 5V full size 2.5 inch slots and have a 3.3V regulator required by the 1.8V ZIF HDDs. The HDD slots in X40/X41/X41t are already 3.3V so this regulator on the IDE-ZIF adapters are not needed. I simply short the input to output of this regulator by soldering a small jumper there.
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f228/ ... ZIFReg.jpg

I did acquire a few of these adapters that are without this requlator.
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f228/ ... CN9867.gif
(top unit)

[Frobe70]

If you have to use one of the generic ZIF adaptor PCB + loose cable , some experimentation with cable folding may also be necessary to get good signal quality. I had a lot of problems with data corruption in Windows (only Safe Mode was working), but when I got the the custom X40 adapter this problem disappeared.
Search eBay for X41 ZIF and you will find adaptors for $20 and Toshiba 80GB HDD+adaptor for $100.

[sjthinkpader]

Yes, a small distance from the drive is required with those cheap cables. A think piece of form usually fixes it.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f228/ ... ide1-2.jpg

[ThinkPad560X]

I was thinking of getting a IDE Compact flash card as my ThinkPad 560X has. Do they make 160GB Compact flash yet? I only can find 64GB. And will my ThinkPad X41 read it?

[sjthinkpader]

I only tried 32GB CF card, a RiDATA 233x version. Performance is acceptable. A 8GB CF card from the same series also worked fine.

I tried an IDE-SD adapter plus a no name 32GB Class 6 SD card and OS installation failed. There is a Panasonic Class 10 SD card but I can't afford it at the moment.

The Kingspec 32GB SSD is finally being offered at about $110. Somebody reported a Runcore but not sure about the pricing. A Sandisk 32GB ZIF PATA is being offered on eBay for about $110 but you will need a IDE-ZIF adapter to use it.

For larger 80GB and 120GB HDD, only Samsung and Toshiba are offering ZIF PATA drives.

[ThinkPad560X]

I have a no name 16GB CF in my ThinkPad 560X, for some reason it runs slow. And it has Windows 2000 Professional on it, wanting to put Windows XP Home Edition later. When It had its basic IDE Hard Disk Drive, it ran fast, and that was with Windows XP Home on it.

I have a problem with my ThinkPad 560X. Right now its graphics card resulotion is fine. 800X600 High color 32-bit.
When I go to install Windows XP, The installation goes fine and then after it restarts and you know when it brings up the type in information page. The screen goes black and shows rainbow colors accross the top of the screen and then after 5min of sitting there, A blue screen comes up [ STOP: C000021a -{Fatal System Error} The Windows Logon Process system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0X0000005

Is this a Error of the CF? Even Windows 95, 98 before upgrade, manualy downloaded NeoMagic Graphics card from lenovo.com and installed it and same problem when restarted and had to power off manual and enter safe mode and uninstall the driver and stick with 640X480 16-bit.

[sjthinkpader]

Unfortunately most CF doesn't specify Write speed and write speed separates usable and useless CF cards. I tried a 133x Kingston CF in a X20 and it took days to get WinXP installed.

[keithsketchley]

Someone mentionned an adapter for SD cards.

SD cards are a whole nuther mess. The x41 does not have a fully-compatible SD slot so certain not-fully-compatible SD cards won’t work, the combination is fatal. I do not buy SanDisk due bad experience with their 4GB product, whereas a Lexar 4GB and a Kingston 16GB work fine. The x41 problem is documented on the Internet, which reports on experience with other brands of SD card. A common problem in design is people who do not understand a new standard thoroughly or cheap their implementation – there’s enough risk of someone’s product following the standard having trouble with the deficient product, and when two deficient products meet “good luck”!

I don't know much about the SD-IDE adapters, they have to look like an HDD to the computer but must recognize SD cards properly, which is where the x41<>SanDisk problem is.

[ThinkPad560X]

no I'm talking about CF "Compact Flash" cards

[sjthinkpader]

I was able to try a SD card. It was much more difficult than CF and took Bootprep to install a workable MBR. Test results for SD and various CF cards are in the "Benchmark" thread.

[keithsketchley]

Why is there a SATA power management driver for the x41? (Lenovo 77sj03ww.exe & .txt)?

The text file says “This package installs the software (Serial ATA power management driver) to enable power management function of hard disk and the related circuitry.”

I recall someone producing an adapter to put a SATA optical drive or an HDD in the Ultrabay Slim slot in an x4 Dock/Ultrabase. (Lenovo bulletin also applies to T43, T43p, R52, x60s specific machine types, inclusion could be an error as sometimes occurs in Lenovo documents.)

[Tasurinchi]

I have a IBM ThinkPad X41, "Non Tablet Series" What type of Hard Drive does the X41 take?

You may want to have a look at my thread here. There are plenty of models, but you need a ZIF/IDE adapter. Not a big deal actually. It's just plug&play. Check the last posts of the thread mentioned above to see the benchmarks for my Toshiba MK8025GAL and compare it with the results of sjthinkpader table.

Of course you may also check the thread for the SSDs, it's plenty of information as well...

Cheers...