Thinkpads Forum

Hello all,

Does anyone know if the X60s SD slot supports SDHC? If so, what class of SDHC does it support?

Thanks.

hgclim

SDHC is a camera specification, not a computer specification. Answer = yes.

http://www.sandisk.com/sdhc/SDHC.pdf

Seems like it is a generic SD card specification, not specific to cameras.

I'd really like to know if the sd card reader can accept 8GB sd cards. Anyone tried it?

Who is the first to try?

hgclim wrote:http://www.sandisk.com/sdhc/SDHC.pdf Seems like it is a generic SD card specification, not specific to cameras.

That is correct, and thanks for the correction (many digital cameras that use SD cards for image storage are not complient with the new "HC" standard for SD cards of 4g and larger).

Whether anyone has tried to download an 8g card from the X60 SD slot - well, 8g SD cards have not been out very long and I would doubt seriously if anyone has tried.

There will also be the question of whether the 8g card is "HC" compliant or not? And if the card reader needs to be "HC" compliant - which I believe it does in order to read an "HC" SD card. I doubt seriously if the X60's SD slot is "HC" compliant.

Here's a 8GB SDHC card for $66

All 8GB cards have to be SDHC. The SD spec doesn't allow for 8GBs. However I doubt that the card reader supports SDHC

SDHC is 2GB+

Any SD card (no HC) from 4GB is out of specs card. Be sure to remember.

First Light wrote: SDHC is a camera specification, not a computer specification.

My error, as the card reader must also be "HC" compliant to read an SDHC card. And thibouilli above is correct - let the buyer beware.

Hey thibouille, an off topic question (sorry hgclim/OP). I'm coming to the BRU airport the last week in March - is there wireless internet available at the BRU airport? And do you know about wireless at CDG?

I dunno, really. I suspect it is not the case in Brussels or at least, not throughout the airport. Some shops might offer this facility however.

I may be wrong however. Never had do use it there, I just never saw anything promoting it.

I dunno anything about CDG and wifi.

Hooo and BTW SDHC is not (only) a camera spec.

Any SD card bigger than 2GB HAS to be an SDHC to be within specs. It is useful in cameras of course but if people buy 8/16GB USB memory, why wouldn't they use 16GB SDHC in other devices as MP3 readers, computers etc.

SDHC has nothing to do with cameras.

Has anyone on this forum actually inserted a 4GB SDHC card in their x60 built-in SD card reader?
If so, has the computer recognized it at all ? And if the computer did recognize it, was it at the full 4GB volume ( allowing use of all 4Gb volume (for storage and/or readyboost ) or did it step it down to a 2GB volume? Or perhaps not recognized at all, in any volume?

I think you can get forget your internal SD reader for Readyboost (but I'd love to be proven wrong).

An Ultra2 Sandiosk SD cards which is not exactly crappy slow was not enough for Vista it seems.
Not very surprised, the internal reader is crappy slow (about 2MB/s MAX)

thibouille27 wrote:An Ultra2 Sandiosk SD cards which is not exactly crappy slow was not enough for Vista it seems.

Have you tried formatting the card with NTFS?

I used a Transcend 4GB TS4GSD150 card (not SDHC) in the card reader and it appears to work for readyboost. However, the benchmarked speed (2.2MB random reads and 3.3MB sequential writes) is not impressive.

Hi noticed your post about benchmark speeds.
what did you run to find those figures? (program/app)
And is the internal built-in SD card reader the bottleneck?
I think I noticed some other member mention that on this topic
Maybe there is some firmware/software we can use to free up
the internal reader.
Its a shame to have a 10-20 MB speed card slowed down to 2-3 MB.

Thanks Nick..

Yeah I checked, copying my RAW image files (16MB each) to hard drive is 2-2.3 MB/s. VERY slow. Should be 10-20MB/s.

As I understand it, this article proves readyboost with sd is possible:

http://www.gottabemobile.com/ReadyBoost ... sOrNo.aspx

edit: link
http://blogs.msdn.com/tomarcher/archive ... 15199.aspx

edit 2: link. although it doesn't concern the x60
http://www.pringle.net.nz/Blog/PermaLin ... 2815f.aspx

edit 3: link. huge list of compatible and incompatible models (usb, sd, cf)
http://www.grantgibson.co.uk/misc/readyboost/

I tried a transcend 8 gig SDHC SD Card and the reader doesnt recognize the card. it doesn't see it at all. Sux, would have been nice to use for movies and such on long flights. I may just use CF card with pcmcia adapter.

BTW: Thinkpad X60s

I have used/tried BOTH a Sandisk Ultra 2 4Gb SDHC (class 4) and a Kingston 4GB SDHC
(class 6 )card in my X60s.

The built-in reader can both see them and is able to use them, either as storage or READYBOOST.
I suggest using one of the above cards instead of Transcent.
From what I have read in certain reviews, their memory (SD, CF, USB) is not as fast thur-out the device as they claim them to be.

And I am fairly certain once Sandisk or Kingston come out with a 8GB SDHC card in either class 4 or class 6 ( at the rate these cards are expanding it might be as early as next month ) they too will be usable

rexy wrote:I have used/tried BOTH a Sandisk Ultra 2 4Gb SDHC (class 4) and a Kingston 4GB SDHC
(class 6 )card in my X60s.

The built-in reader can both see them and is able to use them, either as storage or READYBOOST.

Wow, can you confirm that Kingston 4GB SDHC is recongnized for the full 4GB of storage space in your X60s?

Hi.

The Kingston 4Gb SDHC class 6 card shows up as
3.80 GB. free space before being used as a ReadyBoost drive.
Once it's set as ReadyBoost and set to it's max size (3790MB) you, will have 60.8 MB of free space left over to "play" with.

Hope this helps you.
Nick.

P.S. I have also formated ALL my cards to NTFS from FAT32.
Not sure if it helps, but my logic is to have both the HDD file and the removeable drives using the same file type system.
Read somewhere that NFTS is both faster and safer than FAT32.