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Replace TP760 IDE HDD with SSD?

Older ThinkPads from the 300, 500, 600, 700 Series, iSeries, Transnote etc.
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Edward Mendelson
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Replace TP760 IDE HDD with SSD?

#1 Post by Edward Mendelson » Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:36 pm

I have a trusty ThinkPad 760XL in a Dock II, with an 8 GB HDD formatted to whatever the maximum HDD size for that model may be (something like 7.2 GB if I remember correctly, and I probably don't). I still use it for testing pure DOS applications on real hardware, and also, sometimes, if I need to get data off a 5.25-inch floppy, I plug a MicroSolutions Backpack external 5.25-inch floppy drive into the parallel port and copy files from the disk.

I worry that the HDD won't last forever, and I'm mostly amazed that it's still working. It took me ages to set it up with the old V-Com System Commander software so that it multiboots to MS-DOS, PC-DOS, Windows NT, 95, and 98. If possible, I'd like to back it up to a solid-state SSD that could fit into the same kind of old-Thinkpad HDD caddy that I'm using now. Is there any hardware that would let me image one IDE disk to another? And is there an IDE SSD that might be useful for this?

I'll be grateful for any information about doing this.

kishy
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Re: Replace TP760 IDE HDD with SSD?

#2 Post by kishy » Wed Nov 21, 2018 1:59 pm

I've explored this, as I have a bunch of old machines, not just ThinkPads, which could benefit from getting rid of the spinning disk: improve battery life, potentially improve disk i/o, improve long term reliability...

I have found through comparing the options on the market that the best bang for the buck is found by buying 44 pin IDE to CompactFlash adapters (cheap, $1-2 on eBay from China) and then buying suitable CompactFlash cards (as an example, I have some of these and they do the job nicely: https://www.ebay.com/itm/183531416078). I paid US$15.50 for four, without free shipping, if that provides a useful benchmark.

Purpose-made "IDE SSDs" are a rarity, and when they turn up, they are expensive for their storage volume. "Disk on modules" are in essentially the same boat; they do exist, but are pricey, and the DOM format is more difficult to integrate within a notebook sometimes.
PC 110 | 760E SVGA | 760E XGA | 235 | 600 | T21 | Z60m | T520 | W520 (dd) | T430 | T530

Edward Mendelson
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Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 10:11 am

Re: Replace TP760 IDE HDD with SSD?

#3 Post by Edward Mendelson » Wed Nov 21, 2018 3:01 pm

This is extremely useful. Thank you. I've now found in my TP760 case one of those Second HDD Adapters, so I can install the old HDD and the new one in the same machine. What I don't remember is how to clone one drive to another. I seem to have done this at some point, because I see that I've got a second drive with a backup of the drive I'm using. But I can't imagine how I copied one to the other.

Does anyone remember cloning software that can be used in a TP760?

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