Thinkpads Forum

Hi, I love IBM think pads, i've been using a 10 year old t23 for 5 years and it's been rock solid!
I've been a fan of the ultraportable models for a while and managed to get hold of a mint x40.
It's a great machine but has one big drawback....it's Hard drive is old and may fail anytime and is sooooo small at 40GB. I've tried to search for the latest advice for a HDD replacement and most seem to recommend SSD, which does'nt really suit me as i want more capacity at a lower price. Has anyone managed to pair their x40 with a bigger drive (160GB+) and if so how? Does anyone have a link to a replacement guide, i need some sort of adaptor don't i? I'd prefer a solution that includes 1.8" drives that i could install internally rather than have a 2.5 drive hanging out the front, however if there's no big 1.8" drives compatible i'd appreciate any advice there.

welcome to the forum.

how about something like: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... rd%20drive ?
no personal experience as i'm looking at 1.8" ssds for my x301.

Part of the problem here is that not only do you need a 1.8" drive, you need one that's small enough to fit an adapter in the drive bay with it. The largest drives I've seen for sale that include the necessary adapter for the X40 are 120 GB.

Thanks for your advice guys. jdrou, What was the drive model and the adaptor you mentioned please? Sounds like you have done a fair bit of research on our common issue.

Hi Tats

Take a look at my older thread here, actually 160GB and 240GB would be possible (provided you will use Win7 or a latest Linux distro), but those drive are terribly expensive! From memory you'll get the best price per GB for 80GB/120GB models.

Hope this helps...

My 0,02 cents...

^^^
i remember that thread. good info!

Yea Tasurinchi's thread is awesome... from price per gig, speed, and power consumption standpoint... the Samsung 80GB HS082HB is a winner (and now down to $125 to $150 in price)... dunno if twice as big is what you meant

For your "MUCH" bigger... the 120GB drives are STILL costly at $200+ ... and only 40GB more.. well... I would have to consider a USB powered 2.5" external for added storage... $57 for a 500GB 2.5" (WD5000BEVT) and $13 for an enclosure (VANTEC NST-200S2-BK)... you can almost by 3 of those rigs for the cost of getting 40GB more internally.

Thanks for all the great info guys, it's really got me thinking now.
So the current 1.8 drives that are compatible with the X40 are all ZIFF/PATA?
There's no ZIF adaptor that has a SATA interface that would work with the X40?
If so it looks like i'm limited to older refurbished drives?

Here in New Zealand it's going to be hard to find a reasonably priced new drive by the looks. Maybe i should consider a 2.5 drive, i read in another post that it's possible but the drive hangs out the front, sounds ugly but as 99% of the time the lappie will be used at home it would be ok. Has anyone done this and would you have any pics?

in my experience, 1.8 or 2.5" refer to width not depth.

1.8 and 2.5 refer to the platter size

the drive cases are basically:

1.8" drive: (54 mm × 71 mm) then a 3rd dimension being height... 7mm, 8mm, 9.5mm

2.5" drive: (69.85 mm x 100 mm) then also a 3rd height... 9.5mm, 12.5mm, 17mm, & 19mm

Now, seeing as how we are dealing with a 9.5mm hight on the original, no worries on the 2.5" drive there...

In the X40, the 1.8" drive was placed sideways in the bay, so bay width >= 100mm, more then ample for the 2.5's 69.85mm...

Now lies the "sticking out part... 54mm versus 100mm.

Or you could do a 1.8 zif to 2.5 converter and 1.8 zif drive... See this post in this thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 44#p408644

Also has a nice pic of what we are talking about here... http://i32.tinypic.com/2nr3eat.jpg

Tats wrote:Maybe i should consider a 2.5 drive, i read in another post that it's possible but the drive hangs out the front, sounds ugly but as 99% of the time the lappie will be used at home it would be ok. Has anyone done this and would you have any pics?

I did this for a short while, when I first got my X40. It function fine, but, you are correct about it being ugly. I ended up with a 16GB CF card in the drive bay, as I don't need large amounts of storage. To me the X40 is the ideal portable machine, but if I needed more storage I would not have to think twice about selling the X40 and buying a X60, then I could choose from almost any of the much less expensive SATA hard drives. The over-all difference is price would be about the same as buying an expensive, large-ish drive for the X40.

@ozzymud...
thanks for the info. i've no no experience with x40, so didn't know mounting orientation.
considering that platter drives and ssds are both referred to as 1.8 and 2.5", i figured it to be case size.

Might see if sjthinkpader still has any of these 120 GB drives left:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=90243

sarbin wrote:thanks for the info. i've no no experience with x40,

LOL... up till today I think my experience with the x40 was limited to looking at one on thinkwiki (http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X40)

I however am an avid user of google, if it aint there, then all that's left is good old trial and error

Tats wrote:So the current 1.8 drives that are compatible with the X40 are all ZIFF/PATA?

Correct. SATA won't work in an X40. Unfortunately, prices have increased in the last months. But you still get brand new models, as these are often produced for Ipod Classics or other MP3 players. The first generation MacBook Air was also using these ZIF drives.

This one here looks interesting, but I've read in some forums that some of the drives originally built for Apple had a specific firmware that caused trouble when trying to install anything not Mac OS in it.

Btw, this thread should be in the X Series section, X40 are not so old (yet) Could a moderator please move it?

Tasurinchi wrote: This one here looks interesting,

That also won't work without an adapter; the X40 does not have a ZIF connector. I believe the only 1.8" disks that would work without an adapter are the original 40 and 60 GB Hitachi drives.

Whether PATA or SATA any higher-capacity 1.8" disk will need some kind of adapter. Some sellers may include the adapter and verify that it will fit in an X40 (like the forum link I posted).

jdrou wrote:That also won't work without an adapter

I know, but I thought the TS read my thread, where it's explained that all new drives listed there are ZIF drives that require an adapter.

Tasurinchi wrote:I believe the only 1.8" disks that would work without an adapter are the original 40 and 60 GB Hitachi drives

Correct.

It's true that sellers normally won't provide the ZIF adapter with the HDDs, but I recall about a year or so there were some sellers selling 120GB drives together with the ZIF Adapter, maybe such an offer comes back one day? Probably the Marketplace here has some...