Thinkpad X41 hard drive replacement

[Cecilia76]

Hi guys,

I just got an old (2005) ThinkPad X41 (model 2525) and would like to replace its 4200 rpm drive.
The only option I found is to put an SSD drive such as:

http://www.amazon.com/64GB-KingSpec-PAT ... B003F1C9DW

but if you look at the reviews people says that there is a boot problem because the BIOS does not really recognize the drive and you must press ESC key at each reboot.

Does anybody have more info on the matter?

Best, C.

[Tasurinchi]

Hi

You have to apply a BIOS mod to get rid of that annoying error, download it from here

I personally would avoid those Kingspecs since they have mixed reviews in this and other forums as well. I think the safest SSD would be a mSata one with an IDE Adapter. Check some of the threads in this subforum for more information.

[ganon11000]

mSATA with a 3.3V ide adapter is best, getting 80+MB/s

[Cecilia76]

Hi guys,

thanks for your advices. Just a couple of questions more:

1. can you suggest a real model of mSata disk and a real model of ide adapter that I can buy on amazon?
2. do I still need the BIOS mod with this solutions (btw, the link seems to be broken)

Thanks a lot, C.

[Tasurinchi]

For 1) There are several brands. I personally would look for an Intel or Crucial one, as for the mSata to IDE adapters, I think Ebay is a good source (this one as example), not sure if Amazon sells them though

For 2) Yes, you still need to patch the BIOS, check these links for download:

http://thinkpad-forum.de/threads/124788 ... 3b9d573aae

http://www.4shared.com/file/SfsG_yjf/T4 ... 802_n.html

[ganon11000]

I'm using a Crucial M4 64GB mSATA from "play.com" (http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/35138934/ ... earch)with a 3.3V mSATA to 3.3V IDE adapter from a eBay seller named "freegift2010"

[Cecilia76]

Hi guys,

I finally took the KingSpec SSD 64 Gb and I am waiting for it. Other solutions were to difficult (or too expensive) from Italy. If I understood well I should do a BIOS upgrade. I downloaded the upgrade from here: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... post344779

It's an ISO image, what should I do to apply it? Burn to a CD and boot with it?

Moreover, is it possible to make a ghost-copy from my current drive to the SSD?

Best, C.

[ganon11000]

If your talking about SSD firmware you can't do that with the adapter!

And for fixing the non IBM HDD error message look on thinkpad wiki (its a .exe)

[Cecilia76]

If your talking about SSD firmware you can't do that with the adapter!

And for fixing the non IBM HDD error message look on thinkpad wiki (its a .exe)

Hi,

thanks for your answer. I was planning to update the Thinkpad BIOS in order to remove the HDD error.
Can you point me to the wiki plz?

Thanks, C.

[ganon11000]

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_w ... hard_disks
In unofficial BIOS section

[Cecilia76]

Ok, thanks a lot. Will try to perform the upgrade.
Do you also know if I can make a ghost-copy of the drive? People in the forum is saying that probably is not possible.
C.

[ganon11000]

You can use something like http://www.acronis.co.uk/homecomputing/ ... trueimage/ and use the trial. I used the copy that came with my OCZ SSD and its worked great!!

[Cecilia76]

Hi guys,

so finally the KingSpec SSD 64Gb has arrived. I updated the bios as described above, but apparently there are non differences: if I enter the BIOS in the Thinkpad the date of it is still 2006 and not 2009 (as I suppose it should be).
Moreover I still need to press esc key in order to proceed in the booting process.

Am I missing something?
Best, C.

[ganon11000]

Try it again? And it will show 2006 as its only got errors removed, not an unofficial release.

[Cecilia76]

Hi guys,

just an update to keep let you know what I decided.
So, I finally went for the KingSpec 64gb SSD, it was about 60 euros on amazon. I had to update the firmware of my X41 twice (the first time I had also a scary message that apparently was not important in the end).
I lost the small jumper to make the disk a "master", so it took to me a while find another one. Finally I mounted the disk and put on it Debian Wheezy (even if I will probably go for the original Windows in the future).

The Thinkpad is pretty snappy (1.5gb RAM) and works flawlessy with Debian. The disk seems to be nice (definitely faster than the original disk) but please be careful that if you plan to use this disk with Windows XP you'll probably need to enable the "trim" functon in some way.

Best, C.