CF to IDE adapter as hard drive in 770Z. Pin modification?

[Norway Pad]

Hello all

As a part of my 770Z project, I am experimenting with replacing the old slow 14GB drive with a CF to IDE adapter and a 16Gb 266 CF card. The adapter is one of theese: http://www.tomtop.com/media/catalog/pro ... 358452.jpg I assume that master/slave selection here relates to which one of the two CF slots are master and slave, and not the adapter itself.

The first thing I noticed is that 50 pin IDE plugs cover the 4 master/slave selection pins on the adapter. So to avoid something going wrong within the 770, I plugged the adapter into a 50 pin IDE to USB adapter I have connected to my T60. It found the adapter, and I was able to transfer files to and from the CF card. So the basic parts were good.

Before I took the 14.1Gb drive out of the HDD caddy, I made a Clonezilla image of the Win2K install, and the plan is to put this image back on the CF card. But Clonezilla hangs in the bootup process. From the text that scrolls by, I can see that it locates and verifies "hbd: ULTIMATE CF CARD, CFA DISK drive" but it hangs when the time comes to mount. Same thing happens when I try the CF card in the adapter's other slot. I then tried with the empty adapter, with no CF card inserted, and now Clonezilla booted up just fine.

So something goes wrong when the CF card is present in the adapter. My theory is that the 770's IDE plug by default connects the wrong pins in the 4-pin master/slave selection group, so the master/slave priority is wrong. I assume that these 4 pins needs to be bent out and connected by cables externally, but I also suspect the 770 might need some feedback from them(?) Has anybody tried this adapter in a 770 or similar, and know what to do here? I will probably do some experimenting, but trying not to invent the wheel over again unless neccessary.

Thank you in advance for any answers!

[Norway Pad]

Ok, so the result from one full day of experimenting is that the Win2K install CD actually sees the CF adapter as a hardrive, and installs Win2K onto it. But the laptop refuses to boot from it, probably the same reason why Clonezilla hangs when it tries to mount it. I have now even bent out the first 4 pins, and connected pins 1 and 2, like suggested as a working configuration by this picture, from a 701 project. https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8 ... directlink CF card is in the same place.

So I am a little bit stuck here, and I don't see what to try next. I found a thread about a CF adapter used in a 760, but it talks about a size limitation. That should not be an issue for the 770Z? If anybody has achieved verified results with another brand CF to IDE adapter, I don't mind buying a new one. I am even interested in hearing about any experiences with mSATA to IDE adapter in these laptops.

If I can't make it work, I will probably just buy a 7200rpm IDE drive. That will at least make Win2K slightly faster, but also make me loose out on the joy of making my own poor mans-SSD.

[Neil]

I don't have an answer for you, but I do use a CF card as the boot drive in both of my X40, so I can pop one of them into my 770 in a few hours, and see what happens.

I will probably just buy a 7200rpm IDE drive.

Probably the best idea anyway as W2K and XP as well don't run very well on any kind of SSD. Sure it can be done, I even ran XP on my X40 with the CF card, but performance was not good at all, and continued to worsen the longer I used it.

[Norway Pad]

I don't have an answer for you, but I do use a CF card as the boot drive in both of my X40, so I can pop one of them into my 770 in a few hours, and see what happens..

That would be really great. If that works, I would be very interested in knowing what specific adapter / card you use.

..I even ran XP on my X40 with the CF card, but performance was not good at all, and continued to worsen the longer I used it.

I imagine that might be the case, without the TRIM functionality. This laptop isn't used much, though, so this is a project just to see if I can make it work. The 16Gb CF card now might turn out to be a wasted purchase, so hope I can use it somewhere else.

[Neil]

What I have is two or three of these cheap adapters from Hong Kong. Thought I had one of those two slot Addonics adapters, but I can't find it, so might have sold it a couple of years ago since all I use CF cards for are X40.

Anyway...I can't get the 770 to boot with the CF card in there no matter which way I configure the pins into the IDE cable in the caddy. Always get the no floppy/HDD graphic and nothing further. Oh well...

[Norway Pad]

Ok, thanks for testing this.

At this point I have to assume that there is something that prevents this from working, and that things works differently here than in other IDE Thinkpads. So unless somebody here knows an easy fix for this, I probably skip this project and leave the 770Z as the collectible it will be as some more years pass by. Today I put Win2K on a newer drive I had lying around, so at least the humming and growling from the original drive is gone.

Neil: On the adapter you use in your X40, have you bent away or cut the middle pin on the lower row of pins? (The one that's missing on an IDE hard drive) Or do you just plug it in as-is? I have one of those small adapters too, I might give that a try in the T23.

[Neil]

Just plug it in as-is, didn't remove or bend any pins.