KingSpec SSD into x41

[keithsketchley]

My notes from successfully installing a Kingspec 128 GB 1.8” SSD into a standard x41, and installing Windows 7.1 Pro concurrently:

Came with wrong screws – IBM ones are quite short and have correct diameter. (No cage or bezel of course, if you aren’t transferring a cage you can buy one with correct screws from someone in HK/Taiwan, via eBay, I purchased a few from them.)

Be thorough about getting cage on correct orientation.
(Use old drive as sample, observe the connector in computer is offset to give room for jumper pins.
Use computer orientation so that new drive slides along slot as this SSD drive is thinner than Hitachi conventional)

The usual 2010 error, press ESC to proceed (can set BIOS to not pause but it will still notify with a beep), I’ve even seen that with a used 30GB Hitachi conventional drive.

Seems to work fine, certainly boots fast compared to conventional HD with same SW load, very fast scanning by ESET security suite.

(Note huge thread http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41568, I'm here starting a fresh one for SSD only.

(I’ll cover Windows 7 installation in a different thread.)

[keithsketchley]

Speed of hard drive intensive functions is very fast, such as sfc (System File Checker) but Windows 7 annoyingly slow.
Windows 7 has good security features, very disappointing otherwise.

[PearlJamman010]

I found that Windows 7 ran fine on my X31 after 2 GB ram and even a 5400 RPM hdd, other than the driver issues. It definitely was slower than Windows XP, though. I see the X41 has very similar specs other than it's ULV CPU and Intel integrated graphics. Have you run XP on this machine with the SSD? If so, is there a comparable difference?

[keithsketchley]

Beware there is a problem with BIOS not supporting AHCI mode needed to use TRIM in Windows 7.
Without TRIM the SSD's empty space is under-represented in Windows, and thus in an image made for backup.

At least some SSD technologies need to have Windows tell the drive that space from which files were deleted but which has not yet been over-written is free space. The TRIM feature in Windows 7, enabled through fsutil (see Microsoft web site) does that.

I see a difference on my drive.

I regret investing more in the x41.
(It's graphics chip is not supported by Intel or Lenovo, so control of resolution and number of colours is poor, and it will not support external display.
Better to spend on a new faster computer with regular size HDD that will

[aoitenshi]

hello,
have you considered using other OS beside Win7? I know that *nix systems do not required AHCI to perform TRIM command
TRIM is something where the SSD and the OS are "communicating" (CMIIW)

your X41 is still have strength to live for -let say- 5 more years using ssd

[timg111]

I just replaced a failing Hitachi drive in an X41. Yea it's old but still does its job in a special application. I replaced it with the Kingspec SATA.

The X41 boots up with the 2010 error, but if I try to go past it with ESC, the screen goes to a 80x25 text mode black screen with a blinking cursor at the upper left.

I was able to image the Hitachi drive, and wrote the image to the Kingspec. I verified that the Kingspec is properly partitioned, bootable, active, etc. I used a USB-SATA/IDE cable from another machine to image it and inspect it.

I tried it both with and without the slave mode jumper that came installed on the Kingspec. Without it, the X41 doesn't even see a HD at all and does not give the 2010 error.

Any other ideas for getting it to boot?

[timg111]

I got it to boot. Apparently the image was a bit too exact, and there were some discrepancies in the drive parameters. I used the Terabyte Unlimited Boot It tool to fix it up.

I still get the 2010 error on boot - would be nice to find a way around that.

[RealBlackStuff]

Check TTAV134's BIOS here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=111775