Old ThinkPads with SATA

[ThinkPad560X]

Do they make SATA adapters for the old 700s ThinkPads "700, 755CD, 760" Since they come in a caddy with IDE and then its own plug into the motherboard. "Caddy for the 700s http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php ... cts_id=122" And has anyone soldered a SATA plug in on ThinkPad T20-T40, A20-A30, R30-R50 where the IDE would of been? I know my 560X and 390X has the adapter IDE to motherboard. Would upgrading to SATA be faster and would it work, be a good experimental to try if you work on motherboards.

off topic but I think it would be nice to see future 3D printers of motherboards. Print a board of a 560X shape with that 1 USB 1.0 with a 3.0 port, Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB RAM max, maybe a basic Intel Extreme graphics gpu and just plug in its LCD and keyboard on a 98 ThinkPad or even do it on a 600X and you have a 98 ThinkPad with a current specs.

[rkawakami]

The way I see it, there's several problems to overcome:

- The disk controller interface on the motherboard is not changeable. Any particular chipset used on these old machines will not have the inherent capability of using SATA drives since they were designed before SATA existed (about 2003).
- This means that a SATA-to-PATA converter would be needed. It would sit between the drive's SATA connector and the laptop's PATA connector and convert the signals from one system to the other. This is the same system that already exists in some of the 2nd HDD Ultrabay adapters (allows usage of SATA drives in a PATA-interfaced Ultrabay). This converter would take up some space and therefore you wouldn't be able to plug in a 2.5" SATA drive and converter combination into the same space as a 2.5" PATA drive.
- That said, it might be possible to use a 1.8" Micro SATA drive and a SATA-to-PATA converter like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Cables ... B004FD5BNE
- Let us know if this works out.

[ThinkPad560X]

I got this for my small NetVista desktop. http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product ... 81592.html

It works fine, But I guess they make a PCI SATA now. I did this along time ago.

[tarvoke]

off topic but I think it would be nice to see future 3D printers of motherboards. Print a board of a 560X shape with that 1 USB 1.0 with a 3.0 port, Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB RAM max, maybe a basic Intel Extreme graphics gpu and just plug in its LCD and keyboard on a 98 ThinkPad or even do it on a 600X and you have a 98 ThinkPad with a current specs.

this part, I love. and hope to see someday soon. someone had recently mentioned in the forums about the possibility of putting ARM guts in older thinkpad chassis. I don't see why it's not impossible with PCBs that have LVDS / hdmi / whatever, and a bit of motivation.

but

I don't recall ever seeing retrofit SATA to IDE adapters. it's not going to be only electrical/mechanical, it will require control circuitry / ICs.

from some years back, I've got a supremely useful 2.5" USB caddy, which will take PATA OR SATA. quite clever. but that's only b/c it has ide-usb bridge at one end of the slab, and sata-usb chip at the other.

[ThinkPad560X]

How well would the new PCIe SSD work? http://usb.brando.com/msata-mini-pci-e- ... 2d015.html

I have a real 16GB SSD in my ThinkPad R50, 2GB memory maxed, Windows XP Pro. But the IDE SSD runs slugish, click on something 1-2sec wait unless you accessed it already it boots quick.

tarvoke: yeah I would rather have the 3D print board then the solder SATA over IDE. It may happen very soon. Like that new smart phone: http://www.techspot.com/news/53965-phon ... locks.html (Phonebloks)

[rkawakami]

I suppose that would work too. But any OS that will run at a decent speed on such old hardware will probably not have support for SSD (i.e., TRIM). If the overall goal is to increase the throughput of data transfers then I don't think this will yield too much of an increase. The bandwidth is going to be dictated by the motherboard's chipset. PATA drives of decent capacity and average speed (80GB to 100GB, 5400RPM) can be had for less than $20; about the cost of that PCI-e adapter.

[tarvoke]

WOW.
W
A
O
W
.

just, holy-wow.

consider me flabbergasted.

I almost said in my previous comment "if you can think of an adapter it will most likely exist" except I didn't believe it could be true for retro IDE fitting. well, shame on me. neat!

no clue. but. dude, for 15 bucks, have at it. well, yeah, the msata disk part of the experiment becomes expensive. your link sez "USB Adapter" which I didn't really investigate if that language meaningful or not - but - pci-E is either going to be x1 or USB, and if that one is limited by being USB, then, ... as the yellow-bird sort-of-recommends ... why not just get a 64GB or 128GB USB and a usb2.0 cardbus or mini-pci.

but, dang that's neat!

and, yeah, the 3D boards! we already have, what, like, the "T50" fabs or whatever. that enough people were buying boards to make it possible?

my little beagle-black server could easily replace the guts of my previously-beloved 600X...

[tarvoke]

oh and TRIM used to scare the ever-loving **** out of me, but that's for suckers it seems? I will readily admit I still don't understand SSDs, but I have machines running off of eMMC and transflash, and 'slong as you run the right utils, alignment + duty, and whatnot is not a problem. (srsly, run hdparm and/or fstrim, like, 3 times a year, and you're cool)

[ThinkPad560X]

Why is my 16GB SSD IDE drive in my ThinkPad R50 so slow, Its way slower then if I had a basic 40GB normal IDE disk drive, witch makes the disk drive feel alot better then a SSD. Start Time 3min, click to open IE or Chrome, 1m-1m30sec Windows XP Pro.

IDE Disk Drives are going to start getting harder to find soon and want to upgrade my ThinkPads to SSD and want to get the same disk drive speed 5400 or 7200 or alittle better.

[axur-delmeria]

ThinkPad560X,

Regarding your first post (IDE to SATA bridge for 750/760) it may be possible to make one.

My old 760XD's HDD was 17mm tall. Today's HDDs are either 9.5mm or 7mm tall, so there's quite a bit of space to fit a circuit board with an IDE to SATA bridge.

However, you'll be severely bottlenecked by the slow IDE interface--these babies can only go up to 16.6MB/s.
Only the PIIX4 southbridge had ATA-33 support; this was first used on the Thinkpad 770 if I remember correctly.

Another issue is BIOS support: older TPs don't boot with HDDs > 6GB. You need to find an old copy of Ontrack Disk Manager and load its Dynamic Drive Overlay feature onto the HDD before you even plug it into the Thinkpad.

~~
ATA-66/100 was first implemented in the 800-series chipsets (T23, X22, R30). The increased bandwidth makes them more attractive to mod, however the biggest challenge is finding an IDE-SATA adapter small enough to fit.

Most of the time, it looks impossible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hlavYM9U0Q

If there's enough space nearby, you could remove the the IDE and SATA connectors on the adapter board, as well as the laptop's IDE port, then run some cables to connect them.

[Johan]

I just stumbled across this thread, and I admit that I haven't read all the posts in detail and followed all links... BUT:

I have for long been very interested in upgrading ThinkPad's of the T4x/p era from their native 2.5" PATA/IDE drives (which are 9.5 mm tall) to a SSD of some kind; either a PATA SSD (only few of these are available, and the best, the OWC's, are very expensive) or better: A SATA SSD. A number of relevant threads are mentioned in the sticky GUIDE: Make your T4x *FAST* by replacing the HDD with a SSD!

Also, note the thread by automobus: Trying SATA in 2001-2002 machines? Limited to Ultra ATA/33 which may, or may not, also relate to older ThinkPad's.

In the "older ThinkPad business" I recall having seen the thread T23 IDE SSD - Recommendations? which highlight some of the limitations one may run into if using a SSD in an old, slow ThinkPad ("slow": Based on a chipset with some significant limitation in the bus bandwidth etc.).

Many X4x-users have also been playing with various SATA drives; see e.g. the sticky Has anyone tried an SSD in the X41? *PICS* (it is suggested to start reading this thread from the end, as the beginning of this thread dates all the way back to 2007... so many of the earlier posts are more or less outdated by now, eight years later!).

At this time it seems that the the Minerva ST663FD9 and/or the Lycom/Addonics/Aleratec/DeLock/Kuroutoshikou mSATA-to-IDE/PATA adapter is generating most interest amongst ThinkPad T4x/p users. These adapters "convert" a mSATA SSD into a 2.5" PATE/IDE drive.

- That said, it might be possible to use a 1.8" Micro SATA drive and a SATA-to-PATA converter like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Cables ... B004FD5BNE

This adapter has been extensively discussed in the threads 1.8" SATA to 2.5" IDE converter? and T42 SSD Conversion Success (1.8" SATA drive + bridge board). Note that this adapter is based on the JMicron 20330 controller which is known to be troublesome with certain drives. Much more information about this adapter/controller in the above-mentioned threads.

Note: I've just moved this thread from initially being posted in the "Off topic" section to here, the "ThinkPad Legacy Hardware"... as I absolutely don't think that this thread is Off topic, in relation to ThinkPad's!

Johan