Would a ZIF to IDE adapter work on X40?

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zzzname · #1 Post by **zzzname** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:26 pm

I've been browsing ebay lately and I found this auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0192196818

Now that sounds quite tempting and the only question is would that work in a X40? Has anybody tried that? I'm a bit afraid of going for it and buying both the adapter and ZIF hard drive if I am not going to have use for them afterwards.

Cheers.

Moderator edit: Shortened URL to prevent horizontal scrolling

#2 Post by **BillMorrow** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 2:47 am

i don't understand..

do you have a hitachi or toshiba 1.8 inch HDD you need to get data from..??

if so, get the adapter..
it MIGHT work but you won't know until you try..

its cheap enough..

otherwise why buy it.. ?

sugo · #3 Post by **sugo** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 3:05 am

wouldn't it make the hard drive too long and stick out?

DVormann · #4 Post by **DVormann** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 3:46 am

Electrically it is very likely to work. I strongly doubt you'll be able to fit everything into the housing.

zzzname · #5 Post by **zzzname** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:12 am

That's what I was afraid of that it might be too long altogether for the housing.

BillMorrow: Toshiba and Hitachi drives with ZIF connector have higher capacity than the IDE Hitachi ones, don't they?

bartelby · #6 Post by **bartelby** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:20 pm

Has anyone been able to make this configuration work in an x4x? If yes, please give specifics.

weepy · #7 Post by **weepy** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 7:53 am

Electrically, I would be afraid, whether it supports UDMA. Physically, it looks quite long, 1-2cm, so it would probably block most 1.8" drives, but this woud have to be checked with each drive individually. Yeah man, just try it, some 5 bucks + shipping

..

bartelby · #8 Post by **bartelby** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:45 am

What I am asking is, has anyone ACTUALLY DONE this? If so, what were the details and how did it work out? In most cases of theory vs practice, I am more interested in the results of actual practice rather than vague speculation inspired by theory.

There are a few 1.8" ZIF drives available. Which one did you use? Was it an improvement on the drive that shipped with the x4x? Do you have some performance specs to share with us? Was it difficult to insert the connector? If so, how did you manage to do it?

Questions like that...

weepy · #9 Post by **weepy** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:46 am

Sorry, i read some former posts and i see i was a bit polluting with what was already written

..

Maybe looking at X40 hdd bay and adapter could inspire someone

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... &start=198

ALPHONSE2501 · #10 Post by **ALPHONSE2501** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 2:44 pm

According to chinese forum...it worked

http://www.thinkpad.cn/forum/viewthread.php?tid=645076

http://www.thinkpad.cn/forum/viewthread.php?tid=645085

http://www.thinkpad.cn/forum/viewthread.php?tid=645112

http://www.thinkpad.cn/forum/viewthread.php?tid=643931

bartelby · #11 Post by **bartelby** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 3:23 pm

I don't read Chinese - makes it difficult for me to get much out of these pages <smiley/>

pxa270 · #12 Post by **pxa270** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:47 am

According to this thread IBM/Lenovo is actually issuing ZIF 1.8" drives with an adapter as replacement parts for the X40/41 drives. No info on what adapter they're using though.

bartelby · #13 Post by **bartelby** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 10:03 am

So how would I acquire one of these drives?

ragefury32 · #14 Post by **ragefury32** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 7:30 am

I just ordered a similar adapter to see if it can be made to work with my X41 Tablet - might have an iPod drive that I can use for fitting tests. Let's see what can be done...

And yes. These are essentially the replacement HDDs for iPods and other HDD media players on the market. If it works, my X41 Tablet gets more commuter miles.

pgoelz · #15 Post by **pgoelz** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 8:50 am

How exactly did you order it? I tried the Lenovo web site but it doesn't even show an internal drive for my X41.... all it shows is one that might fit the docking station.

Paul

ragefury32 · #16 Post by **ragefury32** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:23 pm

pgoelz wrote:How exactly did you order it? I tried the Lenovo web site but it doesn't even show an internal drive for my X41.... all it shows is one that might fit the docking station.

Paul

I ordered the IDE -> ZIF adapter from an eBay vendor for less than $10. As for a ZIF 1.8" drive, that's an easy one...any vendor that carry replacement hard drives for 5th Generation iPods will have the proper part - the name of the game here is to allow the X4 to use a ZIF drive from the big 4 HDD vendors instead of that kludgey one-off IDE that you MUST source from HGST. In any case, the biggest challenge is to figure out how to fit the adapter, cable and the drive into the X4's original HDD bay.

As for the X4 original replacement HDD...the HGST part that fits in the bay goes for around $529 if you order directly from Lenovo parts (I delibrately filed in an EZServ CRU request for a 60GByte model and then called them up to see how much they'll bill me if I retain it). Not exactly a great idea.

pgoelz · #17 Post by **pgoelz** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:46 pm

Wow, so much for the IBM / Lenovo route. Wow!

I guess I'll stick to looking for a used 60BG IDE. I am in fact quite pleased with the peformance of my X41 with its slow 4200 RPM 40GB drive. It would be better with a faster drive but its fine the way it is.

I wonder if there are any active components on the Lenovo adapter or if it is simply a flex circuit with a 44 pin connector on one end.

Paul

ALPHONSE2501 · #18 Post by **ALPHONSE2501** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:47 pm

If you use a adapter like that one....

http://www.siliconpopculture.com/forum/viewthread/7407/
Modifying the ZIF adapter
Because the ZIF adapter has a 3.3v regulator to step down the 5v it expects to receive to 3.3v, you will need to bypass it. Otherwise the voltage delivered to the ZIF drive will be less than 3.3v and the drive will not work. The regulator is located on the left of the adapter and has “AMS1117” printed on it.

Remove the regulator by desoldiering it or by simply cutting the leads.
Bridge the two pads on the bottom middle/right of where the regulator used to be (looking at the board in the same direction as the writing on the regulator). This will directly connect the output from the Karma to the HDD.
Make sure that the third pad on the left is not bridged; this is negative and the other two are positive.
Hook the ZIF drive up to the adapter, plug it into the mainboard, and boot up your Karma in recovery mode (hold the menu button and then press the power button). You should see a screen like that below, with the model of the HDD you are using in place of “toshiba mk8009gah.”
(optional) Also desoldier the LED (located diagonally up and right of the regulator), which lights up when it receives power. Doing this will increase the battery life of the Karma, but probably not by much. (Note: I have not tested doing this.)

How to put ZIF Drives in the Karma: a guide
http://www.riovolution.org/post/12086

Note:
chinese forum I posted have said similiar point

edwardoneale · #19 Post by **edwardoneale** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 5:44 am

I've had partial success with this method. And now I need some help!

I bought this adapter from ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/iPod-TOSHIBA-1-8- ... p1638.m122

Actually i just about had it working with this adapter but then i broke it and had to wait for another adapter from hong kong.

Both adapters had a voltage changer on them so that a 3.3v drive can be plugged into 5v. This needs to be removed as per the instuctions in the post above. The second adapter i got had the chip in a different place, but was exactly the same.

The second adapter also came with 2 large leds and an enormous jumper. I desoldered all of these as well to get it to fit in the bay.

I used a 60GB Toshiba ZIF drive (ipod drive). The drive isn't compatible with the HDD caddy in the X41 because it has no screw holes to attach anything to it and is a salightly different size ( a couple of mm longer for the ZIF interface, the width is a good bit shorter as it doesnot have the ide pins on the side.

I found you could jam the drive in with the caddy in place in which case it is a tight fit and the drive is a little diagonal.

I also tried removing the caddy completely which worked bu the drive was quite loose - would need some foam or something to stop it banging around.

In the end i settled on cutting away the plastic on one side of the caddy, and now the drive fits in snugly.

Two cables were supplied with the adapter, one for toshiba and one for hitachi drives. Seems to be no difference apart from the length, the longer one is the toshiba one, and its only just long enough.

So far so good. I powered on, could feel the drive spinning, and went into BIOS, the toshiba drive is listed as a boot device under IDE0. But then came the problems;

I get error 2010 message every time i turn it on. This problem is well documented:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=11059

But i'm not sure what it means for me. Some say its just an annoyance, and doesn't change anything. Some people say it can prevent you from installing windows.

I don't have the ultrabase, so was following these instructions to try and install windows xp from a usb drive.

http://hltang.net/windowsfromflashdrive.html

The method involves copying all the i386 files from the windows cd on to the usb drive, and then onto the hard drive using a dos prompt and xcopy. Only problem is that my hard drive is not recognised. The usb drive is given drive letter C, and the hard drive should be D, but no letters exist apart from C.

I don't understand why the HDD is recognosed in the BIOS but is then not assigned a drive letter, is the error 2010 causing this?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Ed

edwardoneale · #20 Post by **edwardoneale** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:33 pm

I've now solved my problems by borrowing a external usb cd drive. All my problems were to do with trying to install windows from a usb drive. So its perfectly possible (and fairly easy( to use a ZIF drive in a X4*). Next on the shopping list is a 5400rpm or possibly SSD ZIF.

raket · #21 Post by **raket** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:59 pm

edwardoneale
The method involves copying all the i386 files from the windows cd on to the usb drive, and then onto the hard drive using a dos prompt and xcopy. Only problem is that my hard drive is not recognised. The usb drive is given drive letter C, and the hard drive should be D, but no letters exist apart from C.

I don't understand why the HDD is recognosed in the BIOS but is then not assigned a drive letter, is the error 2010 causing this?

Any help would be much appreciated!

The disk wont get a driveletter if it's not partioned.

use the commands fdisk and format.

valnar · #22 Post by **valnar** » Sun May 23, 2010 7:22 am

Which is the best IDE-ZIF adapter for an X40 laptop? I want to buy the Samsung 1.8" HS082HB HDD and want to make sure I get the right adapter.

#23 Post by **Tasurinchi** » Tue May 25, 2010 2:29 am

valnar wrote:Which is the best IDE-ZIF adapter for an X40 laptop?

I'm using this one in my X40 and a Toshiba MK8025GAL with no Problems since January. In the meantime I've lent it to a friend of mine who is using her heavily and is reporting no problems at all.

Cheers...

Would a ZIF to IDE adapter work on X40?

Would a ZIF to IDE adapter work on X40?

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