Using 2.5" drive in X40 regular drive slot?

[SteveS]

I read this is a posting before, but could not find it using Search
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My work partner has a X40 and is out of HD space. I remember reading that it was possible to stick a 2.5” PATA drive in the slot, and other than the fact it sticks out of the computer somewhat over an inch, it should work.

I believe this should be the case as I have determined:
1. The physical connector and dimensions of the Hitachi C4K series are identical to the end of a 2.5” PATA drive.
2. A 1.8” Hitachi C4K plugs into a Ultrabay slim PATA HDD adapter and is readable and writeable when in the bay in this configuration. The X40 will boot from it using the F12 alternate boot device list mode.

I cloned the Hitachi C4K to a 160 GB Seagate 5400 RPM PATA drive. The X40 will boot from it when plugged into the Ultrabay Slim HDD adapter, installed in a X4 ultrabase.

I mounted a standard 2.5” caddy on the drive and plugged it into the X40. Yes, it sticks out, but it does plug in. But the BIOS does not see the drive when booting.

Anyone else have success with this approach. Ideas what is causing my problem? I have tried reseating the connector several times.

[tim S]

It might be a voltage issue. The connector in the laptop gives 3.3V while the bay gets 5V.
It seems the smaller drive cuts back the voltage in the bay, but maybe there isn't enough voltage in the slot to reliably drive the larger HD.
Tim S

[mikeh]

yes, 1.8" drives are 3.3V, 2.5" need 5V.
I tried this too before noticing the voltage difference.
You'd have to do a bit of rewiring to get a 5V supply to the hard-drive.
Better to use a slim external USB drive.