Why this botch job?
Thinkwiki: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Compact_Flash_boot_drive
Russell's blog: http://vort.org/2008/02/21/converting-an-ibm-x40-to-flash/
Russell's blog: http://vort.org/2008/02/21/converting-an-ibm-x40-to-flash/
Simply put, the Hitachi 1.8" hard-drive used in the x40 is a botch job to begin with. I guess it is OK for its age and the period when it was made, but still. Using Windows XP was incredibly painful, so I started using Ubuntu last autumn. Then I thought: why can't I have it better still? I would toss the old 1.8" clunker of a hard-drive and do as suggested at thinkwiki.org: replace it with a CompactFlash "SSD". VERY COOL (and proved to be fast, see the benchmark results below).
WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE:
Step 1: Get a CF card and an adapter card. Combine.
I bought a Taiwanese Silicon Power 16GB 400x (60MB/s) I found on eBay for about $75/€55 including international shipping. I found one of these adapters http://www.sintech.cn/en/cf%20ide/CF-IDE%20STCI4007.htm for $7.89 on eBay. It has a red activity led and two jumpers (master/slave and 2.5"/1.8"). Some VERY basic looking hardware here.
Step 2: Set the jumper to 1.8"
Step 3: Remove old HD and replace it with the fresh DIY-SSD
Step 4: Boot from USB, partition the CF and install an OS (do not bother with a swap)
Step 5: Start using your newly installed OS
Step 6: To improve performance, add the stuff below to your hdparm.conf (from Russell's)
Step 4: Boot from USB, partition the CF and install an OS (do not bother with a swap)
Step 5: Start using your newly installed OS
Step 6: To improve performance, add the stuff below to your hdparm.conf (from Russell's)
/dev/sda { write_cache = on io32_support = 3 dma = on lookahead = on interrupt_unmask = on } Step 7: Make sure swap is not enabled and enjoy! Benchmark results (DIY-SSD is faster):
Hitachi 4200/40GB copy 699.5MB 1:22, 1:16, 1:16
hdparm -tT /dev/sda 850MB in 2.00 = 424.94 MB/s // 482.63 MB/s // 477.59 MB/s
58MB in 3.07 = 18.87 MB/s // 18.90 MB/s // 18.89 MB/s
CF SSD defaults copy 701.0MB 1:08, 0:52, 0:54
hdparm -tT /dev/sda 982MB in 2.00 = 491.14 MB/s // 521.72 MB/s // 520.05 MB/s
513MB in 3.05 = 44.00 MB/s // 44.08 MB/s // 37.09 MB/s
CF SSD Russell's copy 701.0MB 0:37, 0:38, 0:35
hdparm -tT /dev/sda 912MB in 2.00 = 455.95 MB/s // 514.12 MB/s // 503.06 MB/s
134MB in 3.04 = 44.05 MB/s // 44.01 MB/s // 44.37 MB/s------------------------------------------------------
WHAT I ACTUALLY DID SO YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO: Step 1: Bought a CompactFlash memory card Step 2: Bought a PA-CF18H CF-to-IDE adapter Step 3: Used a USB card reader to partition the CF and built a minimal Debian install
Suffice to say the instructions at Russell's blog were somewhat dated.
Step
4: Removed the Hitachi driveRemoved the screw that holds in place the cover. Tried to pull out the cover. Couldn't get it out, so you bet I pulled harder. What came out was a combination of the plastic cover and the hard-drive that was attached to it with two further screws. I opened the screws and separated the plastic cover from the hard-drive. Easy, but requires quite a lot of force. Do not drop any the tiny screws on a thick carpet. I did.
Step 5: Prepared the CF card
Slid the CF card in its place on the adapter card. Left the jumpers as they were: MASTER/SLAVE and 2.5"/1.8". Although I didn't discover what the problem was until much later, these jumper settings proved to be a mistake, because when I...
Step 6: Tried to bootIt didn't work. To be more accurate, the X40 didn't find anything to boot from.
Step 7: Set the correct jumper settings and booted Ubuntu from a USB stick
I don't know if it was setting the jumper to 1.8" or booting Ubuntu from USB and re-partitioning and installing the OS, but I managed to install Ubuntu and boot. WIN!
Photos from Flickr:
Kai Hendry, turboalieno, Rickydavid, fireflythegreat
Kai Hendry, turboalieno, Rickydavid, fireflythegreat
