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First post, by marinelayer

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Hello all,

I'm running into an issue with my ThinkPad 701c. I've decided it's time to swap the HDD out for something a bit faster and less noisy. I have an IBM TravelStar LP 540 that still works great, so I know there is no issue with the caddy, connection, board, etc.

No matter the combination of new drives I try, the BIOS doesnt seem to recognize any of them. Ive made sure all have bootable, active, FAT16 partitions for hibernation support and under 2GB in size. I've tried:

  • Seagate Momentus 5400, 40GB drive
  • mSATA2SD converter w/ 16GB mSATA stick
  • CF2IDE (with DMA support) v.B1 with multiple CF cards (all Fixed Disk)

Some examples of the CF cards I've tried are:

  • Western Digital 4GB PATA SiliconDrive
  • Western Digital 1GB PATA SiliconDrive
  • Lexar Professional UDMA 7 32GB

When I have the original HDD in, there is a different during the POST: With the original HDD, the hard drive light on the panel blinks here and there which corresponds to the drive noises. When I have any other drive in, the light comes on immediately and stays lit (obviously no hdd noises).

Even though the CF2IDE adapter supports DMA, Ive even tried clipping the lower right pin to see if anything changes (I bought a few).

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated!

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Reply 1 of 4, by Unknown_K

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The IDE controller most likely has a limitation on cylinders it can deal with (this is pre LBA I think).

Collector of old computers, hardware, and software

Reply 2 of 4, by marinelayer

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I'd ordinarily agree, but while the Seagate reports almost 5k cylineders, the CF2IDE reports only 127. Now that is almost double of the original TravelStar (65), but I'd be surprised if the controller limit was so low. Maybe not?

Reply 3 of 4, by PC Hoarder Patrol

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marinelayer wrote on 2021-10-06, 19:19:
Hello all, […]
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Hello all,

I'm running into an issue with my ThinkPad 701c. I've decided it's time to swap the HDD out for something a bit faster and less noisy. I have an IBM TravelStar LP 540 that still works great, so I know there is no issue with the caddy, connection, board, etc.

No matter the combination of new drives I try, the BIOS doesnt seem to recognize any of them. Ive made sure all have bootable, active, FAT16 partitions for hibernation support and under 2GB in size. I've tried:

  • Seagate Momentus 5400, 40GB drive
  • mSATA2SD converter w/ 16GB mSATA stick
  • CF2IDE (with DMA support) v.B1 with multiple CF cards (all Fixed Disk)

Some examples of the CF cards I've tried are:

  • Western Digital 4GB PATA SiliconDrive
  • Western Digital 1GB PATA SiliconDrive
  • Lexar Professional UDMA 7 32GB

When I have the original HDD in, there is a different during the POST: With the original HDD, the hard drive light on the panel blinks here and there which corresponds to the drive noises. When I have any other drive in, the light comes on immediately and stays lit (obviously no hdd noises).

Even though the CF2IDE adapter supports DMA, Ive even tried clipping the lower right pin to see if anything changes (I bought a few).

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated!

Various hits on Google seem to suggest 1GB might be your limit - here's a link to a 701C restoration with a working 1GB CF card... https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=109053

Reply 4 of 4, by marinelayer

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PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2021-10-06, 20:27:

Various hits on Google seem to suggest 1GB might be your limit - here's a link to a 701C restoration with a working 1GB CF card... https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=109053

Thanks for that. My 1GB PATA SilliconDrive CF Card (that I purchased the exact model as it was used for another 701C refurb I found) isnt working either and the OS is a bit of a moot point if the BIOS doesn't recognize the drive. Im beginning to think it might be a quirk with the CF2IDE adapter I have and have ordered a couple more types.