X40, X41, X41 Tablet project.

I was recently looking around for a loaner notebook to lend my customers when I have take thier desktop/notebook to repair at home. So I was looking for an X60/X61 (so I can use myself), for under $200, no dice. I did find an X40 without the HD, for $100. So I decide on the X40, because it took PC2700 Ram, I have a 1Gb stick. I am planning to install a Kingspec SSD drive, I am looking at a 32Gb, but it does run about $90.00, most Kingspec SSD drive come in doubled incrimints, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 Gb. I am only going to install XP with SP3, updates and Office. What would be the best/least/smallest HD capacity that would be suitable to run?? This will be only for customer use, basic internet use and office (incase they need it).

If this works out great, I plan to install a SSD in my son's X41 Tablet, he has a 60GB drive. I also plan to get an X41 and do the same.

I did look around and found a 20GB and 40GB for about $30 to $40. Any suggestions or comments.

 

If you can swing the SSD, it's really the best option. It won't be great performance compared to a modern SSD, but next to a X4x drive, it'll be worlds better. Plus the X4x drives are noisy, which won't be a problem with the SSD.

 

X4x 1.8 inch platter hdd is unreliable and slow. So a SSD will improve both of these aspects, but they are however expensive.

 

You can definitely run XP on a 4GB drive... I was using an old HP TC4200 with a 4GB CF card for a year and a half, and it was XP Tablet, too. Day to day Internet and Office stuff. Just store files on an SD card and don't install any programs other than your browser/office suite, and so on and so forth.

Whether or not 4GB is the "best" capacity, though, is debatable

Currently using said CF card in an X41T.

 

So I should go with 8 to 16 GB?? I mean, I am looking at loading XP with SP3 and most updates, plus Office 2007. My last loaner had a 20Gb drive and it was pretty full, but I was using Vista Premium. I am thinking 32Gb would be more then enough, but with the cost at $90.00, if I can go with 16GB, then that would be better. Thanks for the comments.

 

I think 16GB is more than enough for what you need. I've got a 60GB SSD on my X200T with SolidWorks, Photoshop, Office, and a couple gigs of anime and music... still 46GB left on that drive!

 

Not all ssd are made equal, speed generally scales with price, the slow ones can be very slow during random read/writes which is real world performance, not the sequential read/write that have high numbers in the marketing. The cheap ones can drop through the floor in random read write performance.

 

It's hard to recommend a drive size without knowing what the end user to do with it. For instance an outlook pst file can quickly reach 4GB or more.

If you do get an IDE SSD drive for your X40 please post your impressions of it. I'd be interested in hearing how it works out.

 

Yea xp can get away with little, even 8GB, but this requires dilligence and limited use pattern. For a "customer" I wouldn't suggest anything less than 16GB. Pst files can become enormous, and of course there are app installs and the rest, 32GB is the sweet spot for having enough to stretch your legs, 16GB requires a bit of care.

 

Before I recieved the X40, I was able to find a 40GB Hard for about $20, so I got it a few days later. Need to make sure it would boot up and run. I installed the OS, partition the OS drive at about 33GB, roughly, I installed XP professional, (did not activate).

1. OS only, not drivers, 3.03GB
2. To run System update, needed to install, Installer 3.1, net framework 3.5, and then System update 3.14, 3.60Gb
3. After System update, drivers, XP Hot fixes, and Utilities, 4.74GB.
4. I could not run web updates, due to no activation, forgot, NOT to install WGA, could not run any updates since it was not activated.
5. Since I wanted to see how much space, I ran automatic updates, 7.76GB.
6. SP3 installed under auto update, with some additional updates, 10.50GB. in the end.
7. I installed other programs like Adobe (Flash, Reader), VLC, and then Office 2003, and 2007. Total= 12.64Gb, Roughly. Might delete some Temp files from internet searches and driver files that can be deleted. Not to mention other non essential programs (outlooks, games, etc...).

So I think 16GB is just fine for this project.
I am looking at the Compact Card option, purchased an adapter, since the 32Gb compact flash run $55 at Newegg. So I might try that option first, then go with the King Spec Hard Drive, unless I get a good deal on one or two.
Any thoughts??

 

oh no, if you were that close from the limit there is no room to work, esp as windows bloats up a bit, you wil hit the wall quick at 16gb, unless you image the os and constantly revert back to the 12.64 state it will not be a good idea, you need atleast 32gb.

 

I finally got around to getting a dual CF adapter, and since the 32GB CF cards were $56.00 on Newegg. I went ahead and ordered two, so it will work about better then getting a PATA SSD, since they run $150+ ($123 for the two CF cards), plus I can used them for storage with a PC card, if it does not work out.

One question...... I don't want to go thur the hassle of installing my copy of XP Pro, (installed a bazzillion times) and then have to activate. I have two set of Restore Disc (X30 & X32), can I use either set to install XP Pro? I know it will install the drivers for that machine, but I can remove them and install the correct drivers later. I also have the restore (burned) disc for my old X41 Tablet, that I gave to my son, could I use that? I know I am touching on license issues, but neither copies on any any machine. Any imput would be appreciated.

 

The restore disc of the X32, 30 may not work on the X4x machines because the recovery discs would usually check whether your machine has the right Thinkpad model/hardware.

You can give it a try, but from memory it doesn't work.

 

Well, I used the X32 Recovery disc and it worked out fine, it installed with no issue, but it created a 5GB partition, (recovery), I think. So I decided to do a clean install of XP Pro, here is where the issues started, as I was loading it, I formatted the SSD in NFTS, apparently it did not like that, after it finished installing, it was really slow, I mean the mouse would skip around the screen, then I recalled, (AFTER SOME RESEARCH), that CF are supposed to be format in FAT32, so I formatted it and installed again, I kept getting the "NTLDR is missing" error, so I would restart the installation, got that error about 5 times, finally, it passed the text mode and loaded in the GUI mode and installed completely. NOW!!!, I get a "Operating System not found" error when it boots up and then loads afterwards. So I have start it twice. It will not update, can not load any updates, all updates will fail to install. So, my project was a failure, I thinking about just going with the Kingspec instead and see how those work out, but a 64GB SSD will run me $140. I will keep the forum posted.

 

you probably need to format the master boot record.   formatting storage media doesn't always flush the MBR.   research that before spending any more money, just in case it's what's causing the boot issue.