RetroB1977 Posted April 15, 2022 Share Posted April 15, 2022 I recently bought a IBM Thinkpad 600E at an estate sale for a few dollars. It works great but it has no hard disk. I would just buy one but you also need a caddy. In the BIOS it lists "PCMCIA" as one of the boot options. I looked eBay and found this card. Do you think I could use it + a compact flash card to install Windows or OS/2 on? Thanks! - RetroB1977 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted April 15, 2022 Share Posted April 15, 2022 Doubtful if it will work. PCMCIA is a bus with many different applications, including RAM cards, network cards, those adapters for memory cards, perhaps microdrive based cards. It is unclear what PCMCIA means. Does the Thinkpad 600E have some sort of IDE controller? In that case, I would get a CF to IDE adapter instead, most likely the variation for 2.5" drive/cable. Do you have a such IDE cable? The adapters exist both with male and female connectors depending on which type of cable or direct to board solution you want to plug in the CF card. Also it would be considered as an auto detected hard drive without the need for a special caddy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted April 15, 2022 Author Share Posted April 15, 2022 (edited) 9 minutes ago, carlsson said: Doubtful if it will work. PCMCIA is a bus with many different applications, including RAM cards, network cards, those adapters for memory cards, perhaps microdrive based cards. It is unclear what PCMCIA means. Does the Thinkpad 600E have some sort of IDE controller? In that case, I would get a CF to IDE adapter instead, most likely the variation for 2.5" drive/cable. Do you have a such IDE cable? The adapters exist both with male and female connectors depending on which type of cable or direct to board solution you want to plug in the CF card. Also it would be considered as an auto detected hard drive without the need for a special caddy. It has some sort of IDE. (Looks like 44-pin if I counted right.) Here's a photo: Edited April 15, 2022 by RetroB1977 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted April 15, 2022 Author Share Posted April 15, 2022 I guess this would work? https://www.ebay.com/itm/284303496562 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted April 15, 2022 Share Posted April 15, 2022 Yup, that is a 44-pin connector for the 2.5" IDE. I suppose the idea is to stick the drive with its male pins directly into the female connector without a cable between, and that you would want a caddy to keep the drive in place. Of course a CF adapter is much lighter but perhaps you want to tape it stuck or pad out with something on the sides to keep the card in place if you get one. On the Amiga etc the motherboard connector has pins so you use a short female to female cable to connect a drive or an adapter. Once I got an adapter with female connector so I could mate it directly to the connector which kind of worked but wasn't ideal. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted April 15, 2022 Share Posted April 15, 2022 Yes, that adapter would work and if it is short enough, perhaps you don't have to worry about it staying in place as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted April 15, 2022 Author Share Posted April 15, 2022 Okay! I'll try to get one of those sometime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted April 16, 2022 Author Share Posted April 16, 2022 I looked in some forums and found people who were able to boot from PCMCIA CF cards on their ThinkPads, but they weren't 600s. My main concern with the CF to IDE adapter is actually getting it plugged in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 (edited) For that slot, the bracket is just a thin sheet metal cage with a plastic pull-tab. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/IBM+ThinkPad+600E+Hard+Drive+Disk+Replacement/73755 Since it is JUST such a simple thing, I would take this item on thingiverse, and incorporate some knotted paracord to substitute the pull tab. (The model is intended to accept knurled inserts for screw locations. The drive retention does not use those in this case. Instead, put the thin paracord through the holes, starting INSIDE the frame at the first hole, passing outside the enclosure to the second hole, then back inside again. Tie the knots just inside the second hole. This will leave you with a loop of paracord you can grab to pull out the sled from the front door of the unit.) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5022880 Edited April 16, 2022 by wierd_w 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted April 16, 2022 Author Share Posted April 16, 2022 I don't have a 3D printer though. I'm totally fine with a normal HDD. Do you think this drive caddy would fit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 It probably would if you omitted the rubber feet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 I see what you mean, that it would be hard to even use tongues to position the small CF to IDE adapter correctly if it doesn't sit in a larger caddy slot that ensures correct positioning. It makes me wonder if the IDE connector on every 2.5" HDD is in the exact same position, so you could screw a HDD into place on the caddy and slot it in to mate with the connector. On the bigger 3.5" drives, there sometimes seems to be a little variation but then again you never connected those directly to the IDE controller, always through a cable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted April 16, 2022 Share Posted April 16, 2022 (edited) laptop IDE drives have a fixed form factor, yes. Part of that "industrial form factor" thing. He could just as well look for one of these instead of using the smaller adapter: https://www.ebay.com/p/1300056264 He could put TWO compact flash cards (master and slave) into the same bay that way, and it would line up perfectly. Edited April 16, 2022 by wierd_w 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted April 16, 2022 Author Share Posted April 16, 2022 14 minutes ago, wierd_w said: It probably would if you omitted the rubber feet. Ok. I might get one of those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted April 17, 2022 Author Share Posted April 17, 2022 (edited) 13 hours ago, wierd_w said: laptop IDE drives have a fixed form factor, yes. Part of that "industrial form factor" thing. He could just as well look for one of these instead of using the smaller adapter: https://www.ebay.com/p/1300056264 He could put TWO compact flash cards (master and slave) into the same bay that way, and it would line up perfectly. That looks pretty cool! I'll get one of those. Edited April 17, 2022 by RetroB1977 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koopa64 Posted April 18, 2022 Share Posted April 18, 2022 I've found that laptops that can boot from the PCMCIA / PC card slot are extremely rare. One for sure is the Toshiba Portege R100. Maybe a few old Thinkpads could do it as well but for sure the 600 can't. Maybe you'd find this page useful? https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Old_ThinkPad_Niches 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted April 23, 2022 Author Share Posted April 23, 2022 My CF card adapter came in! I'm getting OS/2 installed on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted April 24, 2022 Share Posted April 24, 2022 Well, how did it work out for you? Inquiring minds want to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDevil'sCompass Posted April 24, 2022 Share Posted April 24, 2022 Here are a couple manuals for the 600E. The User Manual does mention ATA Cards for the PCMCIA slot (aka PC slot), but from a quick scan I didn't see anything about booting from them. User Manual: IBM THINKPAD 600E LAPTOP USER MANUAL | ManualsLib Service Manual: Laptop Service Manual: IBM THINKPAD 600_ 600E : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroB1977 Posted April 24, 2022 Author Share Posted April 24, 2022 12 hours ago, wierd_w said: Well, how did it work out for you? Inquiring minds want to know. Good! I got Windows NT 4.0 installed (I didn't like OS/2). It's pretty fast. We'll have to see how it works over time. Now time to install drivers... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wierd_w Posted April 24, 2022 Share Posted April 24, 2022 47 minutes ago, RetroB1977 said: Good! I got Windows NT 4.0 installed (I didn't like OS/2). It's pretty fast. We'll have to see how it works over time. Now time to install drivers... You actually can install DirextX 5 on NT4 SP6. It's a manual process, but it totally can be done, and does work. https://winworldpc.com/product/microsoft-direct-x/50 https://winworldpc.com/product/windows-nt-40/patches After that, a lot of games meant for win95 / win98, will run on NT4. (but no higher than DX5.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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