Installing Linux on a Thinkpad X40 with a CF Drive

“The IBM ThinkPad X40 was one of the greatest lightweight
ultra-portables of the time. They’re aging now, but that only adds
to their coolness.

“One big disadvantage of the original X40 was that the hard
drive bay only had enough room for a rare 1.8” Hitachi hard drive.
This drive was slow. Replacements were always very expensive.
Nowadays, they are unavailable. Occasionally, it is possible to
find flash-based disks that fit into that X40 hard drive slot.
Unfortunately, these are also very expensive – putting one into an
old computer seems nonsensical.

“The X40 had in my possession has a completely wrecked hard
disk. Replacing the hard drive either with an original Hitachi 1.8″
drive or a flash-based drive was out of the question. Fortunately,
there is an alternative.”

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