Changing the removable to fixed settings on CF card to use as HDD

[caps_buster]

Segate 13G ST313021A on Pentium 90 @ 125MHz:



Average - 6.4MB/sec - now this is SPEEED!

...

I wonder, if anyone have in operation slower HDD

...

Therefore I wonder, if someone have a experience with replacing such SLOOOW HDDs with PATA to CF adapter and CF card(s)? The latest models promise very fast speeds - 160MB/sec is quite above PATA possibilities:


SanDIsk Extreme PRO 32G CF card

...and since the adapters are just wires, connecting the CF card to PATA interface (CF cards work on same PATA interface!) and only in best cases, you can choose the voltage (3.3V or 5V) and you get the power and activity lights:


DeLock 91620 PATA to CF

...then there should not be any problem of using CF cards as old PATA HDD replacement(s). Only problem I hear, that there should be changed bit on the card somewhere, that change the device type from removable to fixed. Then it should act as normal HardDriveDevice.

But maybe I missed something...? Do anyone have experience with this? Could someone share tips, software for the change (from removable to fixed) and experience in general?

[jaclaz]

DeLock 91620 PATA to CF

...then there should not be any problem of using CF cards as old PATA HDD replacement(s). Only problem I hear, that there should be changed bit on the card somewhere, that change the device type from removable to fixed. Then it should act as normal HardDriveDevice.

But maybe I missed something...? Do anyone have experience with this? Could someone share tips, software for the change (from removable to fixed) and experience in general?

No real problems that I remember.

 

Which OS?

The CFADISK.SYS or the DUMMYDISK.SYS may (or may not) work on 2K (they do on at least XP to 7, I seem to remember that they are OK also on 2K, but I am not too sure ), see starting from here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/69211-a-multiple-partition-usb-stick-with-multi-boot-os/?p=922773

 

There is also diskmod nowadays that (if it works on 2k) might be "better":

http://reboot.pro/topic/9461-page-file-in-usb-hard-disk/

http://agnipulse.com/2012/03/filter-drivers-removable-media-fixed-disk-windows/

 

jaclaz

[pointertovoid]

- A Cf card is, generally speaking, an excellent idea for such a machine. Much faster, silent, cold.

- Depending on the disk host (often the southbridge) the access may be limited to Pio4, or Mdma2, or Dma/33 and so on.

 

- BEWARE your Bios may very well limit the size of the disk! My Pentium 120MHz limits the boot disk to 4GB, but with a Pata-to-double-CF I could use an 8GB card as the second disk and supposedly more.

Win95 and later have separate drivers to access the disk through sector number BUT my Bios uses CHS. Maybe the Bios could boot Win BUT this laptop also wants a hibernation file or volume and this fails even after days of tinkering. Partitions don't help that.

 

- CF as disks are less than obvious! And I have no experience with that particular CF.

- One common problem is that many CF use Udma only at 3.3V but the host works at 5V. That's the most important to check on your CF model.

- Your CF is an MLC unless a miracle happened. Personally, I restrict this use to SLC CF because (1) they write faster (2) they're more reliable.

- BEWARE the Transcend 300x that were excellent (up to 8GB, not 16GB) are now made of MLC, possibly by Transcend themselves.

- I've bought several SLC CF used on eBay, and under heavy load (paging file, OS, data) they performed well.

- The Pata-to-CF adapter seems uncritical.

 

Generally, if you achieve a normal Win installation from the Cd, your system is likely to work. If you copied an existing installation from a mechanical disk on a CF (+boot) it may seem to work but fail later.