jessenator
Well-known member
Cross-referencing this comment from a different thread, sorry. I'm dealing with some SSD woes, I wanted to circle back on this, specifically, so thought a separate thread was appropriate. I've been going two separate routes with my PCI machines as far as storage so I hope I'm specific when writing about each (where issues crop up), but for the most part my problems have centered around the media specifically, vs the interface. Because I see so many numbers regarding maximum "drive," "volume," and "partition" sizes and need a bit of clarity.[128 GB+ drives are n]ot supported on **built-in** IDE. No such limitation with PCI-PATA/SATA cards.
Additionally, I'm having some issues with my SSD media that I think is associated with drive activity/testing, and would like a bit more understanding and perhaps a reality check on what is a real-world expectation vs "I think my equipment is malfunctioning" kind of complaining, which I don't like to do, generally.
Also, since I'm more in the camp of fan/user than I am in the camp of engineer, I might ask strangely worded questions
- Is the 128 GB limit like a total, physical drive size limitation, or just partition size limitation?
- And to continue that question, say I have a 240 GB SSD sitting around; can I partition it to work, and if so what's the optimal scenario there?
- In the case of using a SATA-ATA adapter on the built-in interface, does the drive itself matter? I.e. the SATA spec etc.?
I've heard anecdotally that some modern non-CF SSD media just doesn't play nice with Mac OS 7-9, so I'd like to hear more evidence of that, if it's true.
Let me sort of set the scene for what's happening in two cases of mine:
Scenario A
Power Macintosh 4400/200 (or any LPX-40/Tanzania machine)
System 7.5.3 and kind of 7.6
PNY CS1311 SSD 240 GB (4,096 MB boot partition, remainder as one Mac OS Standard partition) done with Drive Setup
"ADP-06 v1.0" IDE-SATA adapter
======================
After using 7.5.3's Drive Setup utility, I ran the restore right off the 4400 CD. It was going okay for a bit, but then I tried transferring files to and from vTools and it would lock up, so I decided to run some tests. Running any publisher's disk testing suite would cause and almost instant system freeze.
Tried to install 7.6 and the update, but it would freeze part way through the installation process. I gave up after a second attempt and freeze at roughly the same point in the installation.
Scenario B
Power Computing PowerTower 604e/210
System 7.6.1
Flashed SIL3112 PCI SATA interface card
64 GB Samsung brand laptop SATA drive (which is either MMCRE64GTMXP or an MMBRE64GTDXP)
(with passive(?) pin adapter from the micro connector on the drive to standard SATA)
This drive has a similar setup of a 4 GB boot partition and the remainder as two equal storage partitions formatted with FWB Tools PE (from the PCC 7.6 disc image)
============================
I cannot consistently run any sort of disk testing suite on the drive. For the most part it's operationally stable, and infrequently I'll have issues where it freezes due to drive activity, most recently with attempting to install Windows 98 on the drive image file created by Apple's PC Setup 1.6.4 for the PC Compatibility Card. The oddball thing there is that the PC doesn't crash, but the Mac side does, necessitating a forced reboot. The install would fail at a roughly the same spot.
To contrast all of this, I have been running a 32 GB* SanDisk Extreme UDMA 7 CF card primarily in the PM 4400 for well over a year now with little drama. It's just plugged into one of the Syba/clone adapters you can get almost anywhere these days, (and has just barely enough room to be) socketed into one of the ATA connectors on the board. I can run test after test on it and rarely, if ever, does disk activity appear to be the root cause of a freeze (most recently it's been my woes with SetDate ). And while I suspect that the specifics of the flash memory are vastly different, it's interesting that the older, CF technology is more stable, but given that these are older machines, maybe it's not a surprise to the knowledgeable.
*4 GB boot partition, ~26 GB storage parition
Someone on IRC remarked that the SIL3112 controller "isn't that great" as if I should expect such erratic behavior, but on my machines w/o native ATA and nothing short of highly-coveted Sonnet cards, I wonder what the best solution there is.
Anyhow, if anyone has any thoughts about what I'm doing wrong or what could be done better in these two scenarios, I'm open to your knowledge.
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