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Correct SD Card Adapters?

LCARS

Well-known member
I replaced an ailing HDD in my 1400c with the SD card adapter pictured. From my research it should work, but it doesn't. Trying multiple SD cards of different types (cheap class 4 to SLC industrial class 10) with the OE 7.6.1 install CD, the OS can see the card and gives the correct size but always fails to initialize it.

"Initialization failure," repeats after restarts, re-seats, and SD card changes. Sometimes the OS doesn't see anything on that bus but that's less common.

Is there a brand or eBay seller with adapters that are known to work in general or specifically to the 1400?

IMG_4444.PNGIMG_4445.PNG
 

galgot

Well-known member
I used the same, also on a PB1400c. True it seems there is a problem with 7.6.1, or it's with the HFS standard disk format.
The way I did it, used a 8Gb SD card, on a Mac running Mac OS 1.4, made 1 HFS+ partition for 8.6, 1 HFS standard for 7.6.1, and the rest of the SD unformatted cause I intended to try something else later with it...
Then I copied what was on the PB1400c original HD, a 8.6 system on a HFS+ part and a 7.6.1 on a HFS standard, each to the correct SD card partitions.
Both systems boot. The 8.6 runs perfectly. But the 7.6.1 is notably slow...
Didn't investigate further for now.
 

LCARS

Well-known member
@galgot Thank you. That's peculiar about 7.6.1 on these adapters. When you said you made these partitions on Mac OS 1.4, did you mean another revision?
 

galgot

Well-known member
@galgot Thank you. That's peculiar about 7.6.1 on these adapters. When you said you made these partitions on Mac OS 1.4, did you mean another revision?
Sorry typo... I formated the sd card on an iMac running Mac OSX 10.4, with the Disk Utility there.
One HFS+, another one HFS standard, making sure to check "include os9 drivers" for each, and the rest empty.
I remember trying to fix the problem in 7.6.1 by reinstalling the disk driver with 7.6.1 disk utility, but it changed nothing... The way it's slow it's weird too, the gui is as fast as on the original HD, but it's when you do something that needs access read or write on the sd card, then you wait 2-3 seconds... Somethime more.
Not sure it's 7.6.1 the culprit, maybe it's the use of HFS standard on these cards/adapters.
 

LCARS

Well-known member
Good old 10.4 :giggle: Thank you for that description. I'm going to try that route. Do you recall the speed class of the SD you used?

It sounds like the slowness might be due to an issue between how 7.6 operates ATA allocation and how the adapter's controller does. With SCSI the OS didn't have to do anything more than to request data from the drive CPU (it didn't have to know where it was).

I found a few 4200RPM IDE drives on eBay just in case. I'm using a 7200RPM drive in my other 1400c and that seems plenty snappy. I had forgotten how often I used to use the sound of accessing data to determine if the computer had frozen.
 

galgot

Well-known member
Good old 10.4 :giggle: Thank you for that description. I'm going to try that route. Do you recall the speed class of the SD you used?

It sounds like the slowness might be due to an issue between how 7.6 operates ATA allocation and how the adapter's controller does. With SCSI the OS didn't have to do anything more than to request data from the drive CPU (it didn't have to know where it was).

I found a few 4200RPM IDE drives on eBay just in case. I'm using a 7200RPM drive in my other 1400c and that seems plenty snappy. I had forgotten how often I used to use the sound of accessing data to determine if the computer had frozen.
Class 10 Intenso, 8Gb.
Indeed, HD sound is often more helpful than the beach ball on the modern system to determine if all is running fine :D
 

LCARS

Well-known member
This card is also class 10. I'm curious to see how it goes.

Quick question: in 10.4 Disk Utility, how did you select the HFS Standard?

Edit: Found it! I didn't think to look under Partition.
 
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