CF As A HD

[Elfen]

What did you use to partition and format the CF?

For the 190/5300/1400/G3 Wallstreet I used Apple's HD Set UP in a strange way.

I put the CF into a CF-to-PCMCIA Adapter and HD Set Up recognized it and partitioned it, and then Special Menu -> Format/Erase Disk formatted the CF card's partition(s).

But partitioning it on the IDE/ATA Port gave some problems with HD Set Up though Silver Lining and other third party partitions tools worked fine. Go figure.

 

[Paralel]

Hard Disk SpeedTools 3.6

Worked perfectly for the Adtron CF to 2.5" SCSI Adapter. Same for the SCSI2SD on my Classic II running 7.1.1 (System 7 Pro). It also had no trouble with the CF card in the PCMCIA adapter I used in the 540c.

In every situation I've used this software its worked perfectly on the first try. It always detects any device I use, it sets the driver, partitions and formats the drive for HFS, etc... Never any trouble. I love it.

 

[TimHD]

Ooooo...!

It boots externally and not internally?

That can be the Bournes filter going bad, or a bad SCSI Cable or cable header ends. Replace the internal SCSI cable and see if that helps. And see if the CF Boots on the SE (even if it crashes on boot).

It can also be a loose or broken SCSI Connector on the board but that's rare.

It is tiny clues like this that helps out a lot in figuring things out.

Interestingly the 2 CF cards I managed to format but got initialisation errors in my Quadra 630 (IDE2CF adapter) both work fine (existing data is good and it boots) when put in my IIsi - which is using that Aztecmonster SCSI2CF adapter! So the CF cards are fine, just that they won't boot or work on the Quadra 630. (NB: That Aztec adapter was the one that worked in an external case but not internally in my SE/30!) Am starting to think the Quadra 630 just can't handle any CF adapter. (Syba or my USA made no name replacement).

 

[butterburger]

Here are the basic facts:

CompactFlash is spelled "CompactFlash". So many people get this wrong. PowerPC (not "Power PC"), PowerBook (not "Power Book"), MacBook (not "Mac Book"), CompactFlash. CompactFlash is a superset of ATA and PC Card, not a subset. So many people get this wrong.

you can get a CF to PCMCIA adapter … and install the system on it … except for the Powerbook 500 series … wont be able to boot from it

Can't it? I really do not know, I do not mean to argue. If I understand correctly, Paralel has some success booting from Cage Rev C.

Just recently, one member tried out a "Syba-USA" (aka Syba) adapter for his CF and Performa 630CD and it is not working for him.

"Syba" and "Best Connectivity" are two brand names of SHENZHEN MMUI Co.,LTD. A better name than Syba is a different, also four letters long, s-word. SYBA STUFF IS NO GOOD. I hope never to give money to them again. Be very careful before using any MMUI product. Either their engineering, quality assurance, or quality control, is lacking. Syba stuff is harmful. To all who consider to use Syba parts: first carefully examine all circuit boards, look for mistakes like reverse-polarity circuit components, solder blob shorts, or missing solder (loose pins/legs). One design defect which is more difficult to notice is inadequate voltage regulation, which can cause intermediate operation (and data loss).

In my opinion, MMUI parts are simply not worth using. I would rather have no part at all, than a MMUI/Syba/Best Connectivity.

One thing to note is that the Powerbook 150 appears not to play nice with CF cards as boot disks.

That person's hardware hack is impressive. Most of us forum members can only dream of having such skill. Anyway, rather than design a identity-change circuit, one can just find a different card. "Signature for the CompactFlash Storage Card" (848Ah) is optional. Says the spec, "alternate handling of Word 0 is permitted". Some CF drive identify as a conventional fixed-disk PATA drive. Some suppliers might call them "industrial", and might cost insane price increase for one logical difference in otherwise identical hardware.

Another problem was a physical problem with the adapters not fitting on the connector … the ribbon connector on the laptop has a plug in it, … drives, there is a pin missing to correspond to the ribbon connector (Pin #20). But on CF-to-ATA/IDE adapters the pin is there.

…

This is the Syba (SybaUSA) CF Adapter. Avoid them!

If the designer/producer do not bother to make standard-compliant parts, then I do not use them. The key pin is part of ATA specification. It is not merely a good idea which caught-on "de-facto but not part of the standard". Indeed, avoid Syba!

On the PC-XP OS side of the Computer Universe, CFs are not always recognized as 'hard drive media' but many times are recognized as "removable media." This is because of a hardware identification bit in its media.

Once again, in case anybody missed it: the 'Word 0 CF Standard Configuration Value' is optional. Some CFs do not pretend to be ATAPI nor removable, identify as plain PATA HDD (firsthand experience, I know).

 

[register]

Great thread, Elfen! Everyone please consider to revise our Wiki article https://wiki.68kmla.org/SCSI_harddisk_replacement_options. There are also two other articles that might benefit from your care: https://wiki.68kmla.org/Using_flash_memory and https://wiki.68kmla.org/SCSI-IDE_converter. With the appropriate chain of adapters even an ancient PowerBook will boot from a recent 6G SATA Solid State Disk (I tried for fun

As the mileage might be different for each single configuration we already started the Wiki article https://wiki.68kmla.org/Flash_Drive_Test_Results to collect tested configurations and results. An approach to interveave the four of related articles for a more convenient use would be most welcome. I think of something like expanding the scope beyond SCSI (like including Floppy Disk emulation or how to connect the most recent storage media), a short general intruduction, a decision tree to help newbies to identify a given use case, a cross reference table (or database) of known adapters and known computers. This table might be designed to hold Macs, of course, but other computers as well. It should provide information about which computer could use what kind of media using a given adapter.

 

[butterburger]

"Syba" and "Best Connectivity" are two brand names of SHENZHEN MMUI Co.,LTD.

I felt I was forgetting one of their names. Today I came across it: I/O Crest, IO Crest, IOCrest. In summary: Best Connectivity, Syba, and I/O Crest, are MMUI's brands; and they are just about the WORST branded PC parts I have ever seen. I have of course seen worse quality in completely unbranded parts, so if one were to rate the anonymous untraceable junk "one star", then I guess MMUI stuff deserves "two stars" out of five.

 

[Bunsen]

One thing to note is that the Powerbook 150 appears not to play nice with CF cards as boot disks.

That person's hardware hack is impressive. Most of us forum members can only dream of having such skill.

To create such a thing from scratch via original research, certainly.  However a few more of us might be able to build a replication of his example.

A far simpler option for a 150 might be to use a genuine 44-pin IDE/ATA/PATA SSD or disk-on-module.  Such things are available relatively cheaply on ebay.