Hard Drives

[LCARS]

I come bearing hard drive questions. I need to put a new HD in my 3400c, but I recall hearing once that some ATA-6 drives don't work with that series, does anyone have more data on that? It seems the only drives that I can find new are ATA-6.

My other System 7 machine, a 2300c, needs a new drive as well and I am pondering putting an Addonics 2.5" IDE-CF card adapter in to run it silently. I know these Duos are IDE and SCSI- would that cause an issue for this mod?

Thanks!

 

[LCGuy]

The 3400 should theoretically be able to use any HDD under 120GB. It should even be able to use HDDs over 120GB, just that it'll only recognise the first 128GB.

 

[Byrd]

I know these Duos are IDE and SCSI- would that cause an issue for this mod?

In it's stock config, the 2300c uses an IDE hard disk - I've put a 10GB in mine. Since older model 68K/Duo owners often upgraded to a 2300c motherboard, there exists a connector on the board to plug the old SCSI hard disk in - quite a nice inclusion!

Keep in mind if you upgrade the HD in a 2300c the mounting holes are out, so you will need to drill new ones to properly fit the new hard disk. At least that's what I found. Oh and take care pulling off the top case - make sure you don't rip off the trackpad ribbon.

JB

 

[beachycove]

I certainly could not get an ATA-6 drive to work in a 2400c recently, and had to downgrade to an older drive that I had to do some hunting to find (as it needed to be quiet). The 2400c and the 3400c are similar machines, so you might indeed have problems with a 3400c.

I gather, however, that others here have succeeded in getting ATA-6 drives to work in a 2400c, so it is probably just hit and miss. The good news is that the 3400c is relatively easy to work on, so you can experiment with a number of drives.

On your other question, I put a very cheap Chinese ATA-CF adapter in a 2300c with a 4GB CF card a couple of years ago and it worked perfectly first time without complaint. I'd say go for it with the Addonics adapter, which should be better quality, but the one thing I'd advise is to be careful to install a layer of electrical insulation between the adapter and the extensive copper shielding in the bottom of the machine. Otherwise you'll get yourself a short-out.

 

[alk]

IIRC, that was a problem with specific drives in the 30-40 GB (that size only because that was current in '03/'04) range for the 2400c, 3400c, Kanga, and Wallstreets. OWC had a page about it ages ago, but it's totally MIA now. I gather that all the manufacturers have designs which no longer conflict with the drive controller in those PowerBooks,so any modern drive (built in the last two or three years) should work fine.

Peace,

Drew

 

[LCARS]

Thank you all for your replies. Part of my challenge for the 3400 is to keep the drive small since I like System 7 and it doesn't like large drives (unless they're partitioned), but after reading alk's post, it sounds like a modern drive is the way to go. Plus it feels funny to put a used 10 or 20 gig drive from a Wallstreet in there.

The 2300c seems cleverly designed for future storage options. Byrd, I thought about mounting a new HD in the 2300-its good to know about the mounting issue. I'm still in awe of its small form factor for 1995. Making it silent with a CF card would make it even cooler.

Thanks for the electrical insulation advice, Beachycove. If I may ask, how did you install the OS onto the CF card in your 2300c? I am away from its DuoDock II and have no external CD drive, so I was thinking I would put it into a PCMCIA adapter and load 7.6.1 from my 3400c.

LCGuy: I had seen on Intech software's site a few months ago, a driver to work around the 120GB limit on the HD controller for OS 9. I'm tempted to try it out and put OSs 7-9 on different partitions.

 

[beachycove]

... how did you install the OS onto the CF card in your 2300c? I am away from its DuoDock II and have no external CD drive, so I was thinking I would put it into a PCMCIA adapter and load 7.6.1 from my 3400c.

I did the installation in a full-sized DuoDock, but installation via PCMCIA in your 3400 should work fine. I have heard of this before at any rate.

 

[LCARS]

Excellent. Thanks for the information, beachycove. It looks like I'll have a fun project next weekend.

 

[LCARS]

I've got another question, this time about CF cards as HDs. I've been reading about wear-leveling and the speculation by some that with daily use the card would be toast after a few months. I have read conflicting reports on this, but I am not sure who is right. Has anyone had experience running this kind of setup?

I use the PowerBook daily for writing, email, MP3s, and I planned on using a SanDisk Extreme III card. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[fmwolf]

I've been using my 190 (posting from it) with an ultra II CF for about 3 years now - not on daily basis but frequently enough and with enabled VM. Battery lasts more than 2 hours (20-30 min with HD) and it is SILENT.

 

[LCARS]

Thanks for the information, fmwolf. I'm happy to see that a 190 can handle the MLA. I'm glad hear that your CF card has lasted this long. With frequent backups, this hard drive alternative is very attractive, especially given the increased battery life and silence. I had thought about putting a CF card in the PCMCIA slot (on my 3400) and using that as a VM module so to speak.

 

[joshc]

I had thought about putting a CF card in the PCMCIA slot (on my 3400) and using that as a VM module so to speak.

Yeah, not a great idea, because PCMCIA is quite slow really.

 

[Bunsen]

CF cards as HDs. I've been reading about wear-leveling and the speculation by some that with daily use the card would be toast after a few months.

This is the main thread where this has been hashed out before.