Powerbook 1400c - Solid State Storage!

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Heck, if 16gb cards would work, this solution could work for my Pismos too.

I've used Beater's installed for any macintosh "Silent HDD"/WiFi combos to test new 5300ce, 1400cs, 3400c, KANGA!!!!! [] ]'> Wallstreet and PISMO acquisitions over the past year.

IMHO, as simple a setup as this is basic kit for any serious PCMCIA/PC Card PB collector, so I'd suggest that all comrades should give this a whirl!

Now HP_Mini has Beater, Beater 2 (Pismo) and Beaters 3-6 as backups/toys! Just gotta get updated Browsers installed on the two cards I have and a new setup based on this thread's info.

As far as my Pismos go, the first one (ostensibly) came with a WiFi card that's faster than any compatible AirPort Card. What are the chances of installing such a "Silent HDD" into the inaccessible AirPort Card slot?

 

[J English Smith]

Success! I snipped off the extra pin, connected everything, taped down the end of the card so it would not flop around in the HD cavity, and booted. Once you have copied over the system folder to the card, the whole installation took about 4 minutes, including the pin snip. It is eerily silent...made more difference with no HD sounds than I would have thought.

I am now doing a little test to see how the battery life does...my old VST batteries never lasted very long even when fully charged, it will be interesting to see what difference the CF card makes.

Thanks to everyone for the help!

What is a good way to pack the HD cavity so the card does not flop around? Tape? or foam? There are no heat issues, I was thinking that just a slender piece of grey foam above and below might be the way to go...

 

[register]

No foam, please. Better leave some air circulating around the active parts of the board. Use some adhesive mounting tape to cleat the adaptor board into the drive cage and bolt the drive cage into the drive bay as usual. If necessary, apply some tape to the drive cage to securely avoid any shorts.

 

[kem554991]

This is apparently a rather popular mod. I have a 256MB CF card with the original software version on it just in case. The only difference is that I use mine via an Epson CF card to PCMCIA slot adapter. It's a little slower, but it's all I need. b:

 

[CelGen]

I have never seen CF cards as all that much faster compared to hard drives. They just used a lot less power.

Wasn't there a persistant problem with macs being unable to initialize CF cards? I swear I read abous something like that before, otherwise my 2300C's would both have 4gb cards in them.

 

[register]

Formatting capabilities depend to the software. Apple's Drive Setup might need some tuning to properly use unknown drives, but more recent formatters should do well.

A persistant problem with IDE equipped ancient Macs might be the lack of support for removable boot media connected to the internal IDE controller (as reported for the PB 150 and PB 1400). This can be worked around by a restart (instead of shutdown and cold boot) after loading appropriate disk driver from another boot drive or by using some active circuitry spoofing appropriate state of media (non removable) during boot sequence. Best solution usually is to use CF supporting UDMA or industrial grade CF which both should identify as non-removable media.

For flash memory connected to the PCMCIA slot few minor problems are reported. The auto eject feature on shutdown can be avoided by appropriate software setting. If you use SD/SDHC cards, you might experience a write protected media. One common cause is the locking tab to be switched through insertion of the SD card into the adapter. In such case simply secure the locking tab with some adhesive tape in position.

Please consider to tell your findings about using flash memory in our little Wiki and improve the page Flash Drive Test Results. Any comrade is kindly invited to improve that page to a complete guide.