Seagate ST1 microdrive -> PCMCIA on PB3400C

[Rockin' Kat]

Hi,

So I got four 4GB Seagate ST1 microdrives which are supposed to be CF type II. I've been toying with the idea of using them on my Apple IIgs' SCSI chain... all points lead to a PCMCIA to SCSI device.. which would mean I'd need a CF to PCMCIA card adapter... After a bit of looking... it's a fair bit spendy for the PCMCIA to SCSI adapter, but the PCMCIA CF reader cards are fairly cheap and decided, I'd try buy one and try it out in my PowerBook 3400c running OS 9.1 before taking the plunge on the PCMCIA to SCSI device.

This leads me to the problem. I got an Adorama brand CF Card to PCMCIA adapter which is supposed to be fore Type II cards and was able to accomodate the thicker size of the ST1 drives, but when I put it in my 3400, the clock in the menu bar stops ticking seconds for a moment and then starts and again... and nothing. The drive doesn't mount. When I put a regular 512MB CF card in the adapter it mounts just fine on the PB3400.

Is there any reason I'd need a driver for this? Do I need to try a different CF to PCMCIA adapter?

 

[Bunsen]

Have you tried starting up from cold with the drive inserted?

Being a spinning drive, it might be a problem with power - the PCMCIA slot might not supply enough to spin it up. I've used one on a Pismo via USB, but not via PCMCIA.

Are the ST1s you have all known-good? Got someplace else you could test them, like in another PCMCIA machine, an IDE-CF adapter, or a USB CF reader?

It might be necessary to format the drive elsewhere too. I recall some tales of having to format a CF on a PC, then erase & reformat it on the Mac.

Definitely shouldn't need drivers.

 

[Rockin' Kat]

They work fine in my Lexar ExpressCard CF reader. I'll go try from a cold boot.... though typically when I use just regular CF's in this adapter I'm able to insert/eject during regular operation.

When I got these drives they were formated NTFS... I've since reformated them HFS+ under OS X.... I even tried formating them for MS DOS too.

... I've got a NEC Versa laptop running MS DOS 6.22/Win3.1.1 and an Amiga 1200 with Amiga OS 3.5... those are my only other machines which have PCMCIA slots... I'll have to try those tomorrow.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

What software are you using for initialization?

 

[Rockin' Kat]

I did the formatting of both the ST1 drives and the regular CF cards under OS X's Disk Utility... but it would appear to have become a bit moot now as it seems with the update to Mavericks the other day on the MacBookPro my Lexar ExpressCard CF reader is not working anymore... even with the required driver reinstalled... so I don't really have any way to read them or format them on another computer.. Oh the sound of suck can be heard from the hills to the valleys.

I've sent an email to Lexar Support regarding this, but that's about all I can do. Don't really have the funds to put forward anything for the next few weeks.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

AHA! OSX, never touch the stuff. There are suggestions for formatting utilities and linkage to a free one in the recent SCSI adapter thread, but I can't find it. :-/

Look in the usual places for the hacked Apple formatting utility (Drive Setup?) and try running that on the 3400 under 9. I've never tried it but I've heard nothing but good things about it.

 

[Rockin' Kat]

I'm running OS 9.1 on the PB3400 and have Drive Setup 2.0.3 which doesn't need to be patched to work with third party drives.... it works fine for initializing regular CF cards in the PCMCIA adapter(well, except for the part where it locks up after successfully initializing the card), but it does not see the ST1 drives at all when the PCMCIA adapter is inserted with one of them in it.

 

[Bunsen]

I realise it's a pain, but is it worth trying one internally on the IDE bus?

If I recall correctly, the 3400 is one of* the Powerbooks which, though capable of 32 bit Cardbus, didn't come with it enabled to the slot, and required a small hack (one or two wires added IIRC). I'm assuming that you have already done that hack? Maybe the power budget for Cardbus is higher, the existing supply isn't up to full spec, and only the Microdrives actually pull enough current to create an issue.

* (3400, 2400, Kanga?)

 

[Rockin' Kat]

There have been no mods done to this PowerBook 3400 that I'm aware of... I take it the microdrives can't be read on a 16-bit pcmcia bus then?

 

[Brooklyn]

Google the mod, it's actually really straightforward to do

 

[Rockin' Kat]

Well I got a hold of a FireWire400 Lexar professional CF card reader for my MacBookPro so I'm back up with that....

I already used google search. I mostly found links referencing pages that didn't exist or reposts of the same pages and links to online stores that used to offer the service but do not anymore.

https://www.google.com/search?q=modify+powerbook+3400+for+32-bit+cardbus#q=modify+powerbook+3400c+for+32-bit+cardbus

If all this mod is doing is cutting the card cage for a card to fit, I don't need that as the card fits the cage as is already.

 

[Gorgonops]

If I recall correctly, the 3400 is one of* the Powerbooks which, though capable of 32 bit Cardbus, didn't come with it enabled to the slot...

Wait, how did CardBus get invoked here? The CompactFlash adapter the OP is using (pictured in the OP) is plain PCMCIA, and CompactFlash cards themselves are a subset of 16-bit PCMCIA/ATA. As was noted, the "mod" to let a Cardbus card work in the 3400 is just hacking some plastic away, that's not going to change the power supplied to an inserted card in any way.

(There *are* Cardbus-based CF adapters; honestly not sure what the point is since the speed is going to be limited by the CF interface, but one would be identifiable by the gold ground-plane on the upper surface of the plug.)

 

[Bunsen]

Oh yeah, my bad. Sorry for the distraction.