CF Alternatives to HDD
From NMTWiki
Medium difficulty requiring some technical skills, or some parts require more than basic knowledge.
| Applicable only for the following: |
|---|
| PCH NMT models: | A100/110/B110 |
|---|---|
| Others NMT's: | HDX/eGreat |
CF card and adapters as alternatives to internal HDD PCH A100/A110
Some users, in particular those with concerns over noise and heat and not requiring any large amount of internal storage space, may decide to opt for a CF card and adapter as an alternative. It may also be useful for those that only wish to implement community made applications and modifications of minor volume.
As always remember to ensure that you have deleted any manufacturers partitions or software that some times flash memory comes with pre-installed. Once you have removed the partitions you can still format to NTFS/FAT before installing the NMT Apps and the associated Ext3 formatting.
We shall start by posting tested working cards and adapters to give you an idea of what can be used. If you have any to add please do or post in the discussion tab and I'll edit the page to keep it current.
Tested CF Alternatives to HDD
CF cards & adapters MUST be able to operate in fixed disc mode, DMA mode 0-4
CF adapter Brand: SANS DIGITAL Compact Flash CF to 2.5" SATA
CF adapter Model: ST-SAN-CS1T
Card Brand: RiData Lightning Series 8GB Compact Flash (CF) Flash Card
Card Model: CFR8G-233X-LIG2
Card Size: 8GB
Notes: Does get a little warm to the touch upon accessing, but still cooler than a HDD. Tested read/write up to 50Mbit over NFS (about 6MB/second). Used in A110
CF adapter Brand: DealExtreme Red CF SATA adapter
CF adapter Model: DealExtreme Red CF Compact Flash to Serial SATA Adapter w/Mounting Bracket
Card Brand: Transcend x133 Compact Flash
Card Model: TS4GCF133 - 4Gb
Notes: Purchased both pieces from DealExtreme. Adapter @ $16 USD, and Card @ $18 USD with free shipping, works great in A110.
CF adapter Brand: Unbranded
CF adapter Model: Red! CF Compact Flash Type I/II to Serial SATA Adapter
Card Brand: Transcend x133 Compact Flash
Card Model: 2-32Gb
Notes: There are many different unbranded SATA<>CF adapters available on ebay, dealextreme, etc. Check the forum for recent posts from members who have bought one and confirmed it working. I bought my adapter from ebay for £5. The Transcend CF cards have lifetime guarantees. Used in A110.
addition: Some mixed results from ebay purchases, from some sellers some adapters work, others don't.
CF adapter Brand: StarTech.com SATA to CF HDD Adapter
CF adapter Model: SAT2CF
Card Brand: Ritek Supreme Series 150X 8GB CF Compact Flash Card
Card Model: CFR8G-150X-SUP
Card Size: 8GB
Notes: The SanDisk Ultra II 8GB Card with little success. PCH-A110 locks up at 0% while formatting.
CF adapter Brand: unbranded
CF adapter Model: Blue DMA CF to SATA adapter
Card Brand: Transcend 133x CF Card
Card Size: 8GB
Notes: Card required formatting to NTFS otherwise the PCH could not see it and did not offer the setup NMT option. Once in NTFS though the card and adapter work perfectly.
(FAT32 did not work. Deleting the partition did not work.)
For Scandinavian and North-European PCH owners
Model: Unbranded
Card Brand: Transcend 133x CF Card
Card Model: 8GB
Notes: Tested with Transcend 133x. Works!
Note from bof: Tested with Kingston 8GB. Works!
For D-A-CH owners
Model: No-Name Unbranded
Card Brand: Transcend 133x CF Card
Card Model: 16GB MLC MEM
Notes: HDX 1000 -> Tested with Transcend 133x. Works!
Card Brand: Transcend SATA Flash Module
Card Model Number: 1Gb TS1GSDOM22V
Notes: eGreat M34A -> Tested works great. Comes as 2Gb also.
How to tell if your CF card will work?
How do you check what DMA(Direct Memory Access) or PIO(Programmed I/O) mode is used by the Compact Flash card?
- Connect the Compact Flash card through IDE or SATA (as IDE) interface with no other devices sharing the same IDE channel.
- Navigate to Device Manager, and open the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" tab.
- Right click on the channel containing the Compact Flash, and select Properties.
- In the Properties window, select the Advanced Settings tab.
- You will see two devices, along with the Current Transfer Mode. This will indicate the mode being used by the Compact Flash.
Alternatively, download the DMACHECK.exe program to easily indicate if the Compact Flash is using DMA or PIO.
- DMA In Use - indicates that DMA is enabled
- DMA Not In Use - indicates that the IDE/ATAPI driver is defaulting to PIO
For the best compatibility, Compact Flash shown as fixed disk are recommended instead of removable. How do I determine what type my CF card is?
The card must be connected through an interface which is capable of detecting a CF card as a fixed disk, such as IDE or SATA. The CF card must be formatted and partitioned with a drive letter.
- Open Command Prompt by clicking through Start Menu > Run, type in cmd, then select OK.
- From the command prompt, type:
- diskpart - <enter>
- list volume - <enter>
- This will display a list of volumes detected on the system. Find the volume which corresponds to your CF media by Drive Letter (Ltr) or Drive Label (Label). In the area which lists "Type" check to see if the device is listed as Removable (removable device) or Partition (fixed disk device).
Further Information on Alternatives to Hard Disc Drives
- This site has some further information on the use of and Limitations of Microdrives and adapters
