Change old low HDD to a CF card?

[HaQue]

don't know if you have seen the tips on this page, or if any are relevant:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/CompactFlash_boot_drive

[HaQue]

another small bit of info, when talking about the sandisk util:

(this only works for SanDisk cards with Firmware Version HDX < 5.00).

[HaQue]

another thought.. why not put in a small SSD?
http://www.amazon.com/2-5-SATA-SSD-Drive-Adapter/dp/B0049D7PCU

or if that doesn't work, there are actually IDE SSD's:

https://www.google.com/shopping/product/5821906990197222014?q=ssd%20in%20a%20ide%20laptop&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1C1CHMO_enUS468US468&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.41248874,d.dmg&ion=1&biw=1680&bih=937&sa=X&ei=G6b9UIH4BOHI0QGZ4oCwAw&ved=0CIQBEPMCMAI

here is an example of a fixed disk CF:
http://californiapc.com/Industrial-Flash-Memory/SanDisk-CF-OEM-and-Commercial/SDCFAA-004G-F.html
and lastly - before I get back to what I SHOULD be doing:

Specialty Compact Flash reader such as TrueIDE by Individual Computers will show the card as fixed to the host device no matter what the device is.

Passive Compact Flash adapters such as the popular Addonics ADIDECFB or any of the inexpensive adapters will pass along whatever the FIXED/REMOVABLE bit is on the card. You will be able to use either of these types of adapters in your MPC. However it is very important to find a Compact Flash card that is a FIXED disk.

http://www.mpchunter.com/compact-flash-card-troubleshooting/

old saying, probably these days not PC, but.. there is more than one way to skin a cat

[fzabkar]

It appears that SanDisk's tool changes the configuration word from 848Ah to 044Ah.

Code:

1283:16C1 BF0006        MOV   DI,0600                          | if removable, then
1283:16C4 833E280801    CMP   WORD PTR [0828],+01              | write 0x848A to 0x630
1283:16C9 740A          JZ   16D5                              | 
1283:16CB C6453084      MOV   BYTE PTR [DI+30],84              |
1283:16CF C645318A      MOV   BYTE PTR [DI+31],8A              | 
1283:16D3 EB08          JMP   16DD                             | 
1283:16D5 C6453004      MOV   BYTE PTR [DI+30],04              | else write 0x044A to 0x630 
1283:16D9 C645314A      MOV   BYTE PTR [DI+31],4A              | 

[HaQue]

hehe I was going to RE that util when I got home for a different reason. I did notice it is very, very basic though looking at it in a hex editor.
but you would still need to know something more about the existing firware I would think, and I assume the newr > v9 is a lot more complex and possibly protected.

have to remember to buy a couple

[fzabkar]

VSCs are 89h, 8Ah, 8Bh.

[HaQue]

Thanks Franc.

and looking around, I don't think I would be buying any soon.. way to expensive to just hack around on. I can see why one would want to use it though, a good card.

http://truei.de/

http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/TrueIDE

TrueIDE
TrueIDE is a converter that allows you to use up to two Compact Flash cards with your IDE controller. TrueIDE even permits the use of CF cards that regular (passive) converters will only show as removable devices. The active part of TrueIDE parses the data stream that is exchanged between IDE controller and the CF card, and whenever the IDE controller checks for removability, TrueIDE will report back that the media is "fixed". This will allow installing and booting any operating system from a CF card.

TrueIDE527.jpg (52.61 KiB) Viewed 11111 times

a quick look and only found:
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=TrueIDE

[fzabkar]

and looking around, I don't think I would be buying any soon.. way to expensive to just hack around on.

I've reversed the SanDisk tool. It was easier than I thought, computer problems notwithstanding.

Identify Device
Print model number & firmware version
VSC Enable
Get original 0x100 word config (?) block
Modify fixed/removable word
Write new 0x100 word config (?) block
Get new 0x100 word config (?) block
Compare with original 0x100 word config (?) block
Print PASS or FAIL
VSC disable

I can give you my work if you're interested.

[trodas]

fzabkar - great find! Now... how we can use that information to write a tool, that do just that... but for my CF card type?

What the code says when it report "Fail (error #20)"...? What is wrong there?


Short report:

Once I managed to run the card using the Hitachi CF card driver with DMA and I get pretty nice 20MB/sec speed:

...but on next reboot it fails to PIO mode again and the speed is about 2MB/sec with *HUGE* CPU load

Hopefully could someone help me out, because that suxx



PS: the TrueIDE adapter is a nice find, but crazy expensive and not in stock. Not found even on eBay

[fzabkar]

Error #20 can occur at several steps in the program, but in your case it is reporting a failure to execute the Identify Device command. That would suggest that your card is not at either of the standard ISA ports (1F0h or 170h), or that the master/slave jumpering is incorrect, or that the program didn't allow enough time for the drive to report READY.

In fact HDAT2 is reporting that your drive is attached to the secondary controller, not the primary ...

Code:

ATA I/O port Base/Control/IRQ                       0170h/0376h/15

... so the correct command syntax would be ...

atcfwchg.com /S /F

Assuming you get this far, you can capture the output from the drive using the following script:

Code:

g =100
n atcfwchg.bin
w
q

Write the above lines to a text file named ATCFWCHG.SCR, and then copy this file and DOS's DEBUG.EXE to the ATCFWCHG.COM directory on your boot drive.

The execute ...

debug atcfwchg.com /S /F < atcfwchg.scr > atcfwchg.log

This will execute ATCFWCHG.COM, write the screen output to a log file, and record the drive's data to ATCFWCHG.BIN.

Then upload the LOG and BIN files (in a ZIP or RAR).

[fzabkar]

I forgot one step:

Identify Device
Print model number & firmware version
VSC Enable
*Test whether firmware version begins with "F" or "H"
Get original 0x100 word config (?) block
Modify fixed/removable word
Write new 0x100 word config (?) block
Get new 0x100 word config (?) block
Compare with original 0x100 word config (?) block
Print PASS or FAIL
VSC disable