Solid-State Hard Drive Mod:How-To

I'm just trying to see the point when the 1000 already has a cf card slot, if you don't want to use the hard drive
inside the machine then why not just use the regular cf card slot that it already has on the front instead of doing the mod?
is there some advantage to the mod cf card over the front cf slot?

Not trying to be a hardhead here I know i'm missing something.

because then you can use 2 compact flash cards. One as a permanent storage area, and one that you can remove.

It's the same reason people use the hard drive and the CF Slot, and the same reason people have a CDROM in their computer, even though they already have a hard drive. This Mod just makes the hard drive solid state.

also, I'm not sure that the drive in the front can support a 32 or 64GB CF Card, but it may I haven't tried.

FredFrank wrote:I'm just trying to see the point when the 1000 already has a cf card slot, if you don't want to use the hard drive
inside the machine then why not just use the regular cf card slot that it already has on the front instead of doing the mod?
is there some advantage to the mod cf card over the front cf slot?

Not trying to be a hardhead here I know i'm missing something.

i actually ordered the hard drive off the mpcstuff.com and just attmpted the installation. got everything in, and when i turn it on it still says 16 MB installed. If I go mode pad 2 hard disk, there's nothing there to do? not sure how to format, it seems it's not even reading the hard drive eventhough i've checked to make sure it's secured correctly.

This thread is about a compact flash mod for the hard drive.

I am confused, are you asking something unrelated to this tutorial?

Thanks!

This thread is a great contribution to the forum. Thanks! I will do this!

Great idea! I just got a hard drive for free from my brother a few months ago, but if I didn't I would deffinately do this. If I ever have a problem with my HD, I will do this in a heartbeat.

hd drive is not schock resistent, (ex live act, mpc falling on the floor
data lost.....)
cf card no prob, that s why i ll do this mod as soon as i getabig cf card....

really good idea this mod, grads!

I am getting ready to try this and I just noticed there is a version of this adapter that supports 2 CF cards in the same foot print. I wonder if this would work? Do you think the MPC can see two "drives" like this? Seeing how it is set up as a master/slave setup?

http://www.addonics.com/products/flash_memory_reader/ad44midecf.asp

would this work with the 2500?

I'm not sure, have a go at it,

and as far as this working in the 2500 I'm not sure, you may have success looking in the 2500 forum though.

GhostofJohnToad wrote:I am getting ready to try this and I just noticed there is a version of this adapter that supports 2 CF cards in the same foot print. I wonder if this would work? Do you think the MPC can see two "drives" like this? Seeing how it is set up as a master/slave setup?

http://www.addonics.com/products/flash_memory_reader/ad44midecf.asp

Has anybody yet tried the PATA SSD drives? Work out cheaper than a fast CF card and higher transfer rates plus level wearing.

32GB
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KingSpec-2-5-IDE- ... .m63.l1177

64GB
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KingSpec-2-5-IDE- ... .m63.l1177

128GB
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KingSpec-2-5-IDE- ... .m63.l1177



When I fill up my CF card I might give one a go but would like to see a comment from somebody else trying it out first...

I like the level wearing, but how do they end up being cheaper? I'm not knocking your idea as I would love a 128GB SSD Drive in my MPC. Before i went on my CF endeavor i researched tons of SSD technology and unfortunately the only reasonably priced SSD drives are SATA.

the PATA ones you linked were between 130 USD and almost 400 USD where as a 32GB CF card runs from 60-100 USD depending on speed.

I got this Pretec one that has a great write speed for about 95$ shipped on ebay months ago:

Mekishiko wrote:I like the level wearing, but how do they end up being cheaper? I'm not knocking your idea as I would love a 128GB SSD Drive in my MPC. Before i went on my CF endeavor i researched tons of SSD technology and unfortunately the only reasonably priced SSD drives are SATA.

the PATA ones you linked were between 130 USD and almost 400 USD where as a 32GB CF card runs from 60-100 USD depending on speed.

I got this Pretec one that has a great write speed for about 95$ shipped on ebay months ago:

For the speed they're faster, sure you can get the capacity cheaper in itself. I suppose it's not that much of a worry to most people but if you're using it for a live set and loading projects that use the full 128MB every few minutes/new song then it may be to you.

Have a look and see how cheap you can find a 300x (45MB/S) 32GB card for. Quick search on ebay shows they sell for ~£170 ($250) and they are slower than the SSD. Also nobody has produced a 300x CF card bigger than 32GB so not only are they faster but also larger than it's possible to get at approaching that speed.

Of course all this may be moot. Trying to work out what speed the ATA interface is. I'm pretty sure it has to be below ATA6 as this is when the capacity limitation was increased from 137GB. For it to take advantage of the extra speed it needs to be ATA5 as anything below operates slower than the drives anyway. Have read bits of the service manual and datasheets for components used (originally to try and figure where the RAM limitation comes from) but it makes my head hurt and I'm still not 100% sure what interfaces with what and how. I know the USB is 1.1 specification and interfaces with the main CPU. This also has PCMCIA capability but from my reading it's only capable of accessing 64MB, and DMA which can access 4GB (which is why I wonder why the RAM is so small, but it only uses 15 bits out of 32 for addressing.) The FGPA can also be used as a memory interface and has capabilities of PCI66, which is the same speed as ATA5, so I'm hoping it uses a PCI-ATA bridge and operates at (close to) full speed. Think maybe the hard drive and CF slot may have to come from the same interface but not sure...


Anyway I'm waffling now and probably only making sense to very few poeple, plus I'm tired and got work tomorrow. Night people.

No i know what you mean, but as far as read speed, (for playing live) I haven't noticed any problem. The main issue is the write speed via the USB 1.1 interface, but it's slow as tar with a regular PATA HDD also.

I do think they both are running off the same IDE interface (the internal bay and the external CF slot)

I was not trying to knock your idea, sorry if it came off that way. Personally I would just have trouble justifying the price.