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Replace all my old HDs with CF?

The mechanism in flash is similar to EPROMs and EEPROMs in that it involves a trapped charge, so retention should be pretty good. But I don't know if I'd trust my precious data to an MLC device. SLC "industrial" devices are available, but much more money for much less storage. I seem to recall reading that MLC devices can lose data much more easily than SLCs because they use multi-level logic in their storage. That being said, I still have old SmartMedia and 32MB FC cards as well as MMCs that are retaining data just fine.
 
With CF is there an easy way to duplicate cards - byte-by-byte style? If so, that could be quite a workable backup solution at the same time.

vwestlife said:
But what compact flash card is going to make a noise like this when you turn it on? :D
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I think Chuck is pretty firm on no attachment to drive noise, but the ST-251's power down sequence is just as odd - always thought the auto park sounded a bit like a fart.
 
SpidersWeb said:
I think Chuck is pretty firm on no attachment to drive noise, but the ST-251's power down sequence is just as odd - always thought the auto park sounded a bit like a fart.
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That's the crude auto-park mechanism: when you shut off the power, it turns the spindle motor into a generator, and uses it to power the stepper motor, which returns the heads to the parked position -- banging into the end stop a bunch of times for good measure, sounding like a Jake Brake. :)

 
vwestlife said:
My IBM PS/1 runs fine with an IDE flash memory Disk On Module (DOM), but I have a simple reason for not using it: the hard drive activity light is located on the drive itself and shines through a little window on the front panel. So if I take out the hard drive and replace it with the DOM, I lose the activity light -- which, considering that the DOM is totally silent, is important to see if it's actually doing anything or if the computer has locked up.
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You can attach an LED to pin 39 of the IDE connector, that is the activity light line. Most CF to IDE adapters have an activity light on their PCBs, you can tap into it from there too.

http://www.zapwizard.com/oldsite/Guides/IDE/

Chuck(G) said:
Do you mean other than using *nix dd?

Are all CFs LBA-only--or do some support CHS addressing?
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I haven't had any problem addressing them with CHS. As long as its within BIOS addressing limits of course.

My biggest complaint about CF cards in vintage systems is performance. The write speeds are way too slow. A Transcend x133 card attached to an ISA controller in a 486 running PIO 0 is not as fast as a 600MB hard drive when writing. It only goes down hill connected to a Super socket 7 with a UDMA33 controller (my CF to IDE adapter is properly wired for UDMA).
 
vwestlife said:
My IBM PS/1 runs fine with an IDE flash memory Disk On Module (DOM), but I have a simple reason for not using it: the hard drive activity light is located on the drive itself and shines through a little window on the front panel. So if I take out the hard drive and replace it with the DOM, I lose the activity light -- which, considering that the DOM is totally silent, is important to see if it's actually doing anything or if the computer has locked up.
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njroadfan said:
You can attach an LED to pin 39 of the IDE connector, that is the activity light line. Most CF to IDE adapters have an activity light on their PCBs, you can tap into it from there too.
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Another option is something I've been using for many years is TinyResMeter which is a small tool that displays useful information about system resources in real time. It's very configurable and you can put it wherever you want it and make it look like whatever you want it to.

http://perso.accelance.net/~pesoft/trm/us_trm.html
 
I've seen a few mentions of industrial cards. Any manufacturer/model/tips or is there a marking indicating what grade or technology they use? I'm guessing all the normal cheap ones I see are probably not the quality you all are referring to.
 
barythrin said:
I've seen a few mentions of industrial cards. Any manufacturer/model/tips or is there a marking indicating what grade or technology they use? I'm guessing all the normal cheap ones I see are probably not the quality you all are referring to.
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Here is one vendor's support page: http://www.amtron.com/cfcard.htm Simplified, industrial cards should last about twice as long for 10 times the price but much better in extreme temperatures.
 
I think you have the numbers somewhat reversed. 10x the endurance for about 2x the price--or something close to that.

This white paper by SuperTalent explains the situation better. You can expect about 10x the number of writes out of an industrial SLC than a consumer MLC; the block size is smaller and read operations are generally faster.

The first vendor that shows up on a search for "SLC CF card" offers a 4GB card for $30, so not 10x the cost, but not cheap either. And you won't find them in the large (64GB) capacities of consumer devices, due to their method of storing data.
 
Chuck(G) said:
I think you have the numbers somewhat reversed. 10x the endurance for about 2x the price--or something close to that.
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I hadn't looked into it before and am just getting tweaked by this SLC thing. Since I'd be interested in an 8gb unit, I'm searching for that and the price looks like around $150. That sounds like about 5-10x to me. Is there some bargain shop out there?

Also, just found this site which may be of interest to some in this regard.
 
Ole Juul said:
I hadn't looked into it before and am just getting tweaked by this SLC thing. Since I'd be interested in an 8gb unit, I'm searching for that and the price looks like around $150. That sounds like about 5-10x to me. Is there some bargain shop out there?

Also, just found this site which may be of interest to some in this regard.
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Hmm, that link looks familiar--perhaps from another CF thread leately? :)

I found 8GB SLC UDMA CF flash for anywhere between $50 and $177. Cost seems to scale with capacity exponentially in these things. If you're willing to settle for 4GB SLC, then buy.com offers one for pretty cheap.

Be careful, however--a lot of vendors seem to notice that including SLC in the description means higher prices, so they'll throw the term in gratuitously, probably in the hope that you won't notice. If it seems too cheap to believe, it probably is.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Hmm, that link looks familiar--perhaps from another CF thread leately? :)
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Didn't see it anywhere, sorry. :) Not that useful anyway.
I found 8GB SLC UDMA CF flash for anywhere between $50 and $177. Cost seems to scale with capacity exponentially in these things. If you're willing to settle for 4GB SLC, then buy.com offers one for pretty cheap.

Be careful, however--a lot of vendors seem to notice that including SLC in the description means higher prices, so they'll throw the term in gratuitously, probably in the hope that you won't notice. If it seems too cheap to believe, it probably is.
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Thanks for the warning. I'm not going to jump right now anyway, but it does seem like the way to go. I really like reliability when I can get it. In a case like this if I can get 10x more use out of it for 2x the price, then I see that as an 80% saving. That 4GB one for $13 does seem like a good deal. One could of course install two of them.
 
I will keep using my spinning disks until they don't work anymore. If/when I do need a replacement then a SD card or whatever is cheap at the time will probably do.
 
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