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| Author | Compact flash pb 1400 (Read 47939 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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sierraredd
128 MB  Posts: 212 
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on: December 19, 2006, 20:58
I just got a compact flash pcmcia adapter fer my 1400. I was wondering if these would be good for a ram drive? Or Virtual memory? It was 7 bucks shipped off of ebay and with various cf cards it would be an inexpensive way to add ram to the 166 with 16mb installed if it works. Is this a viable solution? |
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dpaanlka
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1024 MB Posts: 1646
Reply #1 on: December 19, 2006, 22:19
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Well, actual RAM is always the best.
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Mr_E
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16 MB Posts: 28
Reply #2 on: December 20, 2006, 23:00
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I'm curious about this, too. I mean real RAM is the way to go, but the 1400 has its limits. Having read about using PCMCIA flash memory cards as both a start-up drive and/or a source of virtual memory, I was wondering if there was any reason that CF flash cards, used with the PCMCIA adapter, would be an equally workable solution. Reason being that I, like the poster, already have the adapter on hand as well as Compact Flash cards I use in my camera. No need to buy PCMCIA cards if what I have will do the same job.
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #3 on: December 21, 2006, 01:38
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Quote from: "Mr_E" I'm curious about this, too. I mean real RAM is the way to go, but the 1400 has its limits. Having read about using PCMCIA flash memory cards as both a start-up drive and/or a source of virtual memory, I was wondering if there was any reason that CF flash cards, used with the PCMCIA adapter, would be an equally workable solution. Reason being that I, like the poster, already have the adapter on hand as well as Compact Flash cards I use in my camera. No need to buy PCMCIA cards if what I have will do the same job. There are several drawbacks. CF cards fail quicker, they are not rated for as many read/write cycles as a hard drive. They need to be formatted as HFS volumes so CF card used as a boot drive in the 1400 can not be used in the camera again until it is reformatted. Also CF card read/writes are much slower than read/writes to internal memory and a probably not much faster than the hard drive they are meant to replace. They are really not startup drives since no driver exists to recognize them until the system loads. However once a system has been started from the hard drive, you can restart to a valid System folder on the CF card. CF volumes can be used for virtual memory, but this is not of much benefit unless you are very low on hard drive space since you have not increased your memory size. The big advantage gained by using a CF card as a drive and booting or (rebooting) from it, is that the hard drive can be spun down while the system remains responsive which can provide a substantial increase in battery life. bill
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Mr_E
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16 MB Posts: 28
Reply #4 on: December 21, 2006, 23:16
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I don't want to hijack sierraredd's thread, so maybe she'll chime in if her own questions aren't being answered, but I do want to clarify what I meant: It sounds like you are comparing CF to hard drive usage, and I was asking if CF was comparable, not to hard drive usage, but to the available PCMCIA memory cards. If I'm reading your reply right, I think you're lumping all flash memory into the same category, which means that you feel that the various forms of flash memory are pretty much equivalent in their specs as far as how (in)appropriate they are for use as a hard drive or source of virtual RAM. Please correct me if I'm interpreting that incorrectly. That is good info on flash memory not being as rewritable as your hard drive. But the added battery life could outweigh that issue, depending on how often you use battery power. I don't even know that I could get an hour out my current battery, so extending battery life would mean I could occasionally use the battery when actually working on something, rather than only using the battery as a way to move the computer across the house to another plug without having to close all my documents. Also if you had need of different system configurations, I could see where having a flash card handy, loaded with System 8.x for example, could give you a quick and easy way to hop between Operating Systems. It seems like the other advantage might be simply space, because it seems like there may be higher capacity flash memory available now than there were hard drive capacities for the 1400, but from what you're saying it sounds like you'd be better off just using the flash card as file storage and leaving the hard drive to hold the System files. Also I was wondering if their are speed benefits to using flash memory as an extra source of RAM. From what I remember, when I used hard drive space as virtual memory, it would sometimes cause things to drag a bit, and I always attributed that to the hard drive needing to access files and system info while at the same time reading/writing to different locations on the same disk for RAM purposes, so wondered if things would be sped up by having a separate, designated disk as your Virtual RAM source. If you used Flash memory for that, I guess you'd have to worry about it failing if it's not as hardy as your hard drive, but I guess if it was you had maxed out your RAM, it might be a way to give you a little more without slowing you down so much. But then that's just a lot of theory for me, since, until I can get my ol' 1400 on-line, or in some way connected to another system, the only thing I've been using on it is my Eric's Solitaire Sampler. And Lemmings if I can ever get it to unstuff without giving me a disk error...
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sierraredd
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128 MB Posts: 212
Reply #5 on: December 22, 2006, 07:43
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It seems to work fine for virtual memory. Found a spare 16meg ram in the dead 1400. So I'm up to 32 and that's fine. It does work good for mp3's, doesn't get that pause like a cd or hdd.
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wall
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256 MB Posts: 343
Reply #6 on: April 20, 2007, 01:02
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I've been using a Compact Flash card in a pb 1400 as a hard drive now for a year. It boots at least in 7.6 and 8.6. Those are the ones I've been using, can't see no reason for it not working in other OS's too, but haven't tried. I bought a week ago from Ebay wlan cards that work with 7.6 and while waiting for those have installed the OS. Works great, much faster than 8.6, which I used because my card has so far been the Dell Truemobile 1150. I'm sure the CF will fail me one day, but so far no problems. (All my macs do automatic back-ups at night, so no harm if the card die). I have 2 identical OS's plus software in the pb. One set in the internal HD and another in the CF. The reason for the CF for me is privacy. It's very handy to be able to take EVERYTHING out of the computer to my pocket in 0.5 seconds flat.
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wall
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256 MB Posts: 343
Reply #7 on: April 21, 2007, 01:23
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Quote They are really not startup drives since no driver exists to recognize them until the system loads. However once a system has been started from the hard drive, you can restart to a valid System folder on the CF card. I'm really using the CF as a startup drive. Just powered on for the first time a pb 1400 I got today. I put my CF in with the pcmcia adapter, turned power on and...the pb started! Straight from my CF, not from the internal HD. No driver installations necessary.
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wall
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256 MB Posts: 343
Reply #8 on: April 21, 2007, 01:29
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Hi! The first paragraph of my earlier post is quote from bill and the 2nd's my reply to it. I thought that the grey underlayer would come automatically, sorry.
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #9 on: April 21, 2007, 03:30
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Booting from a CF card has some interesting implications. Have you noted any difference in performance? Any increase noted in battery life? I look forward to reading any further elaboration you provide about this. bill
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dpaanlka
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1024 MB Posts: 1646
Reply #10 on: April 21, 2007, 03:53
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Quote from: "wall" Hi! The first paragraph of my earlier post is quote from bill and the 2nd's my reply to it. I thought that the grey underlayer would come automatically, sorry. It is, you just deleted the quote tags: Code: [Select] [quote][/quote]
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wall
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256 MB Posts: 343
Reply #11 on: April 22, 2007, 01:37
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oops! :shock:
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wall
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256 MB Posts: 343
Reply #12 on: April 22, 2007, 03:07
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Quote from: "wove" Booting from a CF card has some interesting implications. Have you noted any difference in performance? Any increase noted in battery life? Thanks for your interest, Bill. It's been helpful to read system7today, and it's nice if I can give something back. Most things mac that I'm doing for the first time, I also have to do a second...and a third time, before things work the way I want. With the CF everything just went in and worked, so I didn't really tested anything at all. I do believe that batteries last a little longer as there's no mechanical work to power. I'll rebuild the batteries next month which should give a real boost for running time, if CF vs HD give some minutes on top of that it'll be nice.
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dg
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8 MB Posts: 8 
Reply #13 on: May 30, 2007, 23:53
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I have a PB 1400 with 64 MB RAM & 1 GB HD, and a couple of good batteries. I really like the little machine! Can you tell me what vendor you bought your adapter from? Maybe a link to the auction page, I could then see if s/he has more of the same... so far I've come up dry googling for this.
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sierraredd
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128 MB Posts: 212
Reply #14 on: May 31, 2007, 05:14
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I bought a cf card reader from staples. It's a sandisk cf pcmcia reader. It was around 10 bucks. just need to make sure it's 16 bit.
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