Compact Flash or SATA HDD in SDR24/96

[Jondav1120]

Hi.

Got some parts leftover from converting my HDR's to CF, and wondering about trying the SDR. Has anyone tried the SDR on CF? If so, was it successful?

Regards

John

[doktor1360]

Hi.

Got some parts leftover from converting my HDR's to CF, and wondering about trying the SDR. Has anyone tried the SDR on CF? If so, was it successful?

Regards

John

I'm gonna stick my neck out here, John, and speculate; they're really not that much different from an architectural perspective - essentially 'computers' or elaborate micro-controllers. However I will say this, IF the SDR is using a hard disk, it should work without issue as long as things are respecting the BIOS configuration. In other words, I'd keep the CF cards at a limit of 32GB max capacity. I've done a lot of background work on using CF's in an HDR, and they're fussy as hell if they're used for anything but a boot drive - forget about anything external being solid and dependable. Your best bet is SSD's - they're a) availability is plentiful and inexpensive and b) any SATA-IDE adapters involved are generally reliable - I definitely cannot say that about the plethora of CF-IDE adapters I've tested. I have no knowledge of the BIOS extensions for recognition of larger volumes working for anything other than the HDR (never looked that deeply into things). Here's how I have my HDR's h/w configured:

300MHz u-Processor
384MB RAM (maxed out)
32GB SanDisk CompactFlash boot drive on backplane adapter (the logical 'C:\' for the Windoze users)
128GB SSD's in an external SSD drive bay (replaced the complete OEM 3.5" hard disk tray assembly)
USB Floppy Drive emulator

All drives are real time (RT) indicating good for recording and they're rock solid, and accessible externally - I rarely if ever have to open the machine or experience any issues at all - I'd say give it a go, John...

However, you knew it was coming so here it is:
[Standard Mgmt Disclaimer] - "Your actual mileage may vary..."

[Jondav1120]

Hi Doc,

Thank you very much for the details of your setup. The interesting detail about the SDR is that it has only one IDE interface and both internal and external drives are connected to this one port. Checking the drives shows that the internal is configured as 'slave' and the external is configured as 'master'. This means that the external drives are compatible with the HDR/ MDR (It's a long time since I tried it, but I seem to recall that the HDR/MDR will not recognise a external drive configured as a 'slave'.

Do any of your IDE to SATA adaptors have any means of setting up as a master/slave? I have tried an IDE to SATA adaptor in the SDR and it recognises a 250G SSD as an external drive (master).
To be honest... the SDR doesn't need an internal drive at all, the OS is stored in flash memory on the main board and it will happily boot up with just an external drive (In fact it will boot with no drives at all, but that's a little pointless other than for fault finding), so I am seriously thinking about ditching the internal and going for just an external sata or cf in the drive bay.

Regards

John

[doktor1360]

Do any of your IDE to SATA adaptors have any means of setting up as a master/slave?

They do, yes... jumpered for 'Master', and open for 'Slave'. The silkscreen writing on the board indicates the vendor is JMicron Technologies, and the part # would be JM20330 with the circuit board revision as EVB-002-3. That could probably be used to easily reference it (or an equivalent) in a web search...

...the SDR doesn't need an internal drive at all, the OS is stored in flash memory on the main board and it will happily boot up with just an external drive (In fact it will boot with no drives at all, but that's a little pointless other than for fault finding), so I am seriously thinking about ditching the internal and going for just an external sata or cf in the drive bay.

Very much like an Alesis Masterlink ML-9600, the operating system also loads in non-Volatile RAM and just uses the disk for file storage only (playlists). I've modified a few of those for using 32GB CF cards w the latest BIOS. The reverse is true with those, the CF cards make a little more sense due to the layout of the unit, too. With the latest BIOS and 32GB CF card, it ups the storage hours available to 49... pretty significant increase.

Regarding bypassing the internal drive, you'd know better than I would - and if it doesn't disturb the overall operation of the unit I'd say have at it *winks*. I'd personally just roll with whatever works and provides me with the max available storage. If you'd ever want/need, I've got URL's to some pretty interesting articles on IDE-PATA, CF cards and their adapters that begins to peel back the onion on CF tech. The Readers Digest version of it is that it's NOT the cards so much themselves, it's the ADAPTERS that appear to really need to be modified for the 'easiest' workaround. Cutting trace(s) and running wire on the card (PIO4 support stuff)... it gets deep, and truly gives me a fucking gnarly headache even thinking about it again...

And you knew it was coming *sinister grinning*:
[Standard Mgmt Disclaimer] - "Your actual mileage may vary..."

[Jondav1120]

Revisited this little project this weekend, and can report a certain amount of success...

20220306_113302a.jpg (Array KiB) Viewed 3241 times

This is a 2TB SATA Hitachi HDD in a modified drive bay. It's currently recording all 24 tracks at 48k/24bit... we will see how long it runs!

[Jondav1120]

Quick follow up...

The 2TB drive ran for over 24hours recording 24 tracks at 48k/24bit. It struggled to cope with the data rate when recording at 96k. Tried again with a 500GB Seagate, and this gave over 12hours of 18 tracks at 96k/24bit.

Regards

John