Hd's

[Phil.c]

Does anyone know where 32GB HD are available, especially in the UK?

Phil

[synthjoe]

That will be a challenge. You might pull it off better with a CF to IDE converter and newer CF cards.

[High C Double G]

Just a crazy thought, I am no wizard with computers... isn't there a way to partition off any size drive to make it look like 32GB to the d8b? I know the challenge is to be able to successfully install the OS, outside of the d8b, on the partition and have it write only to the partition as well. I am not sure this is even remotely making any sense.

Maybe this is a never mind it won't work, but maybe some of you computer savvy guys/girls can chime in to set me straight if this is possible. And Phil I feel your pain, I when through a bunch of drives to find only one that would work recently, as I am setting up my 300 MHz CPU for sale.

FWIW, I didn't recycle these drives yet, as maybe they were not conditioned or had a OS that would not format, I don't know, but I didn't take the time to set them into another computer and so forth. The drives might be okay... I don't know.

I have in the past went into small computer shops to find good small drives, but now a small drive is in the 200GB range, not the 40GB variety. The cool thing about getting those old small drives is that they would give them to me so they wouldn't have to properly recycle them. Aw the good ol days!

Michael

[Phil.c]

I've seen a re-furbished 40GB HD for sale £15 what's your thought on this?

Phil

Just noticed, it's 110-120v!

[synthjoe]

Phil, HDD's work off +5V and +12V - so this is supposedly an external model and mains voltage should not be a problem if you remove the HDD from its housing.
Michael, I think that the majority of the 32G+ IDE drives are capable of a compatibility mode, whereby a jumper would limit capacity to 30-32GB. Have a look at the documentation specific to the HDD you're using. It is, however, not a partitioning problem, but a hardware/signaling problem. When the drive is being identified at startup, it sends some information back about its size and logical layout of the disk space. Older BIOSes (and machines) cannot interpret the response of large drives as numbers returned are beyond the 'recognition capacity' of older hardware. As a result, the drive will not be accepted. However, if you limit the capacity through the jumper to get an acceptable response from the HDD (i.e. smaller than 32G size), then the drive will be identified as such and space beyond that will not be accessible. I can think of a couple of hacks I'd try to make some use of the remaining space, but almost certainly those would put data below 32G at risk, so I'd never use such tricks in 'live' operation. Just my .02

[High C Double G]

Hi Synthjoe,

Thanks for answering this question and in language I could actually understand...

So it is not possible because the d8b plain and simple will not finish the boot sequence because the bios will search for a 32GB or smaller drive and when it doesn't "see" such a drive on start up it will be a boot fail and then will not go any further. So that's it then.

I wonder what the life span of CF cards will be? and how long they will be around... It is very apparent that there is no money in manufactures making a 32GB drive, much less a IDE version.

I understand the jumper and the pins on the back of the drive that take a larger than 32GB drive and make it a 32GB drive. I have done this before.

I have an older computer that will accept IDE drives but I really don't know a lot about this. It might be worth installing them to see what is on them and to be able to condition them for use with the d8b; I have read a little about this but am really a novice and only can follow step by step instructions and with this stuff I think there is a lot of thinking outside the box (pun intended) to try this and try that without compromising the host computer. For now I have drives that are working but I think being prepared is a good thing. I mean it not like you can (with practicality) look at a drive and guesstimate how long it is going to last.

[Petersueco]

It would be really interesting to know if the Solid State Drives are suitable to use inside the d8b CPU.

Any of these models should be the perfect candidates.

Just my 2 Euro cents.

Peter Holmquist.

[High C Double G]

It would be really interesting to know if the Solid State Drives are suitable to use inside the d8b CPU.

Any of these models should be the perfect candidates.

Just my 2 Euro cents.

Peter Holmquist.

Hi Peter,

Pricey little buggers aren't they? what is the deal with these? Are they super long lasting... no moving parts and that sort of thing? I could see spending that kind of money if it was never going to fail on me before I go off to the great "jam session" in the sky. Please excuse my ignorance but I don't know anything about these, this is news to me.

That said, I remember many moons ago spending the better part of $500.00US for a 5GB SCSI drive so I guess it is pretty relative. And that drive is still working amazingly! no bad sectors...

[Petersueco]

Yeah, a little bit expensive, and as you guessed, no moving parts, the exact size you need and still IDE interface.

It's worth the try, don't you think?

Peter Holmquist.

[Phil.c]

That HD I mentioned is for USA only!!!

There's got to be some of these around somewhere!, my dual setup is ok, I have a caddy which I store to to free up space, this has baring noise which is not a problem because if I want to remix any thing I just transfer to the internal HD which takes seconds, but has anyone thought of the consiquences if their HD's packed in!

Phil