Re: Solid state HDD's for PC based controls

Some things to keep in mind

--this is flash memory, it wears out after so many writes: less
reliable than a hard disk

--don't use it as "swap" or "virtual memory" (see above) - If you
don't know what this is, don't worry much. DOS-based programs don't
use swap, anyway.

--static sensitive

--I am certain it isn't hot-swappable **ANY** time - whether it's
boot disk or another disk. The CF card may take it but the computer
IDE chip definitely won't.

--Lexar is supposed to be one of the fastest, if it matters.

Mark

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, Jon Anderson <janders@n...>
wrote:

> I found on ebay, a neat little card to interface a CF card to IDE.
> This card defaults to Master, but the seller has another version

with

> Master/Slave selectable. I formated a 64mb CF card, installed it

in my

> Omniturn, set it up with Xtree for copying files off floppy, and

set up

> my Omniturn software to run off the CF card. It's a huge

improvement

> over floppy disk! I drilled two holes in the computer case and

secured

> the card for now, though I would have to remove the computer case

to get

> to the CF card.
>
> I was going to develop a tray to mount this in a 3.5 drive bay,

but

> there's several folks doing it already, and the prices are cheap

enough

> I can't see trying to compete. Here's one unit I found:
> <http://www.mach5products.com/PRODCF/CFproducts.htm>
>
> These CF cards as bootable disks, cannot be removed hot. But at

the end

> of the day, they can easily be pulled, inserted into a CF card

reader on

> a desktop, and everything backed up in seconds.
> Perhaps a hot swappable HDD caddy would be the ticket with another

CF

> card setup to transfer large files. I'm going to experiment with

this

> approach on my Ahha controlled mill.
>
> Total cost for this setup was about $25. In my Omniturn, I'm using

a

> 64mb Sandisk that I don't use in my camera anymore, but the

smallest and

> cheapest CF card I could find locally was a Kodak 32mb card. It

too

> formatted and boots to DOS just fine.
>
> Thought someone might find this useful...
>
> Jon