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Any way to make SD card flush?

M

mattais

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 29, 2008
65
0
Bristol, UK
I want to keep an SD card in my pro for backup purposes or to have a copy of OS X at hand. But I hate the way the card sticks out, as i'm sure most people do.

I'm brainstorming some ways to make this happen but would like to check on their viability. So far -

- Trying to find a MicroSD adapter that could be cut down in size. Problems would be that the MicroSD card is usually mounted on the top of the adapter, and connector is at the bottom. Also the card would still need to stick out a little or it would get stuck in there.

- Replacing a the reader with a spring loaded one. Problems could be that there isn't enough room. Can anyone confirm this?
 
mattais said:
I want to keep an SD card in my pro for backup purposes or to have a copy of OS X at hand. But I hate the way the card sticks out, as i'm sure most people do.

I'm brainstorming some ways to make this happen but would like to check on their viability. So far -

- Trying to find a MicroSD adapter that could be cut down in size. Problems would be that the MicroSD card is usually mounted on the top of the adapter, and connector is at the bottom. Also the card would still need to stick out a little or it would get stuck in there.

- Replacing a the reader with a spring loaded one. Problems could be that there isn't enough room. Can anyone confirm this?
Click to expand...
I didn't like it when i first got mine, my 7 inch asus eee has a flush sd card slot so why can't a £1200 apple laptop? I dont think its really going to be possible unless you take apart your macbook and get a soldering iron.
 
I kind of like how it is. I didn't really like it at first, but it is easy to slide in and out.
 
Forget about replacing the reader, not only would it void the warranty but would be a PITA to do. Just cut off the excess off the SD Card.. hehe
 
miles01110 said:
Neither of those solutions are going to work.
Click to expand...

I'm kind of looking for reasons why it wouldn't. Not that I don't believe you, but that wasn't very helpful ;)


Yeah i'm always too keen to break out the soldering iron and thus I forget about warranties... very good point. I will be waiting until it's out before even attempting this then. Ideally id replace the reader with a spring loaded one, just not sure if there would be space. I have an eee as well and love the SD reader in it.

My friend has an older MPB with a PCI Express card in it that holds a bootable copy of SL and some extra space for storage. It only runs off of a usb bus so it's just a fancy usb drive really, but it fits flush with the machine so you forget it's even there. This is what i'm going for.
 
Wow. Having a copy of OS X on hand for... ?

Do you reinstall your OS every week or something?
 
Since you ask: I am looking to mount a second hard drive in my optical bay once EFI issues have been addressed.

Having a bootable copy of the OS conveniently stored inside the computer would therefore eliminate my only personal need for an optical drive, however infrequent. That's not to say that I wouldn't end up using the space for storage, backing up etc anyway. It can also be partitioned for both uses.

Apologies for thinking outside of the box :confused:
 
mattais said:
- Trying to find a MicroSD adapter that could be cut down in size. Problems would be that the MicroSD card is usually mounted on the top of the adapter, and connector is at the bottom. Also the card would still need to stick out a little or it would get stuck in there.
Click to expand...

As you say, there are physical problems with mounting a microSD adapter.

- Replacing a the reader with a spring loaded one. Problems could be that there isn't enough room. Can anyone confirm this?
Click to expand...

The reason the current SD card reader causes the card to stick out so far in the first place is because there wasn't any room.

On the soldering side, it's extremely difficult to solder in the number of pins that each of those pieces of electronics most likely has. The pins are small and the pads are loose. The chances of you removing the current assembly without incident and then modifying it with the desired adapter or alternative reader in a way that works are vanishingly small. This doesn't take into account any firmware issues you may run into with the new hardware.
 
Well.... I think at the end of the day it depends which MB/MBP you have. If you had one of the older models with the more versitile ExpressCard34 slots you could opt for a ExpressCard SSD as when they're mounted, they're pretty much flush with the edge of the case.

20090930-8r3478c11jqpxnus6yc4keh9hi.jpg
 
miles01110 said:
As you say, there are physical problems with mounting a microSD adapter.



The reason the current SD card reader causes the card to stick out so far in the first place is because there wasn't any room.

On the soldering side, it's extremely difficult to solder in the number of pins that each of those pieces of electronics most likely has. The pins are small and the pads are loose. The chances of you removing the current assembly without incident and then modifying it with the desired adapter or alternative reader in a way that works are vanishingly small. This doesn't take into account any firmware issues you may run into with the new hardware.
Click to expand...

Now I guess can only hope that someone on here has a bright idea that I couldn't think of. Thanks for your explanation mate.

@ultraNEO* It's a new mbp, I should have been more clear.
 
mattais said:
Since you ask: I am looking to mount a second hard drive in my optical bay once EFI issues have been addressed.

Having a bootable copy of the OS conveniently stored inside the computer would therefore eliminate my only personal need for an optical drive, however infrequent. That's not to say that I wouldn't end up using the space for storage, backing up etc anyway. It can also be partitioned for both uses.

Apologies for thinking outside of the box :confused:
Click to expand...

Well, I used to think like you. A while ago I partitioned my external time machine drive to have a clone of the Installation CD. I thought hey, if I ever need it, I won't have to use a CD. Do you know how many times I've ever used that partition?

If you really just want to avoid using your optical drive, you can clone the install CD to a USB thumb drive or even just have the SD card sitting around. You don't need it in the slot per se.
 
Actually, you probably can cut the SD card in half. I have a transparent SD card, and you can clearly see that the electronics are only in the upper half.

http://www.amazon.com/Sandisk-Gaming-Nintendo-SDSDG-1024-E10-Package/dp/B000NLBVYK/

If you don't mind sacrificing an SD card, you could buy two identical non-transparent ones, open one up to figure out where to cut it, then cut the second one. You might even be able to open one, cut it, put it back together, and have it still work without sacrificing one of them.

Not all SD cards are this way. If your card was near the highest available capacity at the time you bought it, the electronics might take up more than half.
 
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m85476585 said:
Actually, you probably can cut the SD card in half.
Click to expand...
This whole "flush" thread on a macbook doesn't make any sense to me. How do you eject the card once it's buried inside the slot?

My crappy Acer allows the SD card to seat all the way (flush) but it has a recessed eject button. I use this for my document backup drive and just leave it in place. Do the MBP's have an eject button like this? (I don't have a MBP).
 
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