Need help with old powerbook wallstreet

[Garyed055]

Hey all

Im restoring a wallstreet and want to ask if anyone here has successfully installed a CF card adapter in a powerbook in place of the 2.5 inch HD?

Gary

 

[bunnspecial]

I've not done it specifically in a Wallstreet, but I've seen it done in older and newer computers.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of that route. CFs are designed for sequential riding, then sequential reading followed by an erase cycle. They're not really designed for the kind of "thrashing" they get in a computer application. CFs go in my cameras

BTW, big CF cards aren't cheap. I bought a bunch of 32s and a 64gb when I bought a Nikon D800 back last fall. Even though it's old as technology goes(introduced in 2012) it's still one of the higher resolution cameras available at 36mp. I shoot in RAW+JPEG, and the JPEGs go on a 64gb SD card that rarely is removed from the camera. The CF is my main working card, and it's where I put the RAW files. JPEGs are ~20mb from this camera and RAWs are ~80mb.

In any case, I lucked into a deal from B&H for two Lexar 1066x 32gb cards for $50, and a 64gb Sandisk Extreme IV SD+CF bundle for $100. That was inexpensive.

 

[weckart]

Wallstreets will boot from the Cardbus slot and I have run MacOS 8.x from there using a CF to PCMCIA adapter but usually for troubleshooting purposes. Bunnspecial has explained pretty much why CF is not the best choice for any more than occasional use as a boot device.

 

[Garyed055]

thanks my friends. I just wish i could find one of the 4 or 6 gig drives these beasts came with. I don't really need more then that

Gary

 

[weckart]

thanks my friends. I just wish i could find one of the 4 or 6 gig drives these beasts came with. I don't really need more then that

You don't want one of those in any case. Those older small capacity drives are slow and very noisy. Even if you don't need the space, get a 40, 60 or 80 gigger as these are quieter, faster and run more efficiently, which makes a difference if you still want to run on a battery.

 

[AphoticD]

32GB mSATA SSD plus the JM20330 mSATA to IDE adapter works well in my clamshell iBook and Pismo and could be even cheaper than sourcing an old 6GB spinner. Plus it is silent.

It’s also good to know that if the mSATA SSD needs to be moved into a different Mac or PC, the transfer rate will step up to match the system for free (e.g ATA-2 33Mhz > SATA 3 6Gbps)

 

[Garyed055]

thanks guys.. I have to keep costs down and I still have to buy a new power cord too. I was hoping to find an older IDE drive for a cheap price

Gary

 

[weckart]

thanks guys.. I have to keep costs down and I still have to buy a new power cord too. I was hoping to find an older IDE drive for a cheap price

Gary

https://m.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-40-GB-2-5-IDE-Laptop-Hard-Drive-5400RPM-MP0402H-PATA-HD/272767971197

$7 delivered won’t break the bank. Plenty on offer on eBay. Or you could go dumpster diving for old PC laptops and extract drives and RAM from those.

 

[Charadis]

Hey all

Im restoring a wallstreet and want to ask if anyone here has successfully installed a CF card adapter in a powerbook in place of the 2.5 inch HD?

Gary

Hi Gary, I've just recently installed a 64GB CF card through a 2.5" adapter yesterday on my Wallstreet. Works pretty well, feels very snappy, too. On first install, when I boot up the system 8.5 install CD, it immediately prompted me to initialize and format the drive. I've since updated to system 9.1, and so far, it is still running well in my limited time playing with it.