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SD card to IDE adapter

I

iTurbo

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Original poster
Sep 9, 2008
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To clarify for those that might be asking, what machines does this work in? IIRC I used a 2.5" case IDE adapter for my PowerBook G4, but the drives that are in desktop Macs are usually 3.5" drives, right?
 
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Has anyone experience of using SD cards as HD replacements? They are much less expensive that msata SSDs but my feeling is their controller hardware will be less sophisticated and not suited to HD wear and tear?
 
I have only used it in some old PC converted to a router, so not a lot of read/write operations except for booting the thing once in a while, it worked for like 4 years.
 
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Not a Mac but in my Amigas I use compact flash cards as hard drive replacements. The adapters are cheap for ide to CF and the cards themselves are reasonable too.
 
abundantmussel said:
Not a Mac but in my Amigas I use compact flash cards as hard drive replacements. The adapters are cheap for ide to CF and the cards themselves are reasonable too.
Click to expand...

I used to use Compact Flash in my Amigas too - never had any issues. Currently though, CF are twice the price of SD cards of the same speed - same price as SSDs infact, though I suspect they're better suited than SDs are.
 
Dronecatcher said:
I used to use Compact Flash in my Amigas too - never had any issues. Currently though, CF are twice the price of SD cards of the same speed - same price as SSDs infact, though I suspect they're better suited than SDs are.
Click to expand...

I would think that a CF card is more resilient than an SD card too. I picked up some ide to CF adapters recently that occupy a PCI slot and have the adapter built into the backplate so the card can be removed without opening the computer. Going to put a 64GB CF in my sawtooth, quicksilver and MDD.
 
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Thinks...IDE to CF to dual Micro SD....RAID 0 in a laptop :)
CF.jpg
 
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one thing to note with these IDE to SD card adapters is that are just CF to SD card adapters brought out to an IDE connector

because Remember CF cards are just compact IDE/ATA SSDs (thats why the IDE adapters for them are mostly passive)

it makes more sense to get an ATA to CF card adapter and then a good quality CF to SD card adapter, this gives you a lot more flexibility in the media you can use (you can switch between CF or SD cards as you like)
 
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I think I posted the wrong thing in my first post. I'm pretty sure I need a 40-pin IDE adapter rather than the 44-pin. Is that a laptop/desktop difference or something?
 
abundantmussel said:
Not a Mac but in my Amigas I use compact flash cards as hard drive replacements. The adapters are cheap for ide to CF and the cards themselves are reasonable too.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but Amigas don't constantly write onto their HDs (no SWAP) so thats not really a benchmark.

On the other side all rPIs run on (micro)SD so it should be o.k..
 
Dronecatcher said:
Has anyone experience of using SD cards as HD replacements? They are much less expensive that msata SSDs but my feeling is their controller hardware will be less sophisticated and not suited to HD wear and tear?
Click to expand...
I think, writing-speed is abysmal for all those CF/SD/USB-stick-options. To store file after file on occasion is ok. Backup/reading from CF/SD etc. is also ok. But I wouldn't trust them, when it comes to drive a critical machine ...
When I've got an "USB 3.0 and a SD-Card ExpressCard34" for my C2D early2008 15"MBP I was keen to use it as a backup-solution for my document folder. Tried some PCMCIA-solutions for PowerBooks too for that purpose. Naah - not comparable to a USB/FW-connected spinning or solid-state drive. But may I didn't get the clue ...
 
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So depending on the OS;
  • CF/SD would be economic in an old Mac running OS9 (or 8/7/6) with Virtual Memory switched off (or MorphOS) and would likely last many, many years in this setup as >90% of usage will be the reading of data.
  • I wouldn't run Mac OS X, Linux or Windows 7+ from an SD or CF card on the long-term, as the regular memory swapping / paging and system patches/updates are going to quickly slow the write access down to a crawl.
Just look at how slow a USB thumb drive's write speeds become after a few years of use and in most cases, that is not due to constant use, but irregular access like once a day/week/month.

In SSD, you get what you pay for. Dirt cheap = slower read/write and possibly(?) shorter lifespan.
 
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AphoticD said:
In SSD, you get what you pay for. Dirt cheap = slower read/write and possibly(?) shorter lifespan.
Click to expand...

This is why SD cards need to be bechmarked - their price alone might not be indicative of poor performance as I suspect their price is low because of their mass market footprint which pushes prices ever lower - right now, you can get a 16GB 90 MB/s card off the high street for £10.
 
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AphoticD said:
So depending on the OS;
  • CF/SD would be economic in an old Mac running OS9 (or 8/7/6) with Virtual Memory switched off (or MorphOS) and would likely last many, many years in this setup as >90% of usage will be the reading of data.<snip>
Click to expand...
This is exactly what I'm doing with my 667 mhz VGA TiBook with a $10 SD to IDE adapter and 32gb SD card. The difference, for the most part, is the speed in launching apps and no grinding of a mechanical drive. Other than that, OS 9 is already speedy enough at 667 mhz.
 
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Additionally, Sandisk has been a bit more helpful in this regard by having an A* rating for its cards. That is the measure of how fast applications can write to the card (primarily Android, one would assume) as opposed to the headline sequential R/W V* rating speeds touted on most cards, which is more useful for photography.

Most SD cards are still geared towards simple storage and not much use in phones/RPis etc.
 
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