Anyone running a CF adapter in a laptop?

[Rob_B]

I'm considering using a CF card in my tablet with an IDE 2.5" adapter, has anyone done this and have any tips?

The adapter is only a few quid and the card about £15 (16gb is enough as I only really need a little space) a good 'upgrade' for the money?

Rob

[jimbouk]

You'll need to do some reading up on this. Most compact flash cards behave like removable devices which aren't suitable to install an OS on, you have to get one a a specific few that have a particular bit set which allows them to work like a normal hard disk using an adapter.

Also you'll want the fastest CF card money can buy, otherwise it might actually be a step back.

I looked into this a couple of years ago but gave up because it all got a bit complicated!

[DDY]

It's possible to have a CF card as an OS drive but not recommended mainly due to speed and reliability issues;

Speed, even fast CF cards will feel sluggish compared to hard disks, although CF cards may outperform older HDDs.

Reliability, CF cards usually have very limited write cycles and some CF controllers don't wear level. Some operating systems such as those for embedded machines minimise writes by running entirely from RAM, Windows XP doesn’t do this well.

If you want to give it a go anyway, it's as simple as slotting everything together and the system should see the CF card as a hard drive. There are steps to increase the life of the CF card, much like the methods used to extend the life of early consumer SSDs such as turning off the page file.

EDIT: Having said all of that, there may be compatability issues between systems, adapters and CF cards. I had trouble getting some CF cards working on a laptop and ITX board some time ago, the two machines refused to work with some cards.

[Rob_B]

interesting thanks guys. HD Tach gives me 30 mbps with 19 ms random seek so cf is better than that i think?

This tablet is only really used for browsing so it might work ok but not make much difference?!

[DDY]

For web browsing I guess you don't need much space, £15 can buy a 4GB 233x CF card which is about as fast as your HDD but with better access times, a 16GB 233x card would set you back a little over £40. Bear in mind performance across different brands of CF cards vary widely, look for reviews before buying.

[Rob_B]

8gb for under 15quid but its 133x so about 20mb/s

What abkut an sd or sdhc card in an adapter then into the ide adapter, will have to look at sd prices!

[Jay]

I run my firewall with a CF card, its too slow to run XP or any interactive OS though.

[DDY]

I don't think an SD card would be that much different to a CF when connected by IDE i.e. it’s possible to install as normal. However SD cards (or indeed CF) through USB is a different story, as those with early EEEPCs and Win XP can relate to .

I haven't personally run Win XP on a SD card connected to IDE though.