peterjb31

Hi, I was reading at HacknDev some stuff to do with creating the partitions for the hard drive and was wondering if there is a simpler way.

Also would it be possible to replace the microdrive with a compact flash card of the same size using the correct partitions?

Is it possible to just take an image of the hard drive using Compact Flash card reader or IDE to compact flash adpater and then to force the image onto a blank compact flash. Would that copy the partitioning?

The hard drive is annoying me and if I can't rerplace it with Flash then I am going to get a Zaurus.

Please help.

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potter

In theory yes. However, to the best of my knowledge, no was has successfully done it yet. There has been a case where someone replaced it with an identical micro-drive, but no flash replacements yet.

I personally am contemplating trying to do this myself, soon.
Depends on how one reads and writes the image. If one uses the UNIX/LINUX dd command, then yes.

peterjb31

Thanks let me know if you accomplish this. By the way if you take the Microdrive out and replace with a compact flash without resetting then it will read the device as the external partition. I haven't had a chance to try the dd command.

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Maticek

So do you expect the LD to be faster after this upgrade? I mean it should be, but I heard there are some disk spin commands in the LD code and I can't imagine what will these commands do with the flash card.

peterjb31

Well when I used to Compact Flash card in place of the microdrive I got faster load of picture, had to open Media before swapping drives so it would be in RAM and swap drives without removing battery. However the main advantage I am after is reliability and the option to try higher capacities. Unfortunately as I haven't configured it with partitions I cannot test the real speed but it seemed quicker from what I did see.

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Picazsoo

And of course longer battery life, right?

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peterjb31

Obviously but I haven't been able to conduct a test to prove this. To be honest at the moment I would just like an easier way of copying the partition table or recreating it as I have so much stuff to do (A Level Exams) and Lifedrive is one of my lower, still important but lower priorities.

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Maticek

Peterjb31 please keep us up to date when you decide to go on with the LD project.

Tam Hanna

Ping!!

Any news on this?

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peterjb31

Hi, I am going try it this weekend. My neighbours a photographer so he said he'd lend me a 4GB high speed compact flash as I didn't want to buy one if it doesn't work. I have got a Zaurus now so this is just for fun more than anything.

I will let you know how it goes.

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Games Stuff:
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The only thing worse than an ignorant fool is an arrogant fool.

Maticek

Good luck, looking forward to your results. Keep us posted.

I might try the same mod soon if your's is successfull.

peterjb31

This worked fine. I had to get an IDE to CF adapter as my laptop wouldn't use the dd command through my card reader, however it is now functioning alot better. I have got a Zaurus C1000 now so this was for fun only, palm is great but until they bring in multitasking it is just to unstable for me. BTW: Crashing on the lifedrive seems to be less frequent with Compact Flash.

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Games Stuff:
Nintendo DS
Nintendo Wii
Playstation 1

The only thing worse than an ignorant fool is an arrogant fool.

potter

peterjb32,

According to dmitrygr:
So, what CF did you use?


It might be that the device is actually no more stable, but since the reboots are much faster the perception of them is much less.

I have often thought that the perception that the LD is very unstable in comparison to other Palm devices is skewed by the fact that it takes so long to reboot. Using my old Tungsten|T if it crashed, no big deal, I was operational again in 10 seconds or so. With my LifeDrive, its about 2 minutes.

potter

Alas, no can do; copyright issues.

However, depending on how this actually works:
It might be possible to write an application that runs on the LifeDrive that extracts the needed parts from the MicroDrive. After copying those files to the desktop, replace the MicroDrive with the Compact Flash and then use another utility on the desktop to write the info back.