Change old low HDD to a CF card?

[fzabkar]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

Windows has no problems with multiple partitions on removable mass storage devices. I don't know why Mini Tool Partition Wizard Pro is telling you otherwise. In fact your observation that the 4GB "partition is NOT compatible with WinXP" doesn't make any sense at all.

Can you show us the contents of sector 0 with a disc editor? That's where the partition table lives.

I recommend DMDE (freeware):

http://dmde.com/

The "DeLock 91620 PATA to CF adapter" appears to be a passive, pass-through device that converts the pinouts, while the 3.3V LDO regulator just selects the supply voltage. Apparently the IDE interface is 5V tolerant, but I would still have chosen a 5V supply. That said, I can't see why this adapter would cause the drive to be detected as removable storage.

Can you show us the CF card's Identify Device information? You could use a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo for this. This might tell us if the card looks any different than a regular HDD.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

The DRM thing is a bunch of hooey! Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to install 7 and 8 from an SD card!

The DRM reason statement reminds me of the pre-Vista-RTM DRM doomsday alarmists back in 2006 and probably shortly before that time, where the doomsday'ers claim that Microsoft was going to insert DRM so oppressive that you couldn't take screenshots anymore or backup Windows anymore!

Back when or around the time that DRM doomsday'ers also claimed the TPM chip was going to eliminate fair use.

That was back in the Internet Explorer 6 era!

Now, we all know that the DRM talk were just monster rumors!

The only thing new I see in the PC department right now that's not a rumor, is that Intel killed USB 2.0 support in Skylake! You're required to have a USB 3x driver on your Windows 7 USB device, to install Windows 7 from a USB device!

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

there is an article on a mac website that talks about the lowdown on using cf to replace an ide drive.

also, regarding overclocking, have u tried running the fsb and pci bus at stock speeds to see if it fixes the problems u were having? i'm an overclocker myself and being "stable" does not necessarily mean it is 100% "error-free" or "glitch/problem free"...

the adaptor and/or the cf card may not like the overclocked pci bus. if it works fine with a hard drive, it does not mean that it will work fine with a cf card. in fact the faster the device, the more fussy it might be about an overclocked bus...

[fzabkar]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

I found the following article which explains how to use Linux to create a bootable Win XP environment on a CF drive:

How to make any Compact Flash card or Microdrive boot Windows XP:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-...-Microdrive-b/

As for why Windows sees the drive as removable, I consulted the ATA standard:



The standard specifies that a true ATA HDD should clear bit #15 in word #0 of the 512-byte Identify Device information block. However, a CFA device sets this bit and reports 848Ah for word #0. A CFA device also sets bit #2 of word #83 to indicate that it supports the CFA feature set.

These are the CFA ATA commands:

a) CFA REQUEST EXTENDED ERROR CODE
b) CFA WRITE SECTORS WITHOUT ERASE
c) CFA ERASE SECTORS
d) CFA WRITE MULTIPLE WITHOUT ERASE
e) CFA TRANSLATE SECTOR
f) SET FEATURES Enable/Disable 8-bit transfer

In short ISTM that Windows XP can quite happily work with a CF card, even one that has multiple partitions, but cannot install itself on one.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

However, now to bad news. The CF card is completely useless, unless someone tell me how to change the removable bit to fixed. Period. You cannot use the CF card for anything w/o that.
...
I'm quite mad at SanDisk - they should rename themselves as ScamDisk, because they are selling not CF cards, but CF compatible *) cards, with the *) exception for the possibility to change removable to fixed bit. I believe, that there is open possibility to lawsuit against SanDisk and any other CF card producing company, that produces products, that does not meet the CF card specifications. Because this is false advertising and misleading labeling of product. This is not a CF card, period.

This is quite interesting because I realized something about a Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0 16GB stick I have.
I bought it two years ago I think when Sandisk had the interesting idea of selling their USB sticks not as removable devices but as fixed disk devices.
The problem with this is that even with the device set to "quick removal" in device manager in 9/10 cases you will get a Windows warning when trying to do a safe removal:


And I have even enabled "Do not allow locations on removable drives to be added to libraries" in the local group policy under Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Search
But of course that only applies to removable devices and not fixed devices!
So of course Windows manages to make the safe removal impossible:

[fzabkar]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

ISTM that the term "removable" is ambiguous in that it can describe numerous dissimilar storage devices. A removable CF card is not the same thing as a removable USB mass storage device.

The ATA/ATAPI standard describes two types of devices, ATA and ATAPI. ATA devices are things such as HDDs and SSDs whereas ATAPI devices are optical drives, magnetic tapes and the like. ATA devices use ATA commands whereas ATAPI devices use SCSI commands which are encapsulated within an ATA PACKET command.

In the case of ATAPI devices, the "removable bit" is bit #15 (and #14) of word #0 of the Identify Device information block. An ATA device clears this bit whereas an ATAPI device sets it. AFAICT, the problem is that a CF card uses ATA commands (with CFA extensions), but identifies itself as an ATAPI device.

IIUC SanDisk has an ATCFWCHG tool that attempts to modify this Identify Device bit in the card's firmware. However, I suspect that this tool may not be universal, ie it may be restricted to "Athens" flash controllers.

Years ago I modified the firmware in a Ricoh 2x CD burner. This ATAPI device was limited to PIO modes but its stablemate supported DMA. This made me wonder whether the firmware had been crippled to create artificial performance classes.

I downloaded an official firmware update for my model, located the Identify Device / Identify Packet Device data block within the firmware image, flipped the DMA bits, recalculated the checksum, and flashed the modified file to the drive. The result was a marginal but consistent performance improvement, and the DMA box remained checked in Windows Device Manager.

I suspect that a similar approach could work for the SanDisk CF card, although finding a firmware update might prove to be difficult, if not impossible.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

I have a Compaq Evo N410c laptop running XP from a 16GB Transcend CF card. It's been running like that for over an year now.

I used the Hitachi Microdrive Filter driver to get XP to install and boot off it. No firmware modifications or any of that. Or you can use GRUB to boot windows; the code that checks for the removable bit is in the bootloader, so by using GRUB you can bypass that.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

fzabkar: Yea I know, I just thought it was kind of ironic:
Sandisk sells USB sticks set to fixed disk
And CF cards set as removable

Really logical

[trodas]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

goontron -

That my friend is a Windows problem.

Sure. OS should not care that much, if being installed on removable or fixed device. But since Win is very aggressvive on HDD usage, I can see why M$ decided that it is a good thing to use only not removable devices. Some swapping commands probably cannot be checking, if the HDD is "still there."

This is a DRM implementation to go along with the Windows antipiracy crap. Linux, DOS, Unix, Solaris, BSD, OSX, Android all work from removable media. So will Windows CE/Mobile/RT It's the rest of the versions that shit themselves.

I believe you are misinformed. DRM is all about pirating movies and music, not Windows. M$ is all about dominating the market, even if they have the handout Win for free. See the Win10 handing out... and aggressively pushing thru updates to get more and more computers infec... I mean installed.



fzabkar -

Windows has no problems with multiple partitions on removable mass storage devices.

Simply not true. Just burn yourself CD with more sessions and show me, how Winblows see them all
Yes, Amiga OS or MacOC (never tried that in Linux) can do it. But not and never ever Winblows. They mount only one partition per removable device. I tried that, even I know it will not work and it again not worked.
Case closed.

I don't know why Mini Tool Partition Wizard Pro is telling you otherwise.

Because it is the truth

In fact your observation that the 4GB "partition is NOT compatible with WinXP" doesn't make any sense at all.

I never made such "observation" and I agree that it does not make sense at all. I usually go for 4 or 8G for system partition (FAT32) and then NTFS for the rest of the drive (data).
So from my experience it works well that way.

Can you show us the contents of sector 0 with a disc editor? That's where the partition table lives.

I posted the data from HDAT2 program and I repeat them there. Enought, I hope?

I recommend DMDE (freeware): http://dmde.com/

When neeed, I give it a try.

The "DeLock 91620 PATA to CF adapter" appears to be a passive, pass-through device that converts the pinouts, while the 3.3V LDO regulator just selects the supply voltage. Apparently the IDE interface is 5V tolerant, but I would still have chosen a 5V supply. That said, I can't see why this adapter would cause the drive to be detected as removable storage.

And it does not. I never claim that, BTW. All I claim is, that the cursed card, as confirmed by SanDisk, is identifing itself as removable device. That I want desperately to change!

Can you show us the CF card's Identify Device information? You could use a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo for this. This might tell us if the card looks any different than a regular HDD.

This wasalready answered, but once again: On the HDDguru forum I made a post (21/9/2015, 10:18) that clearly stated after your quoted request:

You can see the card's Identify Device data with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo.

Sorry, nope. Next tool. This one did not let me choose the device:

As you can see, CrystalDiskInfo let me look only the fixed drives, NOT on the removable ones. As you can see on the screenshot, there is that 320G Seagate, the 32G CF card and 4G USB Voyager. Only the Seagate I can select, as you see in the menu.

Another fail for the removable device.

[trodas]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

I run the HDAT2 in DOS and I get these infos:

HDATCOPY.TXT
[code]********************************************************************************
HDAT2 v5.0 (c) 2013 CBL 24.09.2015 17:43:41
********************************************************************************
Device information [SDCFXPS-032G]
********************************************************************************
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source Cylinders Heads Sectors Total sectors Size
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATA LBA28 62041 16 63 62537328 32.02 GB
CHS 62041 16 63 62537328 32.02 GB
INT13h/BIOS 1024 255 63 16450560 8.42 GB
Ext.INT13h 3892 255 63 0 0.00 KB
(* = invalid parameters)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device model [ATA/SSD] SDCFXPS-032G
Manufacturer unknown
Orphan (not useable) sectors 62537328 [32.02 GB]
Translation/max. LBA mode ?/28-bits
Logical sector size [B] 512
Physical sector size [B] 512
Detect mode PCI
ATA I/O port Base/Control/IRQ 0170h/0376h/15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATA/ATAPI Identify Device
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Integrity word (optional)
-> Signature: failed [reported 00h, should be A5h]
-> Checksum : failed [reported 00h, should be 30h]
ATA major version 0000h
-> not reported
ATA minor version 0000h
-> not reported
Transfer mode: max. supported Ultra DMA 7/ATA166
Transfer mode: selected Ultra DMA 2/ATA33
Serial number OAZ071115134539
Firmware HDX9.03
Cache 1.02 KB
-> Cache type: dual port
General Configuration 848Ah = 1000010010001010b
-> Removable device
-> Protocol type: ATAPI
-> Device supports the CFA feature set
Specific Configuration 0000h
Maximum queue depth 1
Hardware Reset result 604Fh = 0110000001001111b
-> Device detected CBLID- above V[iH]
-> Device 0 Hardware Reset result 01001111b
-> device determined by: other method
-> diagnostics passed
-> did not detect the assertion of PDIAG-
-> did not detect the assertion of DASP-
-> responds when Device 1 is selected
Detected an 80-conductor cable YES
Multiword DMA transfer cycle time per word [ns]
-> Minimum: 120
-> Manufacturer's recommended: 120
Minimum PIO transfer cycle time [ns]
-> without IORDY flow control: 120
-> with IORDY flow control: 120
Security Status [vendor specific] 0000h = 0000000000000000b
Master Password Identifier (Revision Code) 0000h
-> Master Password Identifier feature is not supported
Time for Normal security erase unit not specified
Time for Enhanced security erase unit not specified
Extended number of user addressable sectors reserved
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Capabilities
-> DMA supported
-> LBA supported
-> IORDY may be disabled
-> IORDY supported
-> Standby timer values shall be vendor specific
-> [14] shall be set to one
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Command/Feature Sets supported ENABLED
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Power Management feature set NO
Write cache YES
WRITE BUFFER command NO
READ BUFFER command NO
NOP command NO
Compact Flash (CFA) feature set NO
Advanced Power Management (APM) feature set NO
48-bit Address feature set YES
FLUSH CACHE command YES
FLUSH CACHE EXT command YES
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advanced Power Management (APM) level value 00h
Acoustic Management (AAM): vendors/current value 00h/00h
Read/Write LONG: ECC bytes 4
Read/Write MULTIPLE: sectors per DRQ data block
-> Maximum: 1
-> Current: 0
CFA power mode supported
-> Maximum current [mA]: 500
Free-fall Control Sensitivity not supported
Number of data blocks per DOWNLOAD MICROCODE mode 3 not supported
Transport Major revision number: support not reported
Transport Minor revision number not reported
SMART Command Transport (SCT) Command set not supported
Trusted Computing feature (TCG) not valid
Nominal media rotation rate [rpm] not reported
Device Nominal Form Factor not reported
DATA SET MANAGEMENT
-> The Trim function is not supported.
LBA Range Entry (DATA SET MANAGEMENT) [sectors] 0
Additional Product Identifier not supported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NV Cache
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-> not supported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Extended INT13h
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Extended INT13h support YES
Major/Vendor/Extension Version 2.1/0.0/0.0
-> EDD v1.1
Subset
-> Fixed disk access subset: YES
-> Device locking and ejecting subset: NO
-> Enhanced Disk Drive (EDD) subset: YES
-> 64-bit extension: NO
INT13h Identify Device support not detected
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device Parameter Table (DPT)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Information flags
-> The geometry returned in bytes 4-15 shall be valid
-> Bits 4-6 are not valid
Block size [B] 512
DPT Extension (DPTE) pointer F000h:A5D0h
Key to presence of Device Path (BEDDh) 0000h
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device Parameter Table Extension (DPTE)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.1 [11h]
Checksum
-> O.K. [reported DAh, should be DAh]
I/O Port base address 0170h
Control Port address 0376h
IRQ 15
Head register upper nibble
-> ATA DEV = Master
-> LBA enable = YES
BIOS Vendor specific 00h
ATA READ/WRITE MULTIPLE Block Count 1
DMA information 20h
-> DMA channel = 00h
-> DMA type = 02h
PIO information 04h
-> PIO type = 04h
BIOS selected HW specific option flags
-> Fast PIO access
-> Vendor specific translation
-> HPA Active
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
********************************************************************************
HDAT2 v5.0 (c) 2013 CBL 24.09.2015 17:44:11
********************************************************************************

[trodas]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

Dump IDENTIFY DEVICE [SDCFXPS-032G]
********************************************************************************

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 0123456789ABCDEF
Ú--------------------------------------------------------------------ż
0000 ł 8A 84 59 F2 00 00 10 00 00 00 40 02 3F 00 BA 03 Š„Yň.....@?.ş ł
0001 ł 70 3E 00 00 20 20 20 20 4F 20 5A 41 37 30 31 31 p>.. O ZA7011 ł
0002 ł 35 31 33 31 35 34 39 33 02 00 02 00 04 00 44 48 51315493...DH ł
0003 ł 39 58 30 2E 00 33 44 53 46 43 50 58 2D 53 33 30 9X0..3DSFCPX-S30 ł
0004 ł 47 32 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 G2 ł
0005 ł 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 01 80 € ł
0006 ł 00 00 00 0F 00 00 00 02 00 00 07 00 59 F2 10 00 .........Yň. ł
0007 ł 3F 00 70 3E BA 03 00 01 70 3E BA 03 00 00 07 00 ?.p>ş.p>ş... ł
0008 ł 03 00 78 00 78 00 78 00 78 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .x.x.x.x....... ł
0009 ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
000A ł 00 00 00 00 28 70 0C 74 00 40 20 00 00 34 00 00 ....(pt.@ ..4.. ł
000B ł FF 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 4F 60 00 00 00 00 ˙........O`.... ł
000C ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 70 3E BA 03 00 00 00 00 ........p>ş.... ł
000D ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
000E ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
000F ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
0010 ł 00 00 46 43 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..FC............ ł
0011 ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
0012 ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
0013 ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
0014 ł F4 81 00 00 00 00 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 60 ô...........` ł
0015 ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
0016 ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
0017 ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
0018 ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
0019 ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
001A ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
001B ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
001C ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
001D ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
001E ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
001F ł 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ ł
Ŕ--------------------------------------------------------------------Ů
[/code]

HDETECT.TXT

********************************************************************************
HDAT2 v5.0 (c) 2013 CBL 24.09.2015 17:48:33
Options: 

DASD devices detect:

HDD: 2/2/2
FDD: 1/1

CMOS check:

CMOS battery power   : 80h -> O.K.
POST diagnostics status: 00h -> O.K.
Shutdown/Reset status : 00h
  -> Power-on or Soft reset

Floppy drive detect:

CMOS: 1 floppy drive(s)
BIOS: 1 floppy drive(s)
1. Floppy drive: 3« 1.44 MB
Checked 1 floppy drive(s)

PCI scan:

Bus= 0, Device= 7, Function=1


1. BaseClass: Storage, SubClass: IDE
BaseClass = 01h, SubClass = 01h, Programming interface = 8Ah
Bus = 0, Device = 7, Function = 1, Header type = 00h
Host: Vendor ID = 1106h, Device ID = 0571h, Revision = 06h
Host vendor name: VIA Technologies Inc
Subsystem: Vendor ID = 0000h, Device ID = 0000h
Subsystem vendor name: unknown
Address 4: I/O port = E000h-E00Fh
Primary  channel: I/O Port 01F0h, IRQ 14 (compatibility mode)
Secondary channel: I/O Port 0170h, IRQ 15 (compatibility mode)
Bus Master: supported, primary: enabled, secondary: enabled
Bus Master Control Register: E000h
Built-In Self Test: not supported

PCI ATA devices:

[0/0 01F0h/03F6h/14] ST3320620A
[0/1 01F0h/03F6h/14] disabled or not present
[1/0 0170h/0376h/15] SDCFXPS-032G
[1/1 0170h/0376h/15] disabled or not present

Detect on-board ATA/ATAPI devices:

[2/0 01F0h/03F6h/14] already detected
[3/0 0170h/0376h/15] already detected
[4/0 01E8h/03EEh/0] disabled or not present
[4/1 01E8h/03EEh/0] disabled or not present
[5/0 0168h/036Eh/0] disabled or not present
[5/1 0168h/036Eh/0] disabled or not present
[6/0 0100h/0306h/0] disabled or not present
[6/1 0100h/0306h/0] disabled or not present

Detect ASPI devices:

ASPI not found

Detect BIOS INT13h devices:

BIOS number 80h: already detected
BIOS number 81h: already detected

Detect OS:

Detected OS DOS, version 7.10 Microsoft
DOS is in HMA

List of detected devices:

 1. '3« 1.44 MB' [ATA/FDD] 00h
 2. 'ST3320620A' [ATA/PATA] 80h
 3. 'SDCFXPS-032G' [ATA/SSD] 81h

15134539.BIX
included

What does look interesting is the Firmware HDX9.03 line. Time to ask SanDisk, if the provide updates on their firmware, because that would give us the flash tool for flashing it...

[trodas]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

RJARRRPCGP -

The DRM thing is a bunch of hooey! Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to install 7 and 8 from an SD card!

Indeed. However it depedns on what SD card. I fear that the removable bit could be in play there as well... or maybe Win7/8 does not check on that anymore?

The DRM reason statement reminds me of the pre-Vista-RTM DRM doomsday alarmists back in 2006 and probably shortly before that time, where the doomsday'ers claim that Microsoft was going to insert DRM so oppressive that you couldn't take screenshots anymore or backup Windows anymore!

Yea, that sounded ridiculous, but maybe this and the fact, that Vista was downfall saved us all from DRM world or pain? Who knows

Back when or around the time that DRM doomsday'ers also claimed the TPM chip was going to eliminate fair use. That was back in the Internet Explorer 6 era! Now, we all know that the DRM talk were just monster rumors!

But afer few really annoing copy protection it made me switch from buying into pirating movies, so... it is not all rumors there. But that is OT in this thead a lot.



ChaosLegionnaire -

there is an article on a mac website that talks about the lowdown on using cf to replace an ide drive

Neat article, but there is the important bit: "If your PowerBook supports CardBus, it is the way to go." It talks about Mac's. I need Windows and various versions and with two partitions and with WinNT 4.0 SP1 support.

regarding overclocking, have u tried running the fsb and pci bus at stock speeds to see if it fixes the problems u were having?

No and I never will even try that, because the card is registering as removable device because of the epic fail in the firmware of the card. It have absolutely NOTHING to do with overclocking. Besides, on another two mainboards are either stock speed (MSI K7TM Pro), or the PCI bus is not overclocked a bit (ASRock 775Dual-VSTA), so there you have the answer. Of course it is no different on any of the computers. Period.

in fact the faster the device, the more fussy it might be about an overclocked bus...

For me, it usually works the other way around. If old HDD cannot cope with 41.7MHz PCI bus, then I'm not surprised at all. But when CF card made it w/o problems - well, that is also expected
And yes, it is working well at such clocks. Recently, I tried the AMD K5-75 and it can go to only 60MHz FSB, so I was well within the limits of PCI clocks and it still won't work at all, because of the cursed damned removable bit.

Seems like that I need such hacking guys: http://flashboot.ru/



fzabkar -

Windows XP can quite happily work with a CF card, even one that has multiple partitions, but cannot install itself on one.

Yes, that is known. However I need that it can itstall itself and I need that it support two partitions and also I need that WinNT 4.0 SP1 works fine there. So tricks with drivers does not interest me, because that will add another layer and for Pentium 1 that means slow-down. I need every bit of speed!


Per Hansson -

Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0 16GB stick I have.
I bought it two years ago I think when Sandisk had the interesting idea of selling their USB sticks not as removable devices but as fixed disk devices.

LOL ... Well, check http://flashboot.ru - these guys seems to know pretty well what to do and change of this bit should not be a problem for them. I think.

SanDisk seems love to do the oposite what users want/expect.

But of course that only applies to removable devices and not fixed devices! So of course Windows manages to make the safe removal impossible:

There is no words to describe this level of incompetence. While I would KILL for a fixed CF card from SanDisk, being stuck with the removable crap, you have a USB stick that is fixed and as almost everyone, you need it to be removable. ScamDisk!

However maybe I have solution for you!


I found myself two ways, ATM, that attempted to flip the removable / fixed bit on my SanDisk CF cards. I have own a oldie SanDisk 5V and 0.5GBy big CF card (SDCFH-512) too. The second tested card was the SanDIsk Extreme PRO 32G (SDCFXPS-032G) CF card.

1 - there is a program called BootIt v1.07, that offer the flipping between the removable and fixed devices:
http://www.getusb.info/flip-your-bit...e-local-drive/
It does promise that it will work (despite showing my 32G CF card as 18G) and it even claim to work:

...but the device stays as removable. Both my CF cards cannot be changed. It should work good on USB drives... but it does not work on both mentioned CF cards.

2 - there is program called atcfwchg.com:
http://www.ehow.com/how_7811193_set-...ixed-mode.html
Again it claim to flip the removable bit to fixed on CF card, connected thru PATA to CF card adapter into a PATA interface. The usage is shell and it is simple:
atcfwchg /P /F
That should set the CF card, that reside on the primary IDE channel to fixed mode. In reality it output this error:

D:\>ATCFWCHG /P /F
NAND Athens ID Drive Config Word (Fixed/Removable) Change Utility Version 1.4.
Fail (error #20)
D:\>

So changing the "most important bit" on any CF card is not possible for these SanDisk cards, witch make them virtually useless for any PC usage, as for example, two partitions are not possible on removable device under Windows, while it is not a problem on fixed device...

There are also "solutions", like a diskmod-0.0.2.2, witch is basically a driver that trick Windows into treating all devices as fixed. Yet that is not going to help me to be able to install Windows on the CD card, therefore I cannot attest on it's functionality of quirks or bad things that happen, when you use it. I saw video of this driver working well on Win 8.1, but since the change is not permament ON THE DEVICE and it is just a Win patch, then it does not interest me one bit.

So far, I'm clueless. Hopefully the information I gather will help someone... On SanDisk forum this message I posted disappeared very quickly (under 20 min)... so, beware, users. SanDisk does not sell CF cards, but compatible CF cards with the exception that the most important change you are forbidden to do it and they will even actively seek and eradicate all informations regarding the topic...

[fzabkar]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

fzabkar -

Simply not true. Just burn yourself CD with more sessions and show me, how Winblows see them all .

ISTM that I've been having trouble understanding just what is "removable". After some research into the various standards, I've come to understand that it is not the device itself that is removable, as the nature of USB would suggest. Instead, the removable bit reflects the type of media. That's why Windows can see multiple partitions on a USB HDD (fixed media) but not on flash drives (removable media).

I've posted my findings here:

http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.p...221916#p221916

What is clear is that a firmware based solution for USB mass storage devices would be inappropriate for ATA/ATAPI devices.

[stj]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

it's down to the formatting, if you create a partition table on a usb stick you cant have as many as you want.

the problems are really just windows and how it (miss)handles stuff.
like refusing to format large drives in FAT32 even though old versions of windows or dos had no problems with it.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

the non-formatting of >30GB drives as fat32 is an intentional behaviour by m$ on winxp and later versions of windows to force ppl into using ntfs for larger drives. which they claim ntfs is more efficient on but that claim is highly disputable and in doubt.

similarly, m$ also intentionally disabled the capability for folder defragmentation on fat32 in winxp and later. im guessing this is also to "cripple" fat32 so ppl will use ntfs instead. even though the win9x defragmenter can defrag fat32 folders just fine. this is the reason why i keep old hardware! for the win9x defragger that works so much better for me instead of the win nt defrag library which is kinda lame cuz they crippled it...

[stj]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

i use this on xp machines - dont know what it will do with fat32 though.
http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/en/index.html

[Per Hansson]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

There is no words to describe this level of incompetence. While I would KILL for a fixed CF card from SanDisk, being stuck with the removable crap, you have a USB stick that is fixed and as almost everyone, you need it to be removable. ScamDisk!

However maybe I have solution for you!

I tried Lexar's BootIt in XP but it was not even able to see the Sandisk USB stick.

That other program ATCFWCHG as you say seems to work only for CF cards.

I also looked on the flashboot.ru site but it seems like the Sandisk is a lost soul, I've looked before and the only conclusion then was you would have to make an RMA...

Take note for example that there exists "industrial" CF cards you can buy, they should always be set up as "fixed disk"

[stj]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

why not try something NOT sandisk?

i like to use Transcend CF cards when replacing harddrives.

[fzabkar]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

That other program ATCFWCHG as you say seems to work only for CF cards.

SanDisk's tool changes the Identify Device configuration word from 848Ah to 044Ah.

1283:16C1 BF0006    MOV	DI,0600             | if removable, then
1283:16C4 833E280801  CMP	WORD PTR [0828],+01       | write 0x848A to 0x630 
1283:16C9 740A     JZ	16D5               | 
1283:16CB C6453084   MOV	BYTE PTR [DI+30],84       |
1283:16CF C645318A   MOV	BYTE PTR [DI+31],8A       | 
1283:16D3 EB08     JMP	16DD               | 
1283:16D5 C6453004   MOV	BYTE PTR [DI+30],04       | else write 0x044A to 0x630 
1283:16D9 C645314A   MOV	BYTE PTR [DI+31],4A       |

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Change old low HDD to a CF card?

why not try something NOT sandisk?

i like to use Transcend CF cards when replacing harddrives.

I have used Transcend too with success (see my above post).