Gigabeat Flash Drive

[vexecuter]

Hey there ladies and gentlemen,

Is there a possibility at all in the future that a NAND drive can be used to replace the Gigabeat's mechanical drive?

Many thousands of regards,

[Mad Cow]

Why not? As long as it has th right connector and complies with ATA specs it'll work.

[vexecuter]

Ooo i want to do it, though I am not much of an electronics buff so I have no clue where to begin... :-(

[Mad Cow]

It'll be really simple if you fins an SSD 1.8" drive, because then all you'll have to do is replace your hard drive with it. No electronics knowledge needed. Although you might need to compile your own rockbox build.

[vexecuter]

WOw - ok, they're a bit pricey atm though :-(

Why would I need to compile my own rockbox build?

[Mad Cow]

To disable ATA poweroff I think, because hard drives can be powered off to save battery time, and powering off a flash drive doesn't work or something. I'm not completely sure, check out the ipod mini compactflash thread for further information.

EDIT: It's ATA sleep that needs to be disabled, so I wasn't that far off.

[vexecuter]

Ah ok... well firstly a 32gb flash drive on ebay is a mere £400 ($800) and secondly, I have no clue how to apply a patch...

Another question, do you reckon that once the SSDs come down in price and they are a decent size (i.e. 64gb+) will the type of connector that the gigabeat uses still be in use? Or will it involve searching around for an older SSD?

[Mad Cow]

It should still be in use. After all, it's been the standard for such an long time, and it'll be a while before it's eventually phased out for a serial connector like what's happened with PCs.

Also, 16GB SSDs cost around $300 on ebay, that's not too bad for right now.

[vexecuter]

cool thanks madcow.

what about applying this patch?

[Mad Cow]

I have no idea how it disables ATA sleep because I haven't researched it, so I can't help you out there. Just go to the thread I mentions earlier.

[scharkalvin]

Here's how to do it cheap:

http://cgi.ebay.com/CF-to-ipod-IDE-Adaptor-work-as-1-8-toshiba-Hard-Drive_W0QQitemZ130167488305QQihZ003QQcategoryZ41993QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211170

[Mad Cow]

Here's how to do it cheap:

http://cgi.ebay.com/CF-to-ipod-IDE-Adaptor-work-as-1-8-toshiba-Hard-Drive_W0QQitemZ130167488305QQihZ003QQcategoryZ41993QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211170

I don't even think that you need an adaptor. I'm pretty sure that CF and IDE have the same pinout anyway.

[rosco_pc]

No, although they have almost the same connector (both are 50 pins with the same spacing), they certainly have a different pin-out.

[scharkalvin]

The hard drive in the iPod mini does have the same connector as CF cards.
However, the connector on the Toshiba 1.8 hard disk has a different pin out, and a different pitch connector.  There is a one to one signal relationship between the two, no other parts except the connectors are required to make an adapter.

[Mad Cow]

Didn't know that. I figured that since they have the same amount of pins and spacing that they're compatible. A CF card fits perfectly in the gigabeat. Assumption is the mother of all screwups.