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Gigabeat F and CF card

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scharkalvin:

--- Quote ---It's in the OF bootloader, I though I mentioned that. It's a 128mb card, just used to test whether it actually works or not.
--- End quote ---

That's probably your problem.  Not many CF cards below 1GB in size are true ATA.  Your odds of finding a true ATA compliant CF card increase as the size of the card does (since the idea of emulating a disk makes sense only in the larger cards?).

Anyway the A-Data brand cards DO work.  I have an A-Data 16GB CF card in my Gigabeat F (now about $55 at NewEgg last time I looked) and it mostly works fine.  No problems with the boot loader(s), I did the mod to ATA.C
to enable the NANO specific code.  I also had to run scandisk on the unit once to fix the filesystem, maybe to mark some bad sectors off line?

Mad Cow:
I figure that it supported ATA spec because it's viewable through USB, guess I was wrong. I'm thinking of buying a 16 or 8gb a-data card on ebay, they're going pretty cheap and using those to record stuff through USB from my satellite receiver, my main HDD is running out of space.

Christine Tham:
Just because it is working in USB mode is no guarantee that it supports IDE mode. In fact, it's likely that the USB chipset on the Gigabeat understands CF mode, but the bootloader requires IDE.

There's been some discussion on this with regards to using CF cards on the Ipod mini, and also in the Sharp Zaurus forums (where users have reported CF hards working in the CF slot but not working in the Microdrive slot).

You should be able to buy a 16GB card relatively cheaply (ie under US$100) but the 32GB ones are very rare.

Mad Cow:

--- Quote from: Christine Tham on February 26, 2008, 06:52:06 PM ---Just because it is working in USB mode is no guarantee that it supports IDE mode. In fact, it's likely that the USB chipset on the Gigabeat understands CF mode, but the bootloader requires IDE.

There's been some discussion on this with regards to using CF cards on the Ipod mini, and also in the Sharp Zaurus forums (where users have reported CF hards working in the CF slot but not working in the Microdrive slot).

You should be able to buy a 16GB card relatively cheaply (ie under US$100) but the 32GB ones are very rare.

--- End quote ---

32GB cards are all over ebay, starting at around $145, 16GB cards can be found for around $45. Sadly 8gb seems like the only feasible size for me, but I'll wait a bit because I know they'll get cheaper.

Christine Tham:

--- Quote from: Mad Cow on February 26, 2008, 08:06:22 PM ---32GB cards are all over ebay, starting at around $145, 16GB cards can be found for around $45. Sadly 8gb seems like the only feasible size for me, but I'll wait a bit because I know they'll get cheaper.

--- End quote ---

Just a note of caution. CF cards vary greatly in performance, longevity, stability and quality, and generally you get what you pay for. For example, I have a CF card that I bought in Hong Kong that tends to crash most laptops when I plug it into a PCMCIA bus via an adapter. It's also been known to crash some PDAs with a CF slot. But it works fine in my Nikon.

Currently there's only about 1-2 types of 32GB cards, and none of them are by brands I would consider trustworthy.  Hence my comment that they are "rare." I would definitely advise waiting for now.

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