SSD Options for IDE/PATA Only Systems Such as CF-51

We've been talking about SSD options for the IDE/PATA CF-51 here and I thought it would be better to start a dedicated thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/pan...ti-video-sub-question-wifi-2.html#post9010618

I mentioned using a Compact Flash (CF) to 2.5" IDE adapter such as this one that accepts two CF cards:
Newegg.com - SYBA SD-ADA45006 2.5" IDE 44-Pin To Dual Compact Flash Adapter

I have a similar one from ebay and have tried it in a CF-51 MK2 with a small 16 GB Kingston CF just as a test.
It is recognized in the BIOS but I get a low lever disk error when I try to clone the drive using Acronis.
Next I tried using an XP install disk to reformat the Kingston CF, both as NTFS and FAT32 and it seemed to load but later in the install got into an infinite loop with the system rebooting over and over.
Tried Acronis again after formatting the drive from within the XP install disk and the same low level error.
The ability to boot from a CF depends more on the design of the CF card than the adapter since the interface logic is in the card. Another CF might work just fine and I was considering this 32GB from Transcend for $45:
Newegg.com - Transcend 32GB Compact Flash (CF) 400X Flash Card Model TS32GCF400

I also came across this seller that is based in Ireland, that has IDE SSDs and I thought the shipping would be excessive, but they have warehouses in the US and offer ground shipping. They also have good customer ratings and 32, 64, and 128GB Transcend SSDs. The have a cheaper brand but the sales person I spoke to said they get more returns of them, who knows for sure, but I'd probably go with the Transcend since they are not that much more. So for a total of $45 + $15 = $60 total to put a 32 GB CF on an adapter on the hope that it will work, I can just buy a 32GB IDE SSD for $60.26 that should work and can be returned if it does not, I'm not going to continue with the adapter idea:
32GB Transcend 2.5-inch IDE Internal SSD Solid State Disk (MLC Flash)

64GB for $92.36:
64GB Transcend 2.5-inch IDE Internal SSD Solid State Disk (MLC Flash)

and 128GB for $162.44:
128GB Transcend 2.5-inch IDE Internal SSD Solid State Disk (MLC Flash)

All Transcend IDE SSDs:
SSD Solid State Disks; IDE, SATA, SATA II & ExpressCard/34

I just purchased a MK3 system and need to get it going first, then I'll probably try the 64GB SSD from this place unless someone finds a better source. I can probably live with 64GB and perhaps a 32 or 64GB SDHC card but if I need a lot of storage would probably go for this adapter where you can put a SATA drive in the media bay in place of the CD/DVD drive:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/671264-cf-51-2nd-hard-drive-media-bay.html

 

A few years back I tried to boot from a CF card and met with utter fail. It was even a WD silicondrive SSD(in compact flash package). It may have been my adapter. I gave up and use it as storage.
I suggest going with the IDE SSD. The largest size your budget allows. In the long run, it will be more dependable and a lot less hours setting up in the first place. I would opt for the 64gb. I think the 32gb will be too small in a short period of time. The $30 more seems like a good value for double the capacity.
Things work better with the fewest pcb's/adapters as possible. This has been true with the sata adapter for the cf29 and the 2nd hard drive for the cf51/52.
I spent way too many hours trying to make a silk purse from a sow's ear. The sata cf29 will work, but "USUALLY" you can't depend on it. The sata 2nd drive in a cf51/52 works if you insert the drive after the unit has booted into windows. Otherwise it locks up at post. The 2nd drive needs to be the same interface as the dvd drive is for it to work easily.
The cf to ide adapter is a nice idea, but in Toughbooks it's not worth the trouble in my opinion.
Toughbooks are challenging to modify. Panasonic creates this by the durability they build into them. Toughbooks..These ain't your Momma's Dell! (Hey, I think I just created a new sig.)

I'll do some searching and see if i find a better price for you.

Newegg and Provantage both have the TS64GPSD320. A few dollars more. Both of these are trusted sellers. I deal with them frequently.

Kingspec. IDE 2.5 64gb........................KSD-PA25.1-064MJ
$72. from China and $85. from USA..fleabay

 

Thanks for finding it on Newegg, I did try their menu system and there was no option
for 2.5" IDEs a bug I think. Found it searching by model number at google. So no need
to go to the company based in Ireland. I was under the impression that the SATA drive
worked well in the CF-51 media bay, but not as well in the CF-52. I thought you got both
to work with the right BIOS settings. Does a second big IDE drive work well in the media bay?

 

These are pretty well-loved amongst PATA-laptop users:

OWC Mercury Legacy Pro SSD, SandForce Equipped, SATA, 7% Over Provisioning, IDE/ATA drive

I've not tested them myself, though.

Good luck.

 

I had to reread my old posts to refresh my memory. My CF51 is now my stay at work machine and I use the CF52 a lot.
Yes the sata 2nd HDD works in the CF51. Well at least mine did. The 15 second wait to boot did get old. The sata in my CF52 gives me problems. I didn't try a large ide in the CF51 yet.
The IDE 2nd HDD in a CF52 works fine. I can test the CF51 Monday and see what passes post. Friday was a long day and I did not bring it home.

I guess my opinion has changed some since I had the 2nd drive in the CF51. Now I get a little concerned about data loss. It should not take that long to pass post. If it does, something isn't quite right. It is SO nice to have the ide 2nd drive in the CF52 and have the unit boot exactly like it should. No hanging, No freezing, No delay. After doing a mod, I really like being able to say "It works". As opposed to saying "It works if I do this" My new job has changed my opinions I guess. I repair hot water pressure washers with up to 4000psi and 300 degree water. If it's not right, I get very wet and burnt. "Close enough" or "It will do" aren't as acceptable as they used to be.

I would suggest you pick up the 2nd HDD caddy/adapter first and stick a sata drive that you already have in it and see what happens in your unit. Those adapters are $10.00. Don't spend the money on a large sata drive until you verify the adapter in your unit. That way you have $10 invested if something doesn't work or you don't like how it performs. We seem to be seeing more Toughbooks with special bios's in them. The special bios's have things locked out and don't work the same as the regular bios does. Some have all wireless locked out, some have the hard drive speed locked on slow.

 

Thanks for all the info, interesting!
I was thinking about BIOS updates this MK3 has:
BIOS: V3.00L13
Embedded Controller: V3.00L11
Looks like a standard BIOS, is there a newer better one for XP?
Do I need a different one for Win7?
I'm thinking of trying Win7 64 bit after going to the T7200 processor, anyone tried this or threads on it?

There are HP caddies for sale on ebay also, do you know if those will fit?

Yes I have a spare drive that I'll try first. I would not be surprised if the BIOS is looking
for one of the officially supported devices in that bay, and loops for a while waiting for
one to be installed, then finally times out - just a guess. I think if the drive could be
made invisible to the BIOS it would just boot and work fine. I would not think that it is
trying to boot from it, unless it is in the boot list.

I wonder if a 1.8" SATA SSD drive, with a SATA to IDE adapter would fit in the normal bay?
Not worth considering until 1.8" SSDs become inexpensive I suppose.

 

You do not need a different bios for W7 and why go to 64 bit. You are stuck at 4GB memory max and 64 bit wants more memory

NO...why look at these when 51 caddies only cost $20.00 ??

The drive is not the problem here its the ide/sata adapter...its too high to fit in the caddy. Trust us, every thing you mention in this post has been covered before in the upgrade threat.

 

I happen to have Win7 64 and no copy of 32 and it should make better use of the 4GB that is there than 32 bit. I am not a fan of 64 bit OSs but I thought I might try it.

I'm talking about media bay caddies is there a Panasonic that will take an IDE drive? I thought the HP ones might be of better quality than the Chinese.
Edit: OK I'm not sure if the media bay format is an industry standard but the HP part I was looking at is Multibay not Media bay, and taking mine out to compare I see that they are not even close, my mistake.

 

i never tried, but you could go with a mini pcie ssd or mini pci ssd

 

Ok on the cf51 2nd hard drive in the media bay.
CF51
floppy drive passes post and boots to c: normal
ide hdd in media bay passes post and boots to c:
sata hdd in media bay takes approximately 30 -45 seconds to pass post and boot to c:

None of my 2nd drives are set up to boot. I use them for storage only.

CF52
floppy will not boot. freezes
sata in media bay will not boot. post freezes. I have let it set for over 5 minutes, it will not boot with a sata in media bay. insert hdd after windows finishes starting and drive is accessible.
ide in media bay passes post and boots to c:

 

I wonder if it is trying to boot from the drive in the media bay, and eventually times out.
I might try it at some point to see if I can come up with a configuration that doesn't
have the long post time. It is a removable drive and I believe that there is a descriptor
somewhere on the drive to indicate this, the BIOS might then treat it differently.

 

Iv'e been looking at the Transcend option for an SSD: TS64GPSD320 and found some
posts on other forums where it would not boot in an older system. I've been looking into
other options and found lower cost 1.8" SSDs on ebay and this thread where they found
a SATA to IDE adapter that fits within the 2.5" format:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=85862&start=150

The post by Johan on Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:15 pm is a good summary he notes that the
Kingston SSDNow V+180 family of 1.8” SSD’s work reliably with the adapter in the IBM:
products
He also confirmed that they support the trim function.

I've read online that these or perhaps the older version are made by Toshiba and that
they do not support trim - but who knows? Can't believe everything you read on the net.
1.8" Toshibas have been used in recent Lenovo's and I think some older versions of the
Apple Air and there've been a lot of complaints by Lenovo owners that at least some
versions do not support trim.
There are some very reasonably priced 1.8" Toshiba SSDs on ebay however most seem
to be the type that do not support trim and there've been benchmarks showing that they
do not perform well under certain small block write transfers.
I'm going to look into Samsung 64 and 128 GB SSD's that are reasonably priced.
2.5" Caddy is shown here:
forum.thinkpads.com • 1.8" SATA to 2.5" IDE converter?

I like this option best at the moment and am looking to purchase a 1.8" SSD drive.

 

Iv'e been looking at the Transcend option for an SSD: TS64GPSD320 and found some
posts on other forums where it would not boot in an older system. I've been looking into
other options and found lower cost 1.8" SSDs on ebay and this thread where they found
a SATA to IDE adapter that fits within the 2.5" format with a 1.8" SSD:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=85862&start=150

The post by Johan on Sun Jul 22, 2012 4:15 pm is a good summary he notes that the
Kingston SSDNow V+180 family of 1.8” SSD’s work reliably with the adapter in the IBM:
products
He also confirmed that they support the trim function.

I've read online that these or perhaps the older version are made by Toshiba and that
they do not support trim - but who knows? Can't believe everything you read on the net.
1.8" Toshibas have been used in recent Lenovo's and I think some older versions of the
Apple Air and there've been a lot of complaints by Lenovo owners that at least some
versions, perhaps all, do not support trim.
There are some very reasonably priced 1.8" Toshiba SSDs on ebay however most seem
to be the type that do not support trim and there've been benchmarks showing that they
do not perform well under certain small block write transfers.
I'm going to look into Samsung 64 and 128 GB SSD's that are also reasonably priced.

2.5" Caddy is shown here:
forum.thinkpads.com • 1.8" SATA to 2.5" IDE converter?

I like this option best at the moment and am looking to purchase a 1.8" SSD drive.

 

I tried for a long time to make t work right and failed. I hope you have better luck. This is one of the reasons I dislike that Panasonic splash screen. I have no idea why it takes so long. We are unable to read the post info. This seems like a small issue, but it really irritates me.

 

Seems that some of the older Samsung's also do NOT support trim:
Warning - be careful ordering DELL machines with SSDs - General-Storage - Storage

 

Edit: I'm not sure if they actually got this part to work, while it might be 1.8" in size
they are not clear if it is actually the right format, also it requires 5V which might be
a problem. It might be fine for a low cost 2.5" SATA solution with TRIM.

Low cost 1.8" 128 GB Samsung inside of a 2.5" case, with TRIM:
forum.thinkpads.com • Has anyone tried an SSD in the X41? *PICS*

These are DELL OEM with custom firmware making them incompatible with
Samsung's software, but as long as they support TRIM I think they would
work fine in 2.5" applications.

 

It seems that the Samsung PM800 is a very high performance 1.8" SSD, yet it is only sold as an
OEM product and there are reports that the Lenovo version does not support TRIM. I found this
by searching for PM800 on ebay, where I got the Lenovo part number and Googled that, however
I notice that the Lenovo Samsung part did not have any markings showing PM800 so I'm not sure
if they had it correctly identified. Here is a test report on the PM800, wow impressive:
Samsung PM800 128GB mSATA SSD Review - PCMark Vantage and Conclusions - The SSD Review

Here is a post where some Lenovo/Samsung 128GB SSDs are flashed to firmware supporting
TRIM. I think the issue is that Lenovo does not support this flash, rather it is provided by Samsung
only for Samsung branded drives, they figured out how to flash the Lenovo drives as I understand it:
Re: TRIM firmware for the 128 GB Samsung SSD?? - Page 23 - Lenovo Community

Edit: This post by Blue_frog seems to be the one who figured out how to get the Lenovo drives to flash:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T5...-for-the-128-GB-Samsung-SSD/m-p/318081#M34880

He basically uses the flash tools and procedure from here with a few changes but the utilities are here. Note that there is a warning that if you use the procedure on a newer PM800 it will "brick" it:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ers-samsung-pm800-ssd-trim-now-available.html

There is a lot of reading to do there and anyone wanting to try this should confirm exact model
numbers etc. I bring this up just as a possibility for using these drives.

 

This topic is great. The most vurnable thing of many older toughbooks is indeed... the harddrive. With an SSD the toughbooks are even more rugged ! I, myselve wait some time, until the SSDs are getting cheaper, so i can buy some of them to fit my pentium 1/2 and 3 laptops.

 

More on the early Samsungs:
AnandTech - The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD

Seems to be a lot of work to get the non-TRIM Samsungs reflashed to support TRIM so I'm
back to looking at the Toshiba's. Here is the Toshiba HG3 line WITH TRIM that are sold under
the Kingston V+180 brand and are also OEMed:
Toshiba Intros 32nm SSDs | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews

They are also very high performance but rather costly under the Kingston brand. The 64GB
version is $119 at B&H and $125 at Newegg. The 256GB version is about $420!

I'm going to look for them under the Toshiba brand.

Reports are that these work well with the 1.8" uSata to IDE adapter but I just can't see
paying the high prices for the Kingston versions.

 

I have Kingston V+200 2.5" sata ssd's in my CF52 and CF30. They work great for me. Picked them up used.

 

@PeteB77:

I would think twice before buying anything from Transcend. (IMO)

You may get a different response from forum member Springfield who I believe purchased the older model 32GB MLC if memory serves correct, you could try dropping him a PM.

I've not looked at the Transcend site for many moon's but I recall at some point the Pata range of ssd's were withdrawn from the "Consumer Grade" ssd range & at some point later in time were demoted to the "Industrial Grade" ssd range which is something of a contradiction in terms, due to there not meeting the "Industrial Grade" temperature usage range.

Again, I'm going back sometime, but Transcend never rated the MLC drives as compatible for operating system usage, (only the SLC drives). I can appreciate the cost of these drives has reduced significantly in the last 12 months but that is probably due to a combination of performance & failure rates.

Not quite the same story as the "Glossy Brochure" say some of the forum members.

 

I decided against the Transcend mainly because I believe the 1.8" drive SATA drive with
the adapter is a better option. As a matter of fact I'm typing this from my CF-51 now
running a 128 GB HG3 Toshiba SSD with this low cost SATA to IDE adapter:
1 8" Micro SATA 7 9 16 Pin to IDE 44 Pin HDD PCB Adapter JM20330 Chipset | eBay

I plugged the tiny drive into the adapter, put it in the caddy and added a layer of thin
foam packing material above and below the drive to take up some of the extra space
plugged it in and loaded XP. It has worked perfectly so far.

Here is the HDTUNE Read result showing about 74.5 MB/sec transfer rate with just
a few blips below that value. It shows in device manager as running in UDMA 5 Mode
which is rated for 100MB/sec, not surprised that the speed is a bit slower given that
it goes through 2 conversions in this configuration. Even 74.5 is about 3 times faster
than most of the older IDE type drives shipped with these systems - not bad:

 

Even though you can't get SATA speeds it's nice to know you can get good speed out of your IDE channel.

 

Sounding good.

I think the Marvell chip gives better performance figures than the Jmicron but it's difficult to find a PCB that will fit the caddy. Is there any chance you can download CrystalDiskmark3 & run a second benchmark?

For most of my use I would prefer to have a lower sequential read/write & a higher 4K write which HDTune doesn't list....some of the Sata drives give first class 4K performance even with an adapter.

 

Yes....UDMA 5 Mode has a theoretical transfer rate of 100MB/s, if you take out the "translation overhead" it leaves a maximum transfer rate of around 88-90MB/s, the stock Hitachi drive in a CF-29 topped out at around 23MB/s....big difference, plus your access time of 0.3m/s compared to an access time of around 18m/s on a stock drive.

 

Yes it is the mechanical times such as seek and rotational latency that really kill performance
and it feels quite snappy with the .3ms figure. Was just thinking of downloading CrystalDiskmark3
right before I started this post.

 

CrystalDiskmark 3 results, I think these are reasonable since overhead is a much
bigger penalty with small transfers:

 

I came across this adapter for the CF-29, I don't own a CF-29 but thought it was worth mentioning
this adapter that fits with 2.5" drives and offers more options:
Use Large SATA Hard Drives with Our Adapter for Panasonic Toughbook CF 29 Caddy | eBay

The configuration that I used is slightly smaller than the 2.5" format and I think that it
should also fit in the CF-29 without any mods to the caddy.

 

That ebay link is from techtuff, a member here. He got some of those adapters made at angle for a better fit. Length not height is the problem in the CF-29 caddy. If I remember right I think they got a 2.5" SSD to fit in a 18 caddy with that adapter, tight fit but works. (haven't tried it personally)

 

Those are quite good results....the 2.5" Transcend SLC sequential read/writes are similar figures, the 4K writes top out at 2MB/s, most Pata MLC's on 4K writes are as low as 1.2MB/s & suffer with chronic write amplification.

There are some exceptions but I would never recommend one that I've not physically tried.

If the Toshiba proves to be reliable over time then you may have found a better compromise between cost & performance.

Yeah....I picked up an ultra-clean low mileage CF-29 Mk5, so just for giggles I decided it needed an Intel in the primary bay caddy with a second Intel in the the media bay caddy running a Win7 Raid-0, so I bought one of those adapters.

Due to a change in personal circumstances it never happened, fortunately, it was before I bought the drives.

Not sure on this one....I know Rugged Solutions had a similar set-up running in a Cf-18 but I think his second batch of adapters never arrived.

I've still not ruled out the RunCore Pro 2.5" Pata but they are difficult to get hold of & 128GB may be too much $$$ for it to be a wrong gamble, but never say never.

 

That's right, ruggedsolutions was the one doing the ones for the CF-18 and those adapters were modded where the inlet and outlet were on the same side.

 

Boot just failed with something like this error:
"STOP: 0xC0000221 unknown hard error C:\Winnt\System32\Ntdll.dll"

Unknown hard error was in the message and Ntdll.dll didn't write down the
rest but found the one above on the net. Rebooted fine. The system was
in the car, shut off for about 4 hours today at about 20 degrees. No idea if
that had anything to do with the boot issue, it had warmed up off for about
4 more hours before I booted it.

 

When I was trying those sata to ide adapters, I would get random boot errors from some of the adapters. Same adapter model from same vendor would give different results. If I found a good one, it would be reliable without errors. I might have to try 6 to find one good one. Making sure that the foam wasn't twisting the adapter would sometimes help.
Good luck

 

+1.

I recall there being a number of issues trying to use the same adapters with high capacity Sata drives. Most originate from the Far East & are low cost relatively fragile components. You may source one locally at a much higher cost, but the reality is, the reliability of the system hangs on a $3/$4 item that in all or most cases wouldn't pass a Panasonic drop test.

That said....I've had boot issues with HM160HC's & WD2500's after accidentally knocking them of the side of a machine....some of the triple back-flips with tuck scoring an average 9.75.

The (hopefully) minor blip could be just that....so you'll still get the .

 

I've worked in military electronics design and I have to say that I was impressed with
the quality of the fabrication of the adapter. I worry more about the design of the interface
chip, compliance to standards, design tolerance for voltage, temp, and process variations.
My feeling is that if the adapter and drive were securely mounted in a cradle such as the
one that I linked to, they could easily meet the shock tests, especially since they are
shock mounted and not mechanical devices.

The padding that I used is clearly a thermal insulator and it would be better to use a
pad that helps to pull away some heat, any ideas? I'm thinking that foam with a think
aluminum shell would work well but not sure where to get it.

 

Well I wish you all the luck, but in my experience the adapters are not worth it. I have had intermittent results with them sitting on my desk, not even installed yet. I still have 2 or 3 of them in a box.
Maybe the newer ones are better. I know it makes a big difference in what chip is on the adapter.
I found my adapters. The JMicron chips work better........PM me if your interested in the ones I have..I'll make a deal

 

I was hoping that there'd be a reliable solution with the 1.8" drives and that
adapter where they claim on the Thinkpad forum that it works reliably with
the right SSD. Time will tell ...
I'm really not following about what you have there.
Are they for 1.8" drives?
Are they all based on the JMicron chip?
Newer, do you mean the one that I bought is newer, or do you have new vs.
old designs?

Unreliable hardware is highly annoying so I'm hoping that it was just a fluke.

 

Sorry I wasn't thinking...Mine are for 2.5" drives.
Yes mine have the JMicron chip.
I have had mine for a couple years so I figure yours may have a newer chip????

 

you can take a look at this specialized embedded/industrial solutions company, here is the Flash Storage section.
maybe for projects where storage space is not the first priority, the slim-sata ssd's coupled with those ide-sata adapters, that now have enough room to be well protected, would be a good solution.
or, even better if you want to skip those unreliable adapters, you can use this one here (their EU site, in NL) with a Compact Flash card.

PS. they have some very interesting industrial SLC SSDs in there, btw (-40/+80dgC) if you have the need/funds

 

Yes thanks there have been several more expensive options mentioned in this thread.
I'm hoping that we can figure out a configuration that works well with the 1.8" adapter for
use with 1.8" SSDs.

 

It is possible, no idea if there have been any revisions to the chip. The IBM guys seem to be
getting good results which is a good sign since there are so many common parts such as
the Intel chipsets to these laptops. I used the very low cost version of the adapter from China
and this might be a concern since counterfeiting is widespread there, who knows where they
got the parts on the adapter - it does look exactly like the suggested one from a US supplier,
obviously made in China but perhaps with better quality control, who knows:
IDE 44 Pin to 1 8" Micro SATA Adapter | eBay

 

In the link provided it's quite obvious that the specification quoted is NOT for a Pata drive....despite that, a quick look on the Stinkpad forum sounds promising....but do your own digging & find out which translation chip it uses before parting with the lolly.

 

I believe that you might have misread the bottom of the linked page:

 

I've flipped back a couple of pages to get an update....you do get a lot for the $4.00 outlay.

JMicron have had a justifiable slating for some of the products they produce in the not too distant past, so it would seem reasonable that if an up-dated chip was available the model number or revision would reflect the change.

Regarding the drives that support Trim, be aware that you can use a drive & operating system that support the Trim function but the JM20330 does not support the Trim command.

 

I'm not following you, I have no idea why the link in the post says SATA but if you actually follow the link everything there says IDE/ATA not SATA. There have been some very negative reports about SandForce and initially I thought only a few companies used them but according to this link nearly all manufactures, including Intel, use them:
SandForce - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Owned by LSI, I worked for them in chip design - lol! Um, no comment about reliability or conformance to standards!

 

even if the OS would support the TRIM command, I don't think it will ever issue TRIM commands to IDE drives, as they will still show up as, even with the 1.8 44-pin IDE/microSATA adapter.
Also, in case you use a 1.8" Intel SATA SSD with it, the Intel SSD Toolbox would not detect/recognize the drive.

so, the SSD would better have internal GC, and not rely on TRIM.

 

I've not studied this in depth but my understanding is that PATA and SATA are not very different - just how you get the bits from one place to another. The enhanced modes such as AHCI for SATA are probably very different but I'm not sure that this mode is needed for TRIM - I doubt it. AHCI:
Advanced Host Controller Interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Interesting that the ICH7M (and the base ICH7) used in the CF-51 does not support AHCI but the ICH7R does and there is a hack to make other versions support it. I think it is limited in the driver and is completely for marketing reasons. I have no idea if AHCI could ever be supported through a SATA-IDE adapter.

 

I agree that the safest is to have internal GC which I'm fairly certain that the Toshiba drive supports,
but I'm not convinced that TRIM will not be supported.
When I look in device manager it recognizes the Toshiba SSD exactly with the full model number,
and I have a feeling that it is not showing up as some generic and limited IDE drive. In other words
I believe that the serial to parallel bit conversions are not doing much else just getting the bits from
one place to another, this is why no driver is required for the adapter board.

 

Thanks....every day is a school day, so if I learn something, the question was worth asking.

The Specifications say:

Bandwidth:

Sequential Read - 285MB/s

Sequential Write - 275MB/s

IOPS:

Random 4K - 50,000 IOPS

This, on a Pata interface?? it sounds more like Sata-II spec.

hahaha....LSI, top jockey.

Regarding Sandforce....I take the view that ALL manufacturers of ssd's have had problems at some point, the difference between a good one & the majority is how they deal with those problems. Using Intel as an example....they were quick to react to Firmware issues with the Sandforce controllers, something other manufacturers have had problems coming to terms with, so the easy route is to deny there is an issue.

Hmmm....I could be wrong But....the capability of the controller/Sata-Pata translation chip is the deciding factor. Which chip did you use with the Intel since we already know that the Marvell chip translates the Trim command.

Internal garbage collection yes....but my understanding is that on most earlier drives the GC was not aggressive enough so you needed a third party GC utility or Trim.

Yeah....you don't need major changes to keep the gravy train rolling.

I doubt the support through an adapter.

As above....the Marvell Sata-Pata translation chip supports Trim. A year or so ago another forum member used a JMicron adapter in a Cf-29 & the jury was out on Trim support, the reply I received from JMicron technical support was No-Worky with JM20330.

 

Not sure if this has come up or not but XP does not support trim but W7 and up does Does Windows XP support the SSD trim command? - Super User.