Swapping HDD’s for CF cards

[Titchgamer]

So ive been doing some research on swapping out the HDD’s in arcade cabs for IDE CF adapters and cards which seems like a really good idea to me.

Reason being I should be getting my Area 51/max force cab back in the next few weeks and I figure it would be a good thing to do.
I understand it should make boot up slightly quicker, Less strain on the PSU and obviously no HDD to fail!

At present it works, Hoping it still will by the time I get it back!

But I have a few questions if anyone has the answers:

1) It seems people have differing results with different CF cards some work, Some dont.
Is there a “go to” card that works with most?
Or a ideal speed range etc?

2) I am (hopefully) going to be in a position where I will be able to copy the original HDD, Will probably use CHDMAN to image it first then extract it back to the CF unless there is a better way?

3) Is there any advantages/disadvantages to using a MAME CHD instead of the original image?

Cheers

[lilshawn]

1: - true. Sandisk seems to be the most likely to work... having said that, try only to find a card just big enough for what you need. area 51 only needs like 500 megs... so see if you can find a 1gb card to try it with... you don't need anything superspeed or anything. PATA only runs at like 100Mbs/s and you are limited to PATA speeds of the motherboard anyway. don't go all hambone and put a 256gb 1000x card in there, it will even less likely work.

2: see 3

3: no... its essentially the exact same data (that's the whole Idea behind it) download the CHD and burn it to your flash. don't bother farting around trying to extract the data from the old drive...it's been done for you already.

[Titchgamer]

1: - true. Sandisk seems to be the most likely to work... having said that, try only to find a card just big enough for what you need. area 51 only needs like 500 megs... so see if you can find a 1gb card to try it with... you don't need anything superspeed or anything. PATA only runs at like 100Mbs/s and you are limited to PATA speeds of the motherboard anyway. don't go all hambone and put a 256gb 1000x card in there, it will even less likely work.

2: see 3

3: no... its essentially the exact same data (that's the whole Idea behind it) download the CHD and burn it to your flash. don't bother farting around trying to extract the data from the old drive...it's been done for you already.

Cool thanks Shawn.

I figured it would be best to go with the decent makes like Kingston or Sandisk.

[Zero_Hour]

I have literally done 2 Area 51/Max Force CF card conversions in the last 2 weeks, for a recently acquired machine of my own, and a friend who had a damaged HDD (A51 would crash as soon as the first Helicopter shows up). I wound up going with a Sandisk 16GB CF card, because it was the cheapest one that was big enough I could find, so I can confirm the card at the link below works.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GHBBK82/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used this CF to IDE converter, since It just plus straight into the board.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GHBBK82/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also, if you dont have a spare lying around, dont forget to pick up a 4 pin molex to 4 pin floppy connector to power the CF reader.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003PU0PU2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Just use CHDMAN to write the images.
Oh, and the boot time now is pretty close to instant.
Well worth the time and money.

[pbj]

Man, who knew that CF was still so expensive.  Guess my old Xbox isn't getting upgraded anytime soon.

[lilshawn]

CF is still so expensive because "professional" photographers still use it. Like it or not, CF still outperforms SD cards in read and write speeds... making them desirable for writing that ridiculous 80 meg sized RAW photo data of your disgusting kale salad.

[Titchgamer]

Thanks Zero good to know!
Also recommendations are good

Yeah some prices are crazy!
Ive seen 2gb sandisk cards going from £8 up to £90!!

Mad really but I obv picked up the £8 one lol

[Osirus23]

Should have posted this a few months ago. I just threw away an old 2GB CF card because I didn't have any devices that use them.

I see there's IDE -> SD adapters, too. For people wanting to use the more ubiquitous type of card.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6706X93754&cm_re=ide_to_sd_adapter-_-9SIA6706X93754-_-Product

[pbj]

Hm.  Even with the limited rewrite cycles, I bet an SD card would work for years in an Xbox. 

[Titchgamer]

Should have posted this a few months ago. I just threw away an old 2GB CF card because I didn't have any devices that use them.

I see there's IDE -> SD adapters, too. For people wanting to use the more ubiquitous type of card.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6706X93754&cm_re=ide_to_sd_adapter-_-9SIA6706X93754-_-Product

I didnt even know that was a thing.
Still kind of cool.


Well my 2gb card came today and I tried to extract the chd image to it.
I forgot that they are compressed so at 1.6gb  its to big to go on a 2gb card uncompressed! DOH!

Live and learn...

Just ordered a 4gb san disk ultra.

Only paid £5 for each so no major loss....