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| Click here to select a new forum. | | PB5x0 with PCMCIA card cage: boot from CF? | Posted by: Byrd on 2007-12-29 00:42:06
Hey,
Quick question: does a Powerbook 540 with card cage (in this case, a revision C model) allow you to boot from a PCMCIA-->CF adapter?
And for those that have: what was the performance like - can it easily outperform any SCSI hard disk on the 5x0 machines?
In the 40+ deg heat today I've been playing around with a generic PCMCIA-->CF adapter and cheap 2GB CF card, on a Powerbook 3400 and Powerbook 2400. Both let you boot from the card, but the 2400 performs considerably faster than the 3400 with the same OS installed on the CF card. This is confusing as both have very similar PCMCIA chipsets. Of course neither Powerbook performs as well with a CF card vs. a fast IDE hard disk, in this case both machines have a 5400RPM 40GB drive installed. On a Powerbook 5300c, the CF card is definately faster in use when compared to the slow 6GB IDE hard disk currently installed.
Since I'm soon to be the proud recipient of a card cage for my PB540 (courtesy of conceitedjerk), having a ~ 4GB CF drive as my boot volume could solve all my problems of a lack of disk space and reasonable disk performance on this machine (currently a stock 350MB SCSI HD). It just seems that PCMCIA performance differs wildly on Mac notebooks, so when it arrives I'll be keen to see how it goes 🙂
Thanks
JB
| Posted by: Byrd on 2008-01-03 03:09:30
Any thoughts on this? Fifteen minutes spent Googling if the 5x0 can boot from PCMCIA didn't give a definitive answer, one says yes the other no 😛
JB
| Posted by: macdownunder on 2008-01-05 14:28:58
Hi Byrd,
Did that include this email:
http://www.mail-archive.com/compact.macs@mail.maclaunch.com/msg08514.html
It suggests (like a lot of other posts about using CF cards in adapters etc) that it depends A LOT on the type of CF card being used....
It would appear from other discussions that a PC-ATA card (like those read by Newtons) are the most likely option!
Good luck! I'm still looking for a 2.5" SCSI drive replacement option......
Regards,
Macdownunder
| Posted by: alk on 2008-01-05 17:14:25
macdownunder's post reminded me about the good old days when the LEM email lists ran off MacLaunch.com. The PowerBooks list (not the Compact Macs) is the one you want. Check it out:
http://www.mail-archive.com/powerbooks@mail.maclaunch.com/msg06388.html
Peace,
Drew
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