Compact Flash card upgrade?

Posted by: farmtech

Compact Flash card upgrade? - 01/11/2013 17:49

Hello,

Is there an official "how to" for converting an MK2 from hard drive to Compact Flash card? I would like to know what parts are recommended and instructions on how to do so. My single 12GB drive has intermittently died and most of the files on it are now corrupted.

Thanks.
Posted by: drakino

Re: Compact Flash card upgrade? - 01/11/2013 18:06

No formal howto, just a number of us here that have done it.

Key aspect on the technical side is to find the most basic Compact Flash to IDE 44 pin adaptor you can. It should only support one CF card, and allow IDE master/slave to be set. This keeps it simple. Adapters that support multiple CF cards, or other types of media may work, but without seeing which adapter, it's hard to say how it would work.

The other simple aspect is the physical side. Find an adapter that mimics a 2.5 inch drive, including where mounting screw holes are. This eliminates the need to figure out a mounting solution. Though others may be as easy as some double sided tape.

If you find the right adapter, then the process mirrors the Drive Upgrade howto: http://www.riocar.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Drive_Upgrade&file=index
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Compact Flash card upgrade? - 01/11/2013 20:35

Feel free to add that information to the drive upgrade guide, in the section near the top where it talks about the type of IDE drive you need. :-)
Posted by: mlord

Re: Compact Flash card upgrade? - 01/11/2013 21:18

And a simpler alternative to compact flash, is to purchase one of the Kingspec IDE SSDs (eBay) as a simple drop-in hard drive replacement. Perhaps pricier than CF, but a nicer overall solution apart from that.

Cheers
Posted by: farmtech

Re: Compact Flash card upgrade? - 22/11/2013 17:04

thanks for the response everyone. I will give it a go when I free up some time.
Posted by: fvgestel

Re: Compact Flash card upgrade? - 14/03/2014 09:21

Hi guys!

After 10 years I finally got my empeg back to life, and did install a CF to ide adapter using 2 32GB CF flash cards, which work fine!

Steps I took :

- remove broken disk
- install IDE2CF adapter on second IDE connector (first doesn't work)
- install emplode v2.00
- use Mark Lord's big disk installer
- install car-v3-alpha11 developer version

I'm now uploading 20GB of songs (my original set) which seems to work as expected...
Posted by: fvgestel

Re: Compact Flash card upgrade? - 14/03/2014 09:22

And I should change that picture :-) I look quite different now...
Posted by: drakino

Re: Compact Flash card upgrade? - 14/03/2014 14:55

Welcome back Frank, glad to hear you have an empeg back up and running.
Posted by: farmtech

Re: Compact Flash card upgrade? - 31/08/2016 20:17

Well, my Empeg started working very well after my last post and its installed in a vehicle that did not get driven much so I did not try the upgrade. Now I am attempting the upgrade and am unable to get my CF card to recognize. I have formatted it on a windows XP computer as FAT32 trying both the regular and quick format options. On the Empeg display I get ("0000.14 hdb: err: stat_err") and eventually I get the pump error. I know 4GB is small but should it work? Check my pics and let me know if you anything I am doing wrong. FYI, I can remove the CF adapter and plug my factory 12GB drive back in and it will identify that.

Thanks for the help.
Posted by: drakino

Re: Compact Flash card upgrade? - 31/08/2016 20:43

4GB should be fine, IIRC it's the lowest size that the Mark 1 empegs shipped with.

Two things to address that I can see from the photos and process that has been done so far:

1. Add a jumper on the CF adapter to set it to master, if the CF card is going to be the only drive.
2. Download and apply the Disk Builder upgrade from here: http://www.empeg.com/downloads
Detailed instructions on using the disk builder can be found in Tony's drive upgrade FAQ starting at step 6. http://www.riocar.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Drive_Upgrade&file=index
Posted by: farmtech

Re: Compact Flash card upgrade? - 02/09/2016 16:47

Tom, thanks for the response. I did have the jumper off in the picture but it made no difference. Maybe I have a faulty CF adapter because it will not recognize no matter what I do. I went ahead and just used a spare drive from an old laptop (which worked fine.) I will see how long I can get by on that.