On Thursday 08 August 2002 05:09 pm, Heimo Claasen wrote: > [...] > Now I regret to have done a wrong "investment" two years ago with a > backpack (parallel port connected) CF card reader - far too > expensive, relatively, and I even had to search far and wide for one; > then. (I just didn't know about the IDE-related internals of those > cards, and of the sheer existence of pertinent adapters.)
Only a year or two ago, I searched extensively for IDE-CF adapters and only found a couple. Now they're quite the commodity item, and quite cheap. Take some solace in the fact that most computer investments are "bad" in hindsight, at least from the perspective of residual monetary value. I have known people who have put off buying a computer for years, because they're waiting for the prices to stop going down. Ah well. :) > [...] > With the two PCMCIA slots, which most of those not-quite-so-old > (survPC-)laptops have, this could allow for reasonable workspace > already. I may have missed a message this evening. Have you found a BOOTABLE PCMCIA CF solution for laptops? That would be wonderful news indeed! > [...] > (*) Bob's hint to the "small form factor" adapters helps indeed to > think of the alternative for a died laptop HD - these are, and still > remain so expensive that at least the smaller capacity CF mem cards > could offer a viable alternative to keep the laptop working. And > there are 2GB CF cards already, (_cards_, not the IBM-Microdrives; > San Disk shows some) - sure definitely too expensive (yet. But.) A 256MB CF card is available for under $60US locally. The capacities are now high enough to fit just about ANY OS. I hope to eventually get ahold of one of the 2.5" adapters to try in some of the old laptops I use for remote monitoring. One of the joys of Linux is that -- given a few challenges (i.e. network adapter differences) -- I could configure most of the system at the office or home, then send the CF card to users in the field to insert. I'd only caution about putting something like swap partitions on one, if you're low on RAM and likely to be hitting it frequently. Those write cycles add up quickly over a few years. Still, even if you look at it as a 3 year replacement cycle, it's still a bargain, especially as prices continue to drop. I admit it: I love this stuff. - Bob To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
