NTLK FW: ATA Flash cards

From: J. van de Griek (Joost_van_de_Griek@nl.yachtgroup.com)
Date: Sun Jun 18 2000 - 01:47:16 CDT


Some more info on ATA Flash cards, from a reply to my question on the
PowerList:
----------
From: Wes Calhoun <wescal@xxxxxxxxx.net>
Reply-To: PowerList <powerlist@powerlist.net>
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 05:24:03 -0400
To: PowerList <powerlist@powerlist.net>
Subject: Re: ATA Flash cards

> "J. van de Griek" wrote:
>
>> Hello, listas.
>>
>> On behalf of master programmer Paul Guyot of the NewtonTalk mailing list, I
>> am posing the following:
>>
>> Paul is working on an ATA flash driver for Newtons. In order to do that, he's
>> wanting to use HFS-formatted ATA flash cards, but somehow, when he inserted a
>> flash card into a friend's (Pismo) PowerBook, it wouldn't allow him to format
>> it as an HFS (Mac OS) volume; only FAT (DOS) format. Now, I am fairly sure
>> that PowerBooks can be booted from ATA Flash cards, and also that they can be
>> formatted as HFS volumes. But I have no flash card handy to try it out. Can
>> anyone on this list confirm it for me, and tell me wether there are any
>> special precautions to take when using ATA flash cards with a PowerBook?
>>
>> This would seriously help us Newtonians, as the Linear flash cards needed for
>> Newton storage are getting more and more scarce (and expensive). It would
>> also greatly help Paul, as he wouldn't have to waste flash cards by wearing
>> them out during the extensive testing they'll have to go through, as he can
>> just test on a disk image on his Mac instead.
>>
>> ,xtG
>> .tsooJ
>>
> I've been doing some research of ATA and linear flash memory PC Cards at work
> lately. The following link <http://www.sandisk.com/cons/mac_faqs.htm> is for
> SanDisk, one of several vendors I have been evaluating. It has some
> information pertinent to your query. It says Apple PC File Exchange control
> panel should be turned off to reformat the PC Card as HFS. It also warns that
> File Exchange version 2.2 and earlier have a bug when formatting ATA PC Cards.
> It references a way to fix files corrupted by these versions of File Exchange.
> If you are looking for PC Cards, another ATA flash card vendor you may want to
> check is Delkin <http://www.delkin.com>. As to your remark on scarce linear
> flash cards, be aware that Intel sold off it's linear flash memory business to
> Centennial Technologies. Centennial offers both ATA and linear flash PC Cards.
> There site is <http://www.cent-tech.com>.
>
> Regards,
>
> Wes Calhoun

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