Project - SSD Mods

Are you using the filter, and zif cable less than 60mm Long.

 

Hello,

yesterday I tried to install WinXP on my 8GB SanDisk Extreme III CF card.
The CF card is only recognized in the bootmenue, but the main Biosmenue
shows under "HDD Model Name: None".

After the first restart of the WinXP installation
I get a black screen with the message "Disk error"

Perhabs someone can help me?

 

I have the same problem with my Lexar 8 GB 300x card..
Very strange.. Could It be the card type, or the cable?
I checked the content of the card on another pc, and It looked like windows had copied everything over to the card (windows folder, ntloader, boot.ini etc) And I couldn find any "disk errors" with scandisk..
testo have you found any solution?

 

Now it seems to work!
Eyery time at the winxp installation I have choose to format the CF as FAT
and I got an disk error message after the first reboot.

But now I have choose to format the CF card as NTFS
and it seems to work!

 

very very strange!
Formating as ntfs did the trick.
but why????

 

My ZIF cable ist 50mm long. With "filter" you mean the metallic part glued to the original SSD? No I don't use it - should I? Then I have to rearrange my CF-Adapter.
But besides the boot-problem the CF-Card and Windows/Linpus Installation works as aspected.

 

You should and you must...

 

Since the Aspire One can install and boot on a USB HDD, wouldn't it be a nice idea to take the controller card from an external 2,5" HDD enclosure and mount it inside the Aspire One with a 2,5" disk? It should fit inside according to the thread about 2,5" disks in the Aspire One. Would it have a negative impact on performance??

 

Thanks, seems to work now.
(But some plastic above the Touchpad-ZIF vanished... -> Result: http://www.bilder-space.de/show.php?fil ... t6Bizp.JPG - luckily I had a SSD-ZIF Cable left)

 

Good god ! What happened ?

 

Nasty !

 

My god! how did you do that? :shock:

 

I Modded the "original" CF mod, a bit, to make easy access CF-drive solution to my AAO
ZIF-CF adapter used is the same as used in original mod.

Ooops, images are quite big, so i just link instead of embedding.

http://bad.example.fi/~jarkko/asseri/Originaali.jpg Original view in the case, remove whole pci slot "wall" and take those nutmounts apart, you'll need them later.

http://bad.example.fi/~jarkko/asseri/paikalla1.jpg Use dremel or some other suitable tool to make gap for PCB to back, and install nutmount with glue to correct place.

http://bad.example.fi/~jarkko/asseri/paikalla2.jpg take one piece of leftover plastic, attach it to shorter nutmount, and attach this to correct place.

CF-ZIF i used came with "normal" cables only so i bent the other end as described here earlier, and it seems to work. after assembling AAO the lid in bottom has nice view http://bad.example.fi/~jarkko/asseri/paikalla.jpg I added little piece of tape to CF for easier removal.

Happy modding!

 

Hi there,

@ladadude ... nice mod, that's exactly the same what I thought/want.

I already bought the same CF-ZIF Adapter most people use here but actually I am a little stuck with this mod because I can't
find a supplier for ZIF cables here in germany. I had one reverse - ZIF cable available from some other mod but it's too short
to reach the connector on the mainboard. Also there would be no chance to use the filter with this cable.

Does anyone know where to get these ZIF cables in germany or a supplier who would ship to germany?

Thanks for your answers ...

Bye,
g23

 

Ebay?

 

I just ordered my cables and converter from here.........http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11814

The shipping is free anywhere in the world and it's only $7.50 US.

I've had my AAO for two days now and have installed an additional 512 ram module (667) and installed XP Pro with sp3 (complete). It takes a long time to finish loading all the windows apps and my Alienware Object Dock but once it's done the os is pretty responsive. I also getthe occasional "hangs" and installing drivers etc. takes longer than it should.

I've ordered from Newegg, the Transcend 8 Gig CF.

I knew there had to be a bottleneck somewhere because in my Alienware Object Dock I've got a CPU and a memory usage monitor. No matter what I'm doing I've never seen the CPU meter go above 25% aand the memory monitor has never gone above 30%. So my total ammount of 1 Gig of memory must be sufficient.

The only thing I'm having trouble with is the media card reader so I guess I'll have to wipe the current drivers and install new.

This site is a great resource, thanks to Andy and all the others for all the info! :mrgreen:
I'll post my results after I get my cf/converter/flip cable.
Rob

My Transcend 8GB 300X card arrived today from Newegg and it shipped very fast as usual.
I'll be waiting another week till the cf/zif convertor and cable arrive from Hong Kong.

Just had to edit this. I won't be able to update about the CF Mod since I'm getting deployed and have to fly out tomorrow. I guess I'll have to perform this Mod in the field.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Acer AspireOne-ultra portable laptop
1 Gig totalmemory
8 Gig ssd.....soon to be transcend 8 Gig cf
XP Pro sp3 (full)

Alienware M9750-large laptop
4 Gigs memory
2 OCZ ssd's in Raid 0
2 7950 GTX's in SLI
XP Pro sp3[attachment=1:2dp1tthm]Mini-Me.JPG[/attachment:2dp1tthm]

 

Hi Ladadude,
nice mod, like my mod
see my mod [url] [url="http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1112"]viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1112[/url][/url]

Audie

 

After reading though this thread multiple times, a couple of trips to computer centers for parts, and about 4 hours of opening, cutting, modding, head scratching, and troubleshooting, I've finally got a modded AAO with a 16gb CF card that can be easily swapped out for another CF card from the access panel underneath.

The thing that gave the the most trouble was the part about bending the standard ZIF cable so that it becomes a flip cable. (In retrospect it was far simpler than I was thinking it was supposed to be)

I now have Vista Black Edition installed (custom hacked version from some guy named 'Benjamin') and it's running smoothly. I don't know if I'll keep this 'Black' version or change for a vlited version, but it's good to have a much more responsive drive.

Sure was quite the project, though!

 

not to sound to stupid but what is this "black filter" people keep bringing up. Is there any pictures of it? Where does it go? Where can I get one at?

 

It's a filter that you'll find towards the mobo end of the cable. I took it out because I couldn't install my 1.8" drive if I kept it, but it doesn't seem to change anything. Maybe SSDs are more sensitive to electric interference than regular HDDs.