Exchanged Microdrive With Flash Card (c3000)

[ChrisZ]

First, the most interesting result:

My C3000 is faster than ever. Every application starts up quicker and there are no more spin-up times when the microdrive has felt asleep.

Compare yourself:

Reboot until the sound can be heard: microdrive 142s, SanDisk Ultra II 120s (-15%).

Starting Opera after having rebooted until the error message appears (startpage cannot be found): microdrive 16s, flash 10s (-37%)

It's really impressive! But the most impressive thing is, that there's no time lag after the microdrive would have fallen asleep.

For anyone who's interested:

I've just exchanged the 4 GB microdrive with a SanDisk Ultra II card. It's easy:

1. Have a look at the internal-pictures from the 3000: Click here!

2. Remove the Hitachi microdrive

3. Insert the microdrive into your PC and have a look at the partitions, assuming the cf card is /dev/sda:

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fdisk /dev/sda
4. Copy the partitions to your PC-HDD:

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dd if=/dev/sda1 of=hda1 For sda2 and sda3 do the same. It's a good backup, anywhere.

5. Insert your flash card into your PC and create new partitions on it. I think it's a good idea to let the system partition (hda1) exactly as it is: about 100 MB. Partition 2 (ext3) can be changed in size. Partition 3 is the left-space-device (vfat).

6. Copy microdrive-partition 1 to the flash card:

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dd if=hda1 of=/dev/sda1
7. Copy the remaining partitions to the flash card. That could be done as above with the dd-command, but the new partitions must be equal in size. Or you can mount the old-partitions, e. g.

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mount -o loop,ro hda2 /mnt/OLD/ and copy the files to the newly formated partition sda2:

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mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda2 And now copy the files. The same has to be done for hda3.

8. Insert the flash card into the Zaurus.

9. Reboot!

10. Wonder why the Zaurus is that fast.

If someone has problems with one step, feel free to ask: I will help as good as I can.

And don't forget: I don't take any responsibilitiy for your Z. Anyone following my instructions is responsible for the results. I can only say: My Z works better than ever.  

[Altt]

Have you done any battery tests yet? Im sure folks are interested in the results.

[dreadlocks]

that is brillant, should save battery life.. the microdrive will have a longer life span so keep it arround. check to make sure there isint a swap parition on the flash card as it could kill your flash card much quicker. (I obviously dont have a C3000)

[ChrisZ]

check to make sure there isint a swap parition on the flash card as it could kill your flash card much quicker.
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The microdrive has an error rate (non-recoverable) of less than 1 per 10^13 bits transferred. It can be started and stopped (at 40° C) for about 300.000 times.

A SandDisk Ultra has a MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) of 1.000.000 hours. And an error rate of less than 1 per 10^14 bits read(!?) for non-recoverable errors and of 1 per 10^20 bits read for errorneous corrections.

Both have an error management. The flash card reads every written byte to compare it with the original value. For errors there are "spare" bytes.

And don't forget: the microdrive spins down and up very often. 300.000 start/stop cycles seem not to be very much.

I think a flash card is a better solution. Even for swap devices (!?)

[ChrisZ]

Have you done any battery tests yet? Im sure folks are interested in the results.

I didn't measure battery life. I don't even know how to perform a test (which test-conditions?)

Comparison by specs:

Hitachi: 305 mA for write, 16 mA for idle
SanDisk: 50-65 mA for read/write, 100 mA read/write peak, 1 mA idle

The Sharp battery has 1800 mAh (?). If you use often your microdrive for data transfers its power consumption will obviously reduce battery live significantly. A flash card saves a lot of power.

[ChrisZ]

After two days a short appendix:

The handling of the C3000 has really improved with the microdrive-exchange. It seems to be much quicker. Key strokes and stick inputs are answered immediately without the spin-up time lag. Great!

It feels like an well-improved C3000. Never again a microdrive!

[bam]

hmmmz......sounds like a good upgrade for my 3100 when it comes in....wonder how much 4gb cards are....well found out, kinda pricy but.....gonna do it anyways. Lexar 4gb Pro 12mb/s 50ma read/write <10mS boot time, so basic question here, if I have windows how do i basically image the microdrive and copy to sd card?

[BarryW]

Doesn't the Z have a cf slot?  All the tools are available, should be able to do it there.  Don't know for sure myself, have a 6000....

[daniel3000]

After two days a short appendix:

The handling of the C3000 has really improved with the microdrive-exchange. It seems to be much quicker. Key strokes and stick inputs are answered immediately without the spin-up time lag. Great!

It feels like an well-improved C3000. Never again a microdrive!
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After exchanging the MD with a CF card of 4GB size, couldn't the microdrive be used as an excellent backup device? Just dd bs=1024 if=/dev/hdc of=/dev/sda (or whatever the CF card is called) and you have a full backup of the Zaurus, except NAND of course.

Not a cheap backup solution, I admit. <g>

daniel

[omega]

bam, would you really need to upgrade your c3100? If the os in on the flash, then the microdrive will only hold your data like movies...

[bam]

yea, thats my plan, the cf mod will be a good speed upgrade and I can use the md for a backup in case of catastrophic failure....wich seems to happen to z users more than once in a lifetime, so better safe than sorry:) not only that but i like the idea of less current consumption, therefore better battery life:)

am, would you really need to upgrade your c3100? If the os in on the flash, then the microdrive will only hold your data like movies...

=good point maybe not then.....then again im a tweaker...cant help it its genetic

[grifster]

Out of curiousity has anyone experimented with replacing the internal microdrive with a CF wireless card? Internal wireless...

[Sna]

not enough room in the unit to place a cf wireless, the antenna is too big
and i've open my cf wifi to see if it is possible to change the antenna's place and.... no

maybe a bluetooth adapter, but what about the range then...

[bam]

stupid question perhaps....type 1, or type 2? does it matter?

[Jose Ronnick]

If someone has problems with one step, feel free to ask: I will help as good as I can.

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Hey.. so the microdrive in my C3000 recently failed.. it's completly fubared.. I've tried booting to console and fscking the drive, I've tried using the system menu to do both kinds of file system check, and I've tried to do a factory reset with a complete disk check.. all of them say the drive is fux0red and can't continue...

so.. I recently got a 4GB flash CF card.. and I tried taking my zaurus apart.. but after getting the back of the case off.. and taking out all of the screws I could find.. I can lift the first board partially off, but it still seems to be connected to something in the upper right hand corner  (assuming the device is backside up, with the hinge side facing away from me.  I didn't want to just force it too much.. so I figured I'd ask someone who's taken one apart already..  Is there some trick to getting that first board off?

Also, could someone please tell me what the default partion sizes and types are for the C3000?  The original drive is totally dead.. so I'm hoping I can just make the proper partitions on the CF flash, format them.. replace the microdrive w/ the CF flash.. and then do a factory reset..