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Cf cards for Windows 2000 and XP

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Jun 14, 2021
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I have been waching some videos on CF cards ,and people have been saying you have to have Industral CF cards to work with Windows 2000 and there after.As from Windows 2000 ,Windows sees non industral as Removeable drives.Is that corect what he says?
This guys good.:) The industrals ones are more exspencive and have less space on them.I never heard about Industail versions of CF cards untel i saw this guys video.
 
Sounds like this is specific to using a CF card reader on IDE adapter.

ETA: and of course when using these to install Windows on them.
 
I used CF cards in my Palmtop PC 1999~ (WIndows CE)

Never had one of these though:

A micro mechanical harddrive in CF:
Screenshot 2023-05-08 173407.png
 
Sounds like this is specific to using a CF card reader on IDE adapter.

ETA: and of course when using these to install Windows on them.

Sounds like this is specific to using a CF card reader on IDE adapter.

ETA: and of course when using these to install Windows on them.
I did look on Amazon to see if anyone used it for a boot drive for XP..The one i bought on eBay SANDISK ETREME and one person said they were using one with Ubuntu.It seems they with work with any system priory to Windows 2000,Because from there on Windows used a different file stsyem hence seeing it as a Removeable disk. o_O
 
Whether a drive is removable or not is entirely up to the firmware on the drive. I think most drives that are marked as non-removable would be using mechanical media.
 
Run of the mill CF cards aren't particularly R/W durable.
If going this route for winNT derivatives, you'll want 'industrial' / SLC CF cards anyway. (Which, are merely miniaturized PATA/IDE SSDs)

IMO, anything newer than Win9X writes to the disk too much. You can get old SLC SATA SSDs for under $20 shipped. (Most builds for win2k-XP will not have an issue with an IDE-adapted SSD)
I'm doubtful you'll find industrial and SLC CF cards for that kind of money.

With pro photography moving to CFx etc. CF cards are a rapidly fading 'economical solution' for many retro builds.
(CF's 100% IDE/PATA compatibility may still be handy for W9x/DOS, etc.)

Note: these little old CF cards are still great for stacking bootloaders, though.
In other words, for Booting to an NVMe drive on PCIe 1.0 or PCI-PCIe bridged builds. (Booting to Win7 on an Optane P1600X in a S940 dual Opteron K8N-DL was pretty cool, even if only PCIe1.0 x1)
 
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I have been waching some videos on CF cards ,and people have been saying you have to have Industral CF cards to work with Windows 2000 and there after.As from Windows 2000 ,Windows sees non industral as Removeable drives.Is that corect what he says?
This guys good.:) The industrals ones are more exspencive and have less space on them.I never heard about Industail versions of CF cards untel i saw this guys video.

Industrial-grade isn't strictly necessary, however if you mean to use such a system for a longer amount of time it's highly recommended because they last through a ton more program and erase cycles, so the media wearout will be significantly slower.

CompactFlash is used because it's essentially flash memory that's connected to a legacy parallel ATA/IDE interface, see it as an early form of SSD.
 
Industrial-grade isn't strictly necessary, however if you mean to use such a system for a longer amount of time it's highly recommended because they last through a ton more program and erase cycles, so the media wearout will be significantly slower.

CompactFlash is used because it's essentially flash memory that's connected to a legacy parallel ATA/IDE interface, see it as an early form of SSD.
At present i am instaling Windows 2000 so far so good it is on the final tasks,i will keep my fingers crossed.It is all done they were asking me to connect to the internet but as you can see it is not in a case.This motherboard came from a very heavy Retro case that also had a moduler PSU that works all for £5. :) The seller said it failed to boot that seems to have been a falling IDE drive.The HEATSINK Fan fell off.And something was burning on the board when i tried it in the case.The heat sink fans looks ok 1465, if it stills works i should think it is worth a few bob.I took a small Heatsink off another board and the Heatsink Fan.I am glad i got one board to work 100% :)Two other boards are nearly there they both have some caps that need replacing .i don,t know when i will get round to doing that ,as i have never sone any soldering before .Others on here have said that heatsink fan is collectable.

Run of the mill CF cards aren't particularly R/W durable.
If going this route for winNT derivatives, you'll want 'industrial' / SLC CF cards anyway. (Which, are merely miniaturized PATA/IDE SSDs)

IMO, anything newer than Win9X writes to the disk too much. You can get old SLC SATA SSDs for under $20 shipped. (Most builds for win2k-XP will not have an issue with an IDE-adapted SSD)
I'm doubtful you'll find industrial and SLC CF cards for that kind of money.

With pro photography moving to CFx etc. CF cards are a rapidly fading 'economical solution' for many retro builds.
(CF's 100% IDE/PATA compatibility may still be handy for W9x/DOS, etc.)

Note: these little old CF cards are still great for stacking bootloaders, though.
In other words, for Booting to an NVMe drive on PCIe 1.0 or PCI-PCIe bridged builds. (Booting to Win7 on an Optane P1600X in a S940 dual Opteron K8N-DL was pretty cool, even if only PCIe1.0 x1)
The CF cards i have are Sandisk Extreme UDMA 7.

Industrial-grade isn't strictly necessary, however if you mean to use such a system for a longer amount of time it's highly recommended because they last through a ton more program and erase cycles, so the media wearout will be significantly slower.

CompactFlash is used because it's essentially flash memory that's connected to a legacy parallel ATA/IDE interface, see it as an early form of SSD

Dr. Dro.I get your point there it goes with the name Industrial. :)


Run of the mill CF cards aren't particularly R/W durable.
If going this route for winNT derivatives, you'll want 'industrial' / SLC CF cards anyway. (Which, are merely miniaturized PATA/IDE SSDs)

IMO, anything newer than Win9X writes to the disk too much. You can get old SLC SATA SSDs for under $20 shipped. (Most builds for win2k-XP will not have an issue with an IDE-adapted SSD)
I'm doubtful you'll find industrial and SLC CF cards for that kind of money.

With pro photography moving to CFx etc. CF cards are a rapidly fading 'economical solution' for many retro builds.
(CF's 100% IDE/PATA compatibility may still be handy for W9x/DOS, etc.)

Note: these little old CF cards are still great for stacking bootloaders, though.
In other words, for Booting to an NVMe drive on PCIe 1.0 or PCI-PCIe bridged builds. (Booting to Win7 on an Optane P1600X in a S940 dual Opteron K8N-DL was pretty cool, even if only PCIe1.0 x1)
No you want they are exspencive industral CF cards that is.No i know that i am using one for a HDD i will get another adapter I just looked up the price for SLC SSD,S as you say the price is good.

Run of the mill CF cards aren't particularly R/W durable.
If going this route for winNT derivatives, you'll want 'industrial' / SLC CF cards anyway. (Which, are merely miniaturized PATA/IDE SSDs)

IMO, anything newer than Win9X writes to the disk too much. You can get old SLC SATA SSDs for under $20 shipped. (Most builds for win2k-XP will not have an issue with an IDE-adapted SSD)
I'm doubtful you'll find industrial and SLC CF cards for that kind of money.

With pro photography moving to CFx etc. CF cards are a rapidly fading 'economical solution' for many retro builds.
(CF's 100% IDE/PATA compatibility may still be handy for W9x/DOS, etc.)

Note: these little old CF cards are still great for stacking bootloaders, though.
In other words, for Booting to an NVMe drive on PCIe 1.0 or PCI-PCIe bridged builds. (Booting to Win7 on an Optane P1600X in a S940 dual Opteron K8N-DL was pretty cool, even if only PCIe1.0 x1)
I can,t use them on the board i have just got going as it is all IDE no Sata.

I thought i would get one of these
PC Power Supply Teater. I just hope all the PSU,s i got with PC cases work.. :)From China
Postage:Free SpeedPak Economy which they say i should get it between Mon, 22 May and Mon, 29 May,I look for the SpeedPak delivery because it is a lot faster than the normal delivery.

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I can,t use them on the board i have just got going as it is all IDE no Sata.
SATA-IDE adapters exist.

In my limited experience, they work fine with 2k/XP-era kit (I've used them with Athlon XPs and a VIA C7).

At worst, there were some settings I had to set in BIOS, which can occur with any "Advanced Format" drive.

The drive's controller is supposed to 'face' BIOS as an old-school-sectored drive, but I have run across a couple instances where I had to tell BIOS the configuration of the drive "in HDD terms".

(I used SATA-I 64GB Samsung SLC drives, made entirely for HP's servers of that era.)
 
I have yet to use a cf reader. For my random projects I always use spare sata drives.

I do love the idea of swapping os like a cartridge though with the cf.
 
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I have yet to use a cf reader. For my random projects I always use spare sata drives.

I do love the idea of swapping os like a cartridge though with the cf.
That is the reason i like them . :) I was interested in the SD to IDE card adapter but could only see a couple from the US with the PCI bracket on
the draw back of using one of these is they have no Jumpers on them for Master and Slave.:(
 
USB adapters for everything out seem to be available
Yes, but in this application (win2k-XP era build), USB boot devices add complications or just do not work.

I currently have an Asus K8N-DL dual s940 board (circa '04-'05) that *does* support USB booting. However, 'support' is very broadly/loosely used here.
If I boot it off USB, pre-OS bootloaders don't work, can't see any drives, or halts the system somewhere along the line. Linux and Windows installers are even a bit weird sometimes.

Yeah, don't do USB for boot drives on old kit. It's asking for headaches.
 
I have just decided to go for a Sd to IDE, I am looking
for a front drive bay or a Pci bracket i can only see a bracket from the US.Not seen a front drive bay ,i would prefer a bracket to a drive bay.I just saw this video where some one has made 3d printed versions of them ,why don,t they sell them?o_O
And what is GoTek drive? Do you have to have Floppy disks to put them on there.?o_OI don,t know if i can convert the card reader bay 1466 photo into one. o_O I just don,r know why someone does not sell a bracket for one, as 68olds showed they do bays for CF cards.I have two of those card reader bays i don,r need them.It could be done i will have to get a drill to drill holes for the bay the 4 pin Molex might be a bit to high though.It will be ace if i can do it. :)


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Old rigs might need a BD drive to install Windows fresh and they are SATA so they are backwards compatible
 
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