First post, by darry
As mentioned here Are there any utilities available to test BIOS disk access routines for reliable LBA28 functionality ? , I am playing around with a 24 year old notebook and want replace its storage .
My options :
a) A bigger vintage 2.5" 44-pin IDE hard drive
+ authentic/period-correct (for those who care)
+ available in compatible sizes
+ relatively affordable for now
+ usually compatible
- slow
- noisy (and will not improve as bearings age as these mostly predate the use of fluid bearings)
- old, possibly used and thus not that reliable
b) An adapted SATA SSD
+ fast (especially if using an IDE controller faster than Ultra ATA/33 )
+ quiet
+ reliable (if decently endurant model chosen)
+ cheap
- compatibility may be an issue (depending on adapter chipset/design and IDE controller chipset)
- not authentic/period-correct (for those who care)
- 128GB/120GB models are getting rarer and are usually low end. Smaller sizes are practically only available from second/third/fourth-tier manufacturers or used (excluding expensive industrial models)
c) An adapted (using an FC1307 based converter) very high endurance (micro)SD card (like this https://www.westerndigital.com/en-ca/products … QQVR-128G-GN6IA , but other manufacturers like Samsung make similar products )
+ fast enough (limited by FC1307 , but 25MB/second read and write is fast enough for Ultra ATA/33 , IMHO)
+ quiet
+ available in sizes as small as 32GB
+ Sandisk Max Endurance series apparently uses 3D TLC NAND in pMLC (pseudo-MLC ) mode, so should be quite endurant ( see https://ripitapart.com/2020/07/16/reverse-eng … microsdxc-card/ )
+ cheap (though not as cheap less endurant and sometime faster (micro)SD cards , but who cares for this use case )
- compatibility may be an issue (depending on adapter chipset/design and IDE controller chipset) (and watch out for FC1307 issues and workarounds Re: Using a vintage multi-track recorder as a mixer, namely the Roland VS-880EX - might apply to other Roland VS- units )
- not authentic/period-correct (for those who care)
Option c) seems most interesting to me for my current use case . I am already using option b) in a faster and more size tolerant (LBA-48 capable) retro machine . Of course, YMMV .
Not mentioned : CF cards as they are getting harder and more expensive to get and the industrial kind don't always have great write performance . Probably still a good (or even the best) option for older, slower, more size limited and read-heavy setups . Though in setups were an XTIDE BIOS can be used, size constraints step being that relevant (except that running a multi gigabyte drive on an XT or slower must give one's patience a workout).
EDIT: Based on the packaging of my Sandisk 128GB Max Endurance, it should be good for 60000 hours of recording at 1080p (which the packaging equates with 26Mbps), that means about 5355 Program/Erase cycles or 669 TBW . That being said, even if the 26Mbps is a misprint, as I doubt security cameras often record 1080p at much more than 5Mbps (h.264) or 2.5 Mbps (h.265), we would still be talking about over 500 Program/Erase cycles or over 60 TBW . That isn't bad at all in my book for an SD card .