These old caddy contain old HDD mounting hole pattern, either use an old hard drive, or use something like double sided tape, or drill new holes (if you really want it to be mounted using screws), two extra screws only for mounting the front plastic piece.

Personally I prefer this adapter for TWO cards as TWO disks (C:\& D:\), but as you see most of them contain wide distance holes pattern:

For some older laptops I use Areal HHD's with old holes patterns, they expensive, but very reliable and silent:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/155810763976

MAZter wrote on 2024-12-06, 13:19:

These old caddy contain old HDD mounting hole pattern, either use an old hard drive, or use something like double sided tape, or […]
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These old caddy contain old HDD mounting hole pattern, either use an old hard drive, or use something like double sided tape, or drill new holes (if you really want it to be mounted using screws), two extra screws only for mounting the front plastic piece.

Personally I prefer this adapter for TWO cards as TWO disks (C:\& D:\), but as you see most of them contain wide distance holes pattern:

The attachment s-l1600.png is no longer available

For some older laptops I use Areal HHD's with old holes patterns, they expensive, but very reliable and silent:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/155810763976

I made a 3d printed adapter that has both the old style and new style HDD holes to fit either type, which I've shared here: Re: Satellite Pro 440CDX HDD sled

ppgrainbow wrote on 2024-12-06, 01:19:

Hello there! :) […]
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Hello there! 😀

I'm looking to consider upgrading my Toshiba Tecra 500CDT laptop computer to either a Toshiba MK6142MAT 6.4 GB hard drive for $119.95 or a JIACHANG 8 GB Industrial Compact Flash card for $18.99 and looking to either upgrade to 64 MB or max out at 144 MB.

The problem is that I'm stuck of what to choose which Compact Flash to IDE card should I choose to fit in the hard drive caddy. The last time I got a CF-to-IDE adapter for the Toshiba Tecra 720CDT laptop, it wouldn't fit! The Tecra 500CDT hard drive caddy comes with six screws while the 44-pin CF-to-IDE adapter has four screws.

I was also lucky to find a Kingston KTT500/48 for just $9.99 on eBay and a 128 MB memory module (PA2054U) that deems to be compatible with the Tecra 500CDT, but it costs $90.

If I were to get the CF-to-IDE card that will work with the Toshiba Tecra 500CDT hard drive caddy, which one should I get that will work with it and what are the instructions on how to get it to work?

Post your thoughts. I would love to hear it. 😀

Just to add as well. I have since discovered that Toshiba's EDO memory SO-DIMM pinout is completely industry standard! You can use the bigger Toshiba type EDO SO-DIMMs but regular EDO 144pin SO-DIMMs work just fine too.

I said in another thread that they were not compatible but that's because in Toshiba's documentation they count the pins on one side from 1 > 72 in a row and 73 > 144 in the next row, but SO-DIMM pin layouts possibly JEDEC standard ones actually use all odd pins (1 to 173) on one side and all even (2 to 174) on the other side. Hence my confusion.

That means that any 128MB EDO SO-DIMM should work with your Tecra 500CDT. Looks like big capacity EDO SO-DIMMs are not cheap though.

The 500CDT is not picky about the storage you can install in it though I would not go above 8GB because it probably has the 8.4gb limit problem. Any CF card in a suitable adapter will work even if it's flopping around loosely in the case since the caddy connector to IDE connector of the drive caddy is a flex cable.

I've just fitted a 128GB mSATA drive in a 2.5" mSATA <-> IDE adapter in a recently purchased 480CDT and it works great with Ontrack (available here https://www.philscomputerlab.com/ontrack-disk-manager.html).

Partitioned in to a 2GB DOS/Windows 98SE boot drive and ~126GB D: drive. Yes, the entire capacity of D: is accessible in the Win98SE DOS. Linux also knows what to do with the Ontrack partitions, so plugged into a 2.5" <-> USB adapter it is trivial to transfer files across.

I take it the 550CDT uses a different 2.5" drive mounting hole system? I've just picked up a 550CDT as well (I've caught the Toshiba bug after years of collecting Thinkpads and being frustrated with their Crystal based DOS audio), so I'm planning to do the same storage mod to that.

Thanks for the info on the generic EDO SO-DIMM! If not cheap, at least they are readily available.

I had no idea how expensive old hard drives could be nowadays - I wouldn’t trust that at all for $120, you don’t know how they’ve been stored, and they can die from age/lack of use as easily as from overuse in my experience

I would suggest an 8GB 2.5” DOM (disk on module), it *should* just sit in there nicely

Some of my old laptops the HDD is accessible from the side and I’ve always been tempted to try 3D printing a bracket for a CF adapter so you can easily remove it and transfer files