CRN Test Center: A Unique Approach To Testing

OS driver switch hard drives

Solid state drives are just as big as hard drives and take up a lot of physical space, especially if a technician is carting around several drives while troubleshooting. The most accommodating solution is to use small solid state drives such as Compact Flash (CF) drives. Addonics' unique CF to IDE adapter can help.

With this adapter, CF drives can plug into notebooks and pop in and out of any 2.5-inch IDE hard drive. The adapter can be configured as a boot device and works with DOS, all versions of desktop Windows, and all Linux flavors. In fact, once installed it looks and behaves like any hard drive.

The adapter supports DMA and Ultra-DMA modes as long as the media card includes these features, but unfortunately, the CF cards are not hot-swappable. Engineers recommend installing the smallest drives possible that are of appropriate size for a given OS. Tests have shown that the greater the capacity of a solid state drive, the slower its write access time becomes.

Because CF drives are noiseless, the adapter comes with a drive access LED, which lights up during drive I/O. During troubleshooting, it is a good idea to leave the drive bay door open to ensure the LED is lit during the first boot.

Addonics' adapter with an installed CF card takes about one-third the space of a notebook drive, so it is delicate. Once inserted in an IDE slot, the manufacturer states that double-sided tape can secure the adapter, but Test Center engineers recommend inserting a foam cut-out into the empty space in the bay. If technicians need to change cards, they can easily bend the IDE or the CF pins when the adapter is not tightly secured.