How To: Convert CDS Video Slot from IDE hard drive to Compact Flash

[knagl]

Originally posted by Stolistic on 3/8/2009:

Original thread link: http://newlifegames.net/nlg/index.php?topic=2249.0

Hey everyone,

Thought I would pass this along.  I have been playing around with the CDS video slots recently and wanted to see if I could replace the internal harddrive with compact flash instead.

Parts you will need:
1 x 4GB capacity compact flash (fixed disk mode by default)
1 x IDE to CF Adapter

If you do this project yourself be aware that not all compact flash are created equal.  There is a setting on compact flash called "fixed disk mode".  Some flash cards do not turn this option on by default and you will have a cf card that is non-bootable.  I was unsuccessful with Kingston but was successful with using Transcend brand.  So be aware of this before you go and do this modification.  I have heard that SanDisk may be bootable but also may require an additional proprietary utility to run on it to turn the "fixed disk mode" on.  Not worth the hassle, just use Transend brand.

As for IDE to compact flash adapters, they are pretty much all the same.  I bought a lot of 5 for $10 on eBay from someone in Hong Kong and they work just fine.  The CDS machine uses a standard computer molex cable for power, and I made a small adapter that carried over just the red and black wires to the cf adapter.  The cf adapter supports a 4-pin floppy disk pinout, but I just soldered my cable to the power/gnd pins instead of trying to make another adapter for the cables.

As for moving the contents of the harddrive over to the compact flash device I just cloned the drive under Linux using the #dd command to ensure all sectors (including the MBR) were transfered to the compact flash.  If you are not familiar with this you should seek assistance or you could end up messing up the wrong devices on your computer.

Below are some pictures of before and after:

(BEFORE) Stock Setup


(AFTER) CF Installed


(AFTER) CF Closeup