MK2431GAH - 240gb ZIF HDD - Ipod only?

[HayabusaUK]

In my crusade for more drive space Ive come across yet another 1.8 ZIF HDD - Toshiba MK2431GAH - 240gb 1.8" Hard disk.

Only issue is I have read on some other forums that they dont work with "PC"s, however im not sure if they mean because of the ZIF connection or a hardware/firmware issue similar to problems seen with recent Ipod HDDs.

If anyone has actually purchased one of these and given it a try please let us all know


EDIT - after looking around I think ive answered my question and its not a good answer.

I found this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/show...=379947&page=2 which basically states the drive is incompatible as a boot drive but works fine via USB enclosure...wierd.

Toshiba response is "The MK2431GAH has a 4KB Block Size (physical) - not to be confused with the logical Block Size, which can be selected when formatting a HDD.
The Block Size of the MK2431GAH is 4KB and physical, and it is unchangeable defined on the platter.
This makes the HDD incompatible for the use in a Notebook or PC application. It is for the use in consumer electronic (CE) applications only."

Strange it works as a USB device but is incompatible as a bootable drive.

[HayabusaUK]

Another site ive just found says this:


Compatibility: This will only work in an iPod Video 5th Generation unit. The original iPod Video came in: 60GB & 80GB sizes. This drive will not function in: PC's, iPod Classic, or Zune players. Players other than the iPod Video will only see one platter on the drive. Hopefully there will be an update to fix this issue.


Guess this means the largest HDD available for a UX is the 120gb single platter version.

[Yeggster]

I'm no expert an harddrives, but here is some info I found on the net

The 4 KB block size helps when reading large file like vidos ... I'm not sure why but 4 KB to BIG for the disk to boot windows ... but the fact is virtualy all modern disk drives use a block size of 512 bytes ...

Windows would have been set up with this in mind since it's inception as even floppy discs use the common 512 block size

I'm also not sure how they have physicaly altered the disc so it only accpets 4KB blocks either it would have to be made that way to begin with, the advantages for playing back video must be huge to go to that effort.

How it works as USB must be because the USB is so compliant because of the different formats and speeds etc.

[HayabusaUK]

Well today I finally bit the bullet and ordered a 1.8" SAMSUNG 120GB ZIF ATA 5400 HS122JC from China.

I normally wouldnt touch stuff from China but the company has good feedback on eBay and similar items seem to have got to their destination ok.

After 3 years im finally going to install XP on my UX ...just been waiting for the right HD to come along so I can use my old one as a backup.

[firemyers]

How much did you pay for it?

[HayabusaUK]

About $160 shipped to UK, gutted because I had seen a second hand one last month that went for $90 and I forgot to bid!

Havent been able to source any outside of China as all other sources seem to have dried up real fast earlier in the year.

[fantillon]

Hi
As I read in other places

http://www.micropctalk.com/forums/sh...?t=5980&page=2

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f78/runc...2-ata33-32884/

It seems that there is an compatibility issue that don’t let the UX work at UDMA 4 which affects the speed to 29 mb/s. At least on brands like Kingspecs and Runcore; (apart from Mtron that is working at UDMA4 but it is only 32gb)
I’m trying to find confirmed cases of other brands that do the job well…Thus, Is it possible that you let me know if your Samsung is able to set at Ultra DMA mode 4. (..device manager, IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, Primary IDE Channel properties, Advance Settings, transfer mode?)
Thanks!!!

[HayabusaUK]

Hi Fantillon,

Just seen your question now so I will take a look at my UX once I finish work.

Regarding the Samsung 5300rpm drive it seems to copy and access files much faster than my old HDD, however I'll run some speed tests as its not a true comparison as ive just installed win xp and before I used Vista, which makes a 486 seem fast!

[kiz]

mine says Ultra DMA Mode 5

[HayabusaUK]

What Kiz said, UDMA 5 if that helps!

Only issue I have with mine is that its rather noisy at times with the odd clunking sound which can be quite unnerving!