Possible to upgrade MD of Palm Lifedrive?

A

Ashton

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I just traded my old Axim X5 for a Palm Lifedrive. For those unfamiliar, it contains a 4gb microdrive. I also have an 8gb microdrive, which is currently anything but useful to me because it's locked in TrueIDE mode (OEM mode). Would it be feasable to take the LD's MD out and replace it with the 8gb MD? would this for any reason decrease battery life?
 
Have no clue... havn't got the LD in my hands yet... It's a trade with somone on another forum, who is dragging his feet (scammer, I fear) But... provided I do...

Somone over at the official PALM forums, said the LD is hardwired to only see 4gb drives, so my next thought is to partition my 8gb into two 4gb drives...

If I ever get the LD I'll post the results (providfed it's safe to tinker with, I was just told it's supspoedly only 2 months old and thus still under warrenty!)
 
Ashton said:
Have no clue... havn't got the LD in my hands yet... It's a trade with somone on another forum, who is dragging his feet (scammer, I fear) But... provided I do...

Somone over at the official PALM forums, said the LD is hardwired to only see 4gb drives, so my next thought is to partition my 8gb into two 4gb drives...

If I ever get the LD I'll post the results (providfed it's safe to tinker with, I was just told it's supspoedly only 2 months old and thus still under warrenty!)
Click to expand...

i dont think that the person over at the palm forums is right when he says that you cant use any drives above 4gbs, because i know from a friend that you can use a 8gb sd card, and i cant immagine that palm would purposely put a limit on it.
 
Ashton said:
?!!?!?!?!?

8gb = SDHC! The LD can read SDHC cards???
Click to expand...

yes, and those cards arent to expensive if you look around. ive been out of the palm game for a while now, i stopped because even tho they have the most funtionallity of any other device ;) (except for smarthones) they make you look like a nerd:(
 
lol! I'm still carrying around my Dell Axim X51v, AND a MotoQ (though thinking about dropping the Q for the Samsung a900m --- standard cellphone that I can tether to PDA)

Acctually, the discussion of SD vs SDHC is gpoing on in 3 other palces and genneral concensus seems to be a software update will allow most PDAs to read SDHC cards... including the Axim x51v!

Right now, though, I'm looking at the 16gb CF cards, they're cheeper than the 8gb SDHC! (*whimsical sigh* wouldn't it be nice to stick a 16gb card in a lifedrive.....)
 
yes, while the 16gb cf cards may be cheaper, remember this, those cf cards are probabally microdrives not solid state like that sdhc cards

btw, im thinking of getting a nokia n95, looks like a solid smartphone
 
Thes ones I see are SSDs, but dont get me wrong, they ARE bloody expensive! I'm talking $200 for 16gb! if I'm *lucky* $100 (at ebay, which I dont fully trust with the problems of counterfiet sandisk recently) I've acctually never seen a 16gb Microdrive, do such creatures exist?

I've heard good thigns about the nokia smartphones, I just am through with SPs entirely, since mine has kept crashing and having problems right and left. That's why I'm dropping down to a samsung a900 (just sealed the deal a little while ago) it can tether my Axim X51v and give me full inet on there, and if hte axim crashes, tough crap, I can still use the phone to make calls! (my Q literally locks up IN THE MIDDLE OF A CALL!)

Tomorrow I'll see if I get the LD, the guy couldn't get it sent Fri. because of a storm (lol) then saterday the PO closed too early, so if he doesnt send it tomorrow, I'm gonna assume he's a scammer, and if he tries to back out I'm going to report him to every forum I'm on to make sure nobody else gets scammed like I almost did (he was trying to get me to send my X5 BEFORE he sent his LD)
 
well, in that case $200 dollars for a SSD 16gb f card is totally worth it. SSDs never die, your data is safe
 
unfortunately not true, NAND memory (used in CF) has a 1million-cycle life per bit, though the firmware "inscreases" this by moving the bits around dynamically. So technically it will inevitably corrupt and fail, but, and this is based on older, smaller, cards, it was estimated a card could be writtten/erasedc continuously for 51 years before failure. This was, at best, a 2gb card. So that means about 400 years... yeah.... I *really* think if I'm around in 400 years I'm gonna be worried about my 16gb CF card from 2007 failing... lol and compared to the 4-10year lifespan of a magnetic disk... yeah... I'm deffinatly mroe interested in CF than MD...

I'm watching and waiting, though, because these cards are inevitably going to fall in price. Samsung has released a 64gb CF card, and a 32gb CF card, both with a new gate technology that increases reliability and life still further, so these older, smaller, cards will soon be down to $50 (IMO, coudl be wrong)

What amazes me, though is the 4gb SSD CF card is selling for $100 as a replacement to the MD in the LD... and yet I can get a 16gb for $200... I think somone didn't do their research when they priced their cards lol.
 
Just as a heads up the OS that palm has created and runs on the LifeDrive can not use 8gigs, if you try to you will only have access to 4GB of space if that. To the best of my knowledge it reads the first 4gigs and then starts to count over again throwing away the first 4gigs and using the rest. This more often then not ends up with less then your default drive.

If your thinking about dicking around with your LD I suggest you check out this forum. It has all the info you need on moving your LD over to CF card. By moving over to a LifeFlash system you extending battery life and cutting down the startup and read/write times.

You can all check out this how-to wiki which is build from the information on the forums.

Anyway, its a small investment and breaths life into an old PDA. Hope that was some help, cheers.

~infinityv~
 
It is possible to upgrade the HD in a lifedrive. 16GB CF cards ARE solid-state cards, not microdrives, and they do exist. You can buy these cards at newegg.com for around $125, but I personally wouldn't go that route as that's probably about half what the entire device is going to cost you. I have heard of people putting 8GB cf cards in lifedrive's and having them work. I have a friend who has one that has an 8GB CF card in his, and it does see it as 8GB. I have also heard reports that it doesn't work that way. I think it may all depend on the device
 
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