yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
Oberth, thanks for reminding me of message 95.

The critical item is the fpc = Flexible Printed Circuit. That is the big problem with these Hitachi drives is that they seem to be the only ones that use a 0.3mm pitch connector. When you get that tiny, you can not do wire connectors. The smallest you can get with wires is a 0.5mm pitch ffc = flexible flat cable.

Now the critical fpc is shown in photo 2 of the link you provided:

I don't know if I want to go from zif, to cf to ide. I have the pin assignments to go to ide, but not cf.

Another concern is running power to the ssd. It requires 3.3vdc. Do CF cards also run on 3.3vdc? If so, then a cf to ide adapter could power up the transcend ssd.

I still have to think about that.

fwiw, the Transcend ssd comes with no fpc, or connectors. It really makes it useless out of the box.
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] Oberth:
More info on compact flash

Hello Keithwwalker,

Compactflash and Microdrives run at 3.3 or 5v. Looking at http://www.compactflash.org/faqs/faq.htm it seems it would just run at the required voltage automatically so that should be ok.

Data wise the beautiful thing about Compact Flash and Microdrives is that they are basically an IDE/ATA drive in disguise the same as the SSD and the Athena drive and while the pinouts are different the actual data sent over them is the same, if you look at a Compact Flash to IDE adaptor http://www2.multithread.co.uk/mtcsh...ducts/Compact_Flash_IDE_Adapter_-_H1_main.jpg there is very little hardware required just enough to fire up the card the data just passes through natively.

So in theory you could go ZIF35--CF--CARD READER to get a USB Harddrive style setup or ZIF35--CF--IDE to achieve the same thing as that adaptor you were looking at but with another connector in the middle.

There are also pinouts here for Compact Flash here http://www.hardwarebook.info/CompactFlash and from the picture you pasted your best bet would be to ebay or google for a drive matching that part number to ensure you get the correct connector.

I'm off on a short break for a few days but I hope this helps you guys :)

PS:- Hi bluesbrothers93 it's a shame about the drive, typical of manufacturers changing things round all the time, could you take some shots so we can see what we need to avoid?
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
Oberth, I already traced the pinouts from the ide to zif. I believe you are right, everything that I have read seems to indicate that the ssd acts like an ide hard drive.

If you use WM5torage, it says that the microdrive is formatted FAT32.

I have to ask the question again, has anyone tried to put the ssd in the x750x and format it via WM5torage? It could eliminate a lot of headaches...the Hitachi microdrive and Transcend SSD have the same exact pinouts.
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
Surprise Surprise

I am in the process of ripping apart my X7501 to put in the Transcend SSD and it turns out that the hard drive in the X7501 is a Seagate drive, not a Hitachi!

Here are some links:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/consumer_electronics/st1_series/st1.3_series/

http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_st1_3.pdf

http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/ce/ST1 Series/ST1.3 Series/100409345d.pdf

Pinouts 7 and 9 may be different (rest are the identical).

The Seagate drive pinouts are 'reserved, do not connect', while

the Transcend drive pinouts are '-PDIAG' and 'DASP', respectively.

What do you think?

There is a note in the Seagate pdf, stating that the DASP pinout is for the LED drive indicator and is not nessecary. It just happens that the Transcend unit does have a LED indicator.

PDIAG has an explanation here:

http://www.ele.uri.edu/courses/ele408/s2001/projects/roland_ide/ide.html

BTW, the Seagate units go up to 12GB.

More updates later....

kww

Transcend ssd pinouts:

http://www.transcendusa.com/support/dlcenter/datasheet/SSD10-M Datasheet v1.5.pdf
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
Well I have the Transcend unit in the X7501. booted up and then start WM5torag, but I receive the warning message:

'Selected storage device is not appears to be the usual formatted storage card possibly contains the operating system or firmware data. Once you have not selected the "Read Only" mode, if you will accidentally alter/erase system data, you may render your mobile device PERMANENTLY ususable! Proceed at your own risk!'

I then hit OK, and then the unit freezes.

My WinXP box does recognize the drive, BUT it is only sized to ~3mb.

I will try to reformat the drive, but any ideas will be appreciated!
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
Update. When hooked up via WM5torage, my pc is telling me that there are 3 partitions on the SSD:

Recognized drive E: 3mb

(Unrecognized): 3mb

(Unrecognized): 72mb

The PC is also telling me that the drive is formatted FAT12, and not FAT32.

How to combine all the partitions, format as FAT32, and recognize all the empty unrecognized ssd space?

Anyone?

Update:

I deleted the two smaller partitions and was able to format the largest as either a FAT32 or NFTS drive, both being 78MB in size. Nothing gained, nothing lost; but I am a far way from 16gb!

kww

btw: In looking at the Seagate naming convention, it appears that my drive does not have the fall sensor, as advertised by HTC...
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
Update:

Just for kicks I formatted the ssd as NFTS and once the x7501 went into sleep mode with WM5torage on, I could not get the screen to turn back on.

I performed soft and hard resets, but the screen will not turn on. Looks like I am going to take out the ssd and put the oem Seagate HDD drive back in.

I contacted tech support at Transcend and they said that the SSD should be returned as it was not partitioned properly. I suspect this is a problem with the Transcend SSD's across the board. The only recourse for a larger drive in the x750x series is the Seagate 12gb drive which I believe is available.
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] bluesbrothers93:
english is not my first language

but if you put back the original 8GO drive

in my opinion it should be work

also, why don't you format the SSD in FAT32 ?

i suspect that when you use WM5storage

it was not the SSD that yoou have format

but an part of the ROM !!!!
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
Upon installation, the ssd

was

recognized both by WM5torage and Resco Explorer. Filing system was FAT12 (in 3 partitions). That should of told me from the start that Transcend has a bad product.

I did shut down and restart several times before I formatted NFTS. Until that point the unit operated normally.

Now I have to bootload and put the ROM back in.

So the question I have for others who also have the Transcend 16gb SSD is, did you ever get as far as I did? Does anyone wish to continue?

I am returning my SSD back to Transcend. No one there can tell me if my product is defective since they sell so few. It may be worth getting a Seagate 12GB instead.
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
Photos

Here are some guts of the x7501, the ssd, and the Seagate drive for comparison; enjoy...
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
One more:
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] alese:
Just a couple of comments. As far as I know WM doesn't work with NTFS - I have tried a couple NTFS USB drives with my Advantage and they were never recognized, however when I formatted with FAT32 the system recognized the drive...

It's not neccessary that the SSD is defective, maybe it should only be repartitioned (one primary partition) and then formatted to FAT32, however I realize there is no way you could do that without some kind controller that would enable the drive to be connected to PC or maybe with some FDISK type SW on WM - but I don't know if there is something like this...
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
That's what I did, I deleted 2 of the 3 partitions whilst connected via WM5torage to an XP PC.

I then reformatted the drive FAT32, and it still was only 78mb.
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] bluesbrothers93:
well

i'm just behind you

my x7500 (French) is équiped with the SSD

but i'dont do more by now.

missing time............
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] rsolomon:
Seems to me that this is consistent with the HTC drivers not recognizing the drive properly....

Did you ask Transcend about an adapter to something else? I would suspect they have ZIF to something adapters in-house, maybe they can help source one?

Richard
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
Well my big idea was that HTC drivers aren't required if the unit is in USB mode (using WM5torage program). I still think that this is true, and that Transcend has a major problem with their ssd's.

I have looked all over for a zif adapter. There is one adapter out there (and one out of production), but every adapter need a 'jumper' to take the signals from the SSD to the other connector.

The jumper is essentially a miniature version of an IDE cable; it is the male connector that plugs into the female ZIF socket (there are no male ZIF sockets).

I have not been able to find a 35 pin (conductor) jumper. They are just not out there!

I am still not finished with this.

I am still looking at putting another SSD or Seagate 12GB HDD in the 7501, to prove it can be done.

Along those lines, it seems that Samsung will be introducing it's own line of NAND SSD's in the 1 inch form factor in the following capacities:

8gb, MMCQE08GZMPP-MRA

16gb, MCBQE16GZMPP-M1A

32gb, MCCOE32GZMPP-M1A

No details yet, but I am betting on the ZIF interface.

kww
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] bluesbrothers93:
the samsung SSD have SATA interface

;-(
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] Oberth:
Wow you guys have been busy :)

Hello Keith,

Congrats on your progress you have been busy while I was away, someone had tried the WM5 storage thing way back in the early days of this thread and they did not have much luck with it as it failed to recognise the SSD completely so it was abandoned back then and we all started looking at more exotic solutions.

One idea I had back at the time of the first WM5 storage tryout was if you can clone the Microdrive using norton ghost or winimage, does the WM5 storage version you have contain have the 'Removable Class' tick box? I assume it does as you have been able to create/delete partitions so you would need to clear that to make the drive a USB harddrive rather than a pen drive.

If you can try I would recommend trying WinImage http://www.winimage.com/ as it has a 30day full function trial and get it to fully clone the microdrive (not sure what the options are but it should have some form of clone drive rather than just a partition) then fit your SSD and write the image back to the drive, in theory if the image writes back sucessfully then you should be able to browse the contents of the drive via windows explorer and if you are lucky the phone should be able to see everything as well. If not it's another thing tried and we can cross it off the list. You might need to do a reset after the write as the partition table will get overwritten when you write back.

Good luck if you give it a try.
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
No, the new 1.0 inch Samsung SSD's have a PATA interface (presumably a zif connector):

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/productListNonflexTable.do?fmly_id=161&sht_id=1
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
Thanks for the tips Oberth. When I get another SSD from Transcend, I will try again.
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] ftoz:
hi, i would like to replace microdrive with compactflash. Can anyone try this? There are some mark in the first posts by replacement 16mb compactflash. Is there space for compactflash size? Where can i get small ribon as is on picture with 4gb hitachi microdrive? There is from some old ipod?
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
No

Compact flash dimensions:

3.3mm x 36.4mm x 42.8mm

Microdrive dimensions:

30mmx40mm

There isn't enough room, for the CF card, let alone you would have to figure out a way to replace the proprietary fpc connector.
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] ftoz:
I see, but i would like to test it, because compactflash is most spread in public and it will be better updrade. I dont need fpc cable, because you must chanche the pins from zif 35 to compactflash. I only need buy original athenas microdrive ribon to rebuild it. But i dont know, where can i buy it. Or same conector which is on microdrive to long the ogiginal cable.
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] ftoz:
keithwwalker

hi keithwwalker,why do you stop to play with trascendent ssd? It is great work and maybe miss one step to finish. Do you try mod registry, change some dll or linux on it ?
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
I don't have the software and skillset to try out registry changes or dll's. The Transcend SSD indicated only 78mb. I do know that SSD's require a virtual 'hard drive' emulator software to mimic a conventional IDE drive and it seems that Transcend does not have ANY drivers for any of their SSD's on their site. I frankly think Transcend has their head up their ass on this one.

If there is software to accomplish this, post some links.

I am getting a replacement Transcend SSD, soon. I will again try to install the ssd one more time.

Thanks
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] bluesbrothers93:
i agree with him

The problem is taht when you acces to SSD drive using WM5Storage utility

the total of ssd appear to 78 MO (in 3 partitions as 3+3+72)

With PQM v8 or XP disk utilities trough USB mode is the same

in that way maybe is to contact WM5storage utility to ask some help ?!

cause up now is the first utility abble to see SSD in the X75xx
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] johnripper:
rom fromx7510?

Has anyone tried to flash to x7500 with spl 3.5Olinex the dumped rom from the x7510.

This rom has drivers for ssd.When you flash it to x7500 everything works exept joypad, extra buttons and micro drive.Maybe with this rom the ssd should work properly with or without wmstorage program.

Sorry for my bad english.

Thanks
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] bluesbrothers93:
i 'd like to test it

but only if there is possibility to come back to the original ROM

is that possible ?
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] johnripper:
yes you can.

There is allready a thread about it in the rom section, you can flash any rom you want after the x7510 rom, the only thing you need is spl 3.5, dont try this with spl 1.2

thanks
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] rsolomon:
I thought we debunked this idea already - microdrives come in 2 flavors, CF interface and IDE interface. AFAIK, they're not compatible electrically - and these are all the IDE (ATA) interface. So there's no CF interface on the device, therefore you can't connect a CF device.

(Until someone opened up the HTC, I too thought a CF should be drop-in replacement - but since I've learned about the ATA-ZIF and I think it's a no-go w/o an interface chip of some sort - and then you're COMPLETELY out of physical space....)

Richard
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] johnripper:
x7510 rom dump

http://rapidshare.com/files/127060986/x7510_dump.zip
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
Thanks for the ROM. Now if I could get the joystick to work and extra buttons, that would be nice...

I will give it a shot.
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] ftoz:
And do you try modify sectors, header, cylinder in registry? Can wm 6.1 recognize ssd? I think, that is only soft problem, the hardware can be correct. Maybe some driver is missing for chip on sdd, but it can be add by some univerzal driver. Do you try trascend disk dirrectly in pc? Recognize it?

I think 35-zif to compactflash is possible. Look at on copactflash pins only differences are adress pins( more adress pins on cf, zif has 3 adress pins ). But when you look at ide 40 pins it has 3 adress pins too. I have ide-cf reduction at home and it means that compact flash must use only 3 adress pins. Problem i only size, but i havent open athena, if there is another place for compactflash
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] ftoz:
Do anyone know, which type ssd is in x7510? Which controler has this sdd? In trascend ssd i see sm223tf, no driver on webpage home. Only for sm222 and registred users
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] rsolomon:
I think there is a chip on that adapter, it's not just wires.

By way of analogy consider this:

Because English and German use (mostly) the same alphabet, translation must consist of re-ordering letters in an English word to make the corresponding German word.

Clearly untrue :) Likewise, just because you see similar names on the signals of two interfaces, that does NOT mean that you can just connect the ones that sound alike together and have it work!

Richard
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
Quick google of controllers brings up this company:

http://www.siliconmotion.com.tw/en/en2/main.asp

http://www.siliconmotion.com.tw/en/en2/products_FMCC.htm

http://www.siliconmotion.com.tw/en/en2/news_1.asp?nid=40

Searching for an sm223 controller turns up a bunch of Eee PC and Linux nuts, having similar if not identical, problems with variants of the Silicon Motion controller.

http://www3.elphel.com/ru/node/14

http://winston1.net/eee/

Really in over my head on this one...!
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
Seems that the Eee 701 has an SSD and that the driver is a Silicon Motion SM223A driver. Whether the driver would work for the Transcend SSD which uses a Silicon Motion SM223TF controller chip is anyone's guess at this point; but it would be worth trying to get a copy of that driver!
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] johnripper:
any news for the driver?
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
I think what is needed is an IDE Controller for the SM223AC controller chip, not the SSD driver. The SSD drivers are similar to what is used for any other IDE hard drive (system32\DRIVES\disk.sys & system32\drivers\PartMgr.sys.)

The controller is hardware specific. Check out the thread I started at Eee forum:

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=44485

Problem is, you ask those Eee guys for the set of drivers and they all give different answers, as there are at least 8 different models of Eee, some did not have SSD's. Those with SSD's have different chips (Intel, Samsung etc.).

Best to get the drivers with the Samsung chips.

There is a usb hard drive from Corsair with the same Silicon Motion SM223AC controller and Samsung memory chips. That may be worth trying to pull out the drivers (their website doesn't have any in the download section).

I think the IDE Controller files are important as the SSD's use wear leveling techniques so that it slows the rate of memory capacity degradation over time.

Keith
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] ftoz:
compactflash pretec

hi, i see some czech web and i saw that cf pretec 16 gb 233x has sm223tf controler. It means that is same as ssd trascend. Maybe it can be replaced by pretec driver and can work with ssd trascend.
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
What memorty chips does the Pretec have?

The controller chip actually is a Silicon Motion 'sm223tf AC'. It is very common in USB flash drives of 1 to 4 gb, but impossible to find drivers for.

I received another Transcend ssd. I will try putting in the ssd into my x7501 one more time. If anyone can find the sm223ac drivers, please help!
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] ftoz:
x7510 registry

Can someone export registry from x7510 with working ssd? i wold like to see it, please
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] ftoz:
main dll driver

Hi i look at athena registy and i find that main driver is file ata_writeback.dll in windows directory. maybe it can by replaced by x7510 file or some file from device, which use cf cards such as dell axim v51.

hi keithwwalker, did you try x7510 rom with trascend ssd disk?
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] keithwwalker:
I have the new Transcend SSD.

Further to your message, in addition to the ata_writeback.dll there is also a file called FATFDS.dll in the ATAEPSON folder in my registry.

In the PCMCIA folder there is also an ATADISK.dll may not be related....

I would like to know a file listing of comparable x7510 SSD drivers in the registry before I rip apart my case again. Those .dll files may help.

Can any of you x7510 owners post some registry screen shots?
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] johnripper:
You can extract part.02 from the dumped rom from x7510 and search the windows directory for those files
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] johnripper:
NEW TEST

maybe we must test and 1" ide flash disk not only ssd and see?

http://www.offtek.co.uk/item_detail...ubcat=98&off=9f6531410e6afa856a4a176173bd9bbc
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] bluesbrothers93:
it's an idee

i'll have a look and tell you if i fallow this way

ok

i find it to my resseler in MLC type for less than 30$

i will order it and tell you results
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] johnripper:
details about your resseler?

i would like to order one too
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] bluesbrothers93:
no problemo

www.memoryc.com

i ordered it yesterday

http://www.memoryc.com/memory/TS2GIFD10M.html

bad news is that Transcend discontinue that kind of product

in all size 2, 4 and 8 GB

only think it's to find a compagny who have one in stock

i looking in Germany that possibility
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] Bluubekt:
I'm keenly following this thread, the HTC Athena seems pretty close to the perfect "mobile companion" to me - if it only wasn't for the paltry storage capacity. If it's possible to perform this upgrade I'll snap one up in a flash (pun intended!). Keep up the good work guys!

Cheers,

Bluubekt
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] JonSlater:
Why is 8Gb on the microdrive plus a possible 16Gb (so far, 32Gb one day) via SD card considered paltry?
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] Bluubekt:
Hehe, well, 64gb Compact Flash cards have been available since 2006! 128gb is no doubt around the corner, if not already out there. 8gb simply does not cut it any more and wouldn't even let me store my MP3 collection. It is paltry paltry paltry - and so is 16gb. I would not be interested in a device of this type that has less than 32gb internal storage and that allows the user to upgrade/replace the storage device if/when it fails.

In my view these are artificial restrictions that manufacturers put in place in order to ensure a limited life cycle for their products (similar to the non-replaceable battery in many of Apple's products). In marketing speak this is called "planned obsolescence" - do spare a few minutes to read up on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

Bluubekt
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] bluesbrothers93:
note that super talent have new 1" ssd disk

http://www.supertalent.com/products/ssd_detail.php?type=1-inch ZIF IDE
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] johnripper:
could this help

http://www.cnetx.com/format/

could this help?

can someone try to reformat the 78mb we in ssd?

I tried my ssd to my athena and i had 3 partitions two, but the first was 3mb, second 4mb, and last one 90 mb so i think because i have spl 3.5 and not spl 1.2 maybe what we see with wmstorage is maybe parts of the rom?
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] johnripper:
android project

maybe android project could help us partition and format ssd?
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] johnripper:
new idea

maybe we can use pocketdos and try to partition and format ssd with dos utilities?
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] johnripper:
also we can use 4 in 1 cable with a usb cd rom drive with external power and try to boot with pocketdos a windows cd and try to format?
[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] johnripper:
maybe this thread can help us http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=362344&highlight=windows+95