Actually usefull?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=LmHBLq YzimE

I don't see the point, you could package them up in something a lot smaller unless having them in a sturdy, metal case is the whole point (which may be a fair point; my new 16GB drive is tiny and light as a feather, very lose-able).

I see the point ... in turning an old harddisk recorder into a solid state machine ... I've got a pair of fostex d80's and I'm going to attempt the following ...

3.5"IDE to 2.5" IDE
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-5-Laptop-3-5-Desktop-IDE-Hard-Dr ive-Adaptor-HDD-/320568139434?pt=UK_Computing_Drive_Cables_A dapters&hash=item4aa3599eaa

and then, 2.5"IDE SD-CARD Adapter
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Secure-Digital-44-Pin-44PIN-2-5-Ma le-IDE-SD-Card-Adapter-/270934932339?pt=UK_Computing_Drive_C ables_Adapters&hash=item3f14fafb73

I'll mount the cards in the hd caddies for easy switching ... 8gb class 6 should be well fast enough for 8 * 44.1/16bit ... and will mean I no longer have to rely on a fading stock of old IDE 100 disks ...

for about £15 each caddy I should be able to reduce power and noise whilst increasing ruggedness (okay, possibly marginally as there are no other moving parts in a d80) ... I'll let you know how I get on - if it all goes wrong, I'll not have lost a lot, and if it works, I'll get another lease of life for these already aging (but rock-solid) machines ...

That's a good use for this kind of idea although you wouldn't do it exactly like the video would you? Wouldn't you end up with seperate drives? Not sure what a D80 would do with all those drives.

I had a fostex dmt8vl back in the day. As you say, rock solid, still have a lot going for them.

yeh, I was a bit ot - I'll be setting-it up as a single-drive so the d80 doesn't know it runs on sd instead of hdd ... no usb involved ...

okay, so ... so far : no luck. the sd cards fit in the slot, the adapters fit in the caddy, the caddy fits in the machines and the machines boot to the expected "format disk?" tool ... after that they don't want to go beyond about the first 20 seconds of formatting (capacity with 8gig ~3hrs) ... so ... looking for a disk imager so I can (potentially) force a formatting onto the cards by another route ...

Fostex d80 may have a limit on size and type of device you can attach. It may be looking for particular hdd paramaters such as heads/sectors/cylinders to identify device. Some adaptors wont do that properly.

there is no quick format option like on the later machines (eg d2424lv) - on these, the format happens pretty instantly, and the remaining count-down time is basically a chkdsk ... not giving-up just yet - it knows the card is there, and I've previously used 40+ gig disks in these machines - the card is 8gig, so size isn't the issue ... <scratches-head>

one line of approach I'm looking into is to clone an existing known working disk into an image and then write that image to the card ... not that I've done either step before ...

Maybe you can format it on PC/Mac, A bit techy but this page may help :

http://barnafarago.info/fdms2tools/index2.php

It says that Fostex use non standard format system.

You will not see one drive but four. And it would only be really interesting if you reuse the original connectors (IDE and power in this case).

I have a seven port USB hub screwed under my table, which will do the same job...

Thanx for posting anyway.

Did anyone got lucky on that issue?