Ntg 2.5 hdd

[350_Coupe]

Just a curiosity thought here, has anyone tried removing the HDD and replacing it with a SSD ??

from what i can tell the original HDD is only about 2GB ? so not outside the realms for a SSD and might speed things up a bit

 

[npuk]

It is actually 40GB and 4GB is reserved for the music register.

 

[350_Coupe]

oops, my bad, mis-decoded the part number, still ... 40 GB is not outside the realms of "cheap" and possible, as they are only about £70.

i'm assuming the 4GB is reserved by way of a partition on the drive ?

 

[npuk]

IIRC there are 8 or so different partitions. I think someone tried cloning a drive and it didnt work. Assuming it will support a larger drive and a SSD you would need to have the SSD mirror the original drive for it to work.

Edit: 7 according to this post and he states the unit refuses to work with larger capacities: http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/electronics/96633-all-you-wanted-know-about-comand-aps-ntg-2-5-a.html

 

[350_Coupe]

Thanks, will go have a read, i've come across things before with hard drives that have refused to work with other drives, even if the same size ! had to be a specific make and model lol

lets go see what he has to say in that thread

 

[Krobar]

Thanks, will go have a read, i've come across things before with hard drives that have refused to work with other drives, even if the same size ! had to be a specific make and model lol

lets go see what he has to say in that thread

The NTG2.5 may actually be locked to the geometry of the disk (Ie. heads and cylinders), if this is the case then there is very little chance of anything but the exact same drive working.

 

[royaltiger]

There may also be firmware on the NTG that prevents another drive being recognised, this is why you have to send off to a recognised repair centre, as they have the correct facilities do do repairs, and also stop the public doing diy and causing more damage.

 

[350_Coupe]

yeah, i've seen both of those scenarios before, including where the firmware for the device and OS was stored on the drive too....

i did think though that manufacturers were learning that it makes sense not to do that

 

[Diesel Benz]

oops, my bad, mis-decoded the part number, still ... 40 GB is not outside the realms of "cheap" and possible, as they are only about £70.

Did you take into account that this drive isn't an ordinary laptop drive but a shock-resistant one intended for large temperature variations too.

 

[350_Coupe]

This was a theoretical question .... but, to reply to that last bit, SSD's do not have shock issues like regular drives do, operate cooler, and have as wide, if not wider operating ranges, and are not temperamental if the environment is damp/humid

 

[gIzzE]

But are they still ****e for rewrite issues?? can't you only do so many?

 

[350_Coupe]

that's becoming less and less of a problem to be honest, they also have redundance built in, that's why your seeing odd sized drives

TRIM support and effectiveness is getting better, meaning much more even wear across the chipset.

Add to that, that the silicon industry is improving all the time, early stuff was based on SLC chips, mega expensive, but fast... now the lesser MLC chips are performing better... so it's all relative, technology marches on at an unrelenting pace, limiting a piece of hardware to certain drives is a bad idea, because you the manufacturer can't upgrade it easily then with newer more reliable components.

The concern you have regarding write cycles, is a valid point, however, i would suspect that this NTG system would write to the hard drive a lot less than a pc does, and as the original calculations on drive life actually put them at quite a long time, it should not be an issue... many are comparing the write life to HDD's .... which by their nature fail due to mechanical limitations a lot earlier..... probably not far off the write life of an SSD !