Can now install SATA hard drives in Panasonic Toughbook CF-18 with IDE / SATA adapter

What's up boys ??!? I hope you are all doing well... Its been a while !

I hope you don't mind a small plug for a great product that an associate of mine developed. Unfortunately
its not a TechTuff product but it does get my stamp of approval since we did test it.

Its similar to the adapter we developed for CF-29 Toughbooks, lets you install 2.5" SATA hard drive or SSD hard drive into
the Panasonic Toughbook CF-18. Otherwise as you know, you are limited to the smaller and more expensive IDE hard drives
I believe 320GB IDE still sell for about $100 vs.1000GB (1TB) Sata are only about $60.

So with this adapter and a 1TB 2.5" SATA hard drive total will still come in under $89. You save money and get over triple the
capacity of an IDE H.D. which would cost you more. I know the CF-18 models are getting long in the tooth, but is a great way
to keep them out of landfills if you do not need heavy duty processing power.

If any of our Toughbook Forum guru's are willing to test one and write a quick review on it (an honest one of course,
good or bad for the benefit of Toughbook users) I will get Digitzoom to send the adapter to first 5 guru's for free... You know who you are
Just send me a message with your address

Check it out at Digitzoom | Panasonic Toughbook CF18 SATA SSD Drive Adapter

Keep in touch boys and happy belated New Year !

TechTuff

 

Oh and here is the YouTube Video for it as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETils8EhIwY

 

Or you can use this adapter
http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Ca...ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3G9OEEJ375E8H
USD 3.47 and free US shipping.
Here is one of reviews confirming it works with CF-29

So I think it has to work in CF-18 too

 

Having sold hundreds of CF-18 models in the past, I wish that cheap one you linked to worked properly...

Also see this past forum link below in regards to using the cheaper adapter you mention.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/423253-hmmm-sata-hdd-into-cf-18-adapter-2.html

There is also less space in a CF-18 Hard drive caddy then a CF-29 caddy, so at best you will have to butcher the inside of the caddy
to make the cheap adapter fit and that of course will compromise the integrity of the caddy as well.

If you look at the The Digitzoom adapter it is a different design, custom made only to work for the Toughbook CF-18.

Peace everyone.

 

Nope...will not work in the CF-18. Not enough room in the caddy even with the foam out. I like the one from Digitzoom...good job :thumbsup:

 

Would it fit in a m34?
I have a m34 I would test it and review in for you.

 

I was thinking the same thing Shawn... just looking at my 34 and it just might fit.

 

I just sent him a PM....

 

I like techtuff's items and believe the subj is a very good thing too.
Just think it's too expensive for CF-18. They are too old now. If it could work instead of caddy - super.

 

But it is cheaper than buying a CF-19....

 

Hmm. I can't agree )
It's comparable. Sometimes with MK3
And upgrading of CF-18 is a dead end.

 

Cf 18 is not deadend!! I have installed Win 8, Win 7 and Android OS and they all run, also have seen Linux on CF 18. Not a screamer but will do all tasks well. Besides a new HP or other doesn't even come close to durability, or have touch screen. I have seen brand new 17 laptops quit working after first drop or split coffee/soda become $600 plus brick...............................

 

I do like the look of it.

 

I am still flogging a CF-18 and this looks like a good solution to be able to use less expensive sata drives and not have to alter a caddy. Just ordered one and will report back with the results when I get it.

 

I'd like to see some Crystal mark scores for the drives thru this adapter. I've tried two different mSata to IDE adapters, and large files size transfer was slower than a Transcend pats SSD, but small file transfer speeds were much faster on my CF-18 Mk3. This was with a pretty fast mSATA SSD. Large file speeds were on the order of 3 times slower than the Transcend SSD. I would think a good adapter would approach max PATA speeds.

 

All 5 of the Toughbook CF-18 IDE Sata hard drive adapters have been spoken for and will be mailed shortly. Allow up to 2 weeks for airmail.

The owner of Digitzoom was happy that you guys showed such a strong interest, he has also recently signed up to NBR forum so I expect he will pop in to answer questions, etc...

Later.

 

Hello everyone, we see that our friends from Techtuff already introduced our new product, thank you!

Please feel free to ask questions and post feedback, we appreciate it.

DigitZoom Team.

 

Welcome to the forum....:hi2:

 

Welcome to the Panasonic Toughbook forum

I am really looking forward to seeing this . As Shawn said this might also work in the CF-M34 or many other Toughbooks. The is something we have been looking for. Hope it works out for us.

 

I was thinking the same thing.

 

We will find out...

Stay tuned....Same Bat time.....Same Bat channel.....

 

just a couple more lights to go and he'll have a *bingo* !
:laugh:

 

Thank you all, we are looking forward for your feedback.

Unfortunately, it will not fit properly in the CF-M34 caddy, technically it is possible to be done but you will need to remove the metal part of the caddy and connect it without it, it is important to isolate the exposed pins at the back of the connector (sata connector) and the hard drive board. We tested with 1TB drive successfully.

 

Pretty interesting stuff! I have an old CF-18 that I am using for a work computer, thanks to Shawn... that I may try this in as soon as it is ready for market!

 

Bill,:hi2:
I am glad to hear that you got the CF18 working for you....
:thumbsup:

 

Just ordered one. I'll give it a go, and let you know!:hi2:

 

Look what I got in the mail today . I really like how it's put together...very good job. For anyone that is going to get one of these watch the video first before you install it. As you might notice the hard drive is turned around when you use this...just wanted to point this out. Digitzoom | Panasonic Toughbook CF18 SATA SSD Drive Adapter

 

This way seems to be cheaper and much more universal.
Many different offers on ebay.

 

Please post some benchmarks when you get a chance. My experience with mSATA to pata adapters has not given expected results.

 

Once this new forum software gets the bugs out of it I will have some time .

 

I may need one after getting this steal. http://www.ebay.com/itm/321655170544?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
I needed it for parts and it turns out it just needed an ac adapter.

 

A couple observations so far.

Make sure the wire coming from the heater is on the bottom of the drive, not the top. If the wire is on the top, it's almost impossible to get the lid on the caddy.

A 12mm drive will never fit. A 9.5mm drive fits, but it is tight getting the lid on the caddy. If I was buying a drive to use with the adapter, I would get a 7mm, preferably a SSD

What would be involved in making this adapter to use a 1.8 drive instead of the 2.5?

 

Thank you for the feedback Shawn

Yes, the heater should be installed as shown in the video in order to fit properly and as is mentioned on the web site www.digitzoom.com the compatible drivers are 7mm and 9.5mm, the good news is that they are the most available drives out there, the rest - 12.5mm, 15mm, 19mm will not fit in the caddy. SSD drives are preferable, the impact on the performance is remarkable.

The 1.8'' drives are not very common and it doesn't make much sense to develop an adapter for it, although this adapter will work with it, you can try one of the available 1.8 to 2.5 ide hard drive connector converters, like this one or similar, there are a lot of variations available:

or





We hope that the adapter that we sent works fine for you.

Thank you.

 

The only real problem I have ran into some adapters like the IDE to 1.8" ssd adapter I have tried is over time if it's bumped just right it has to be taken apart to load. The last one I tried was a IDE to Msata. I liked the look of it where the Msata screwed down securing the SSD. The one I had the adapter had problems booting. I have a different one on order to test out.

I will looking forward to testing out your adapter when I get home. I will be throwing a SSD into it (x25 intel) and seeing how it runs in my M34 Mk7, CF-29 Mk3 and if I have the time a Mk2 or Mk3 CF-28, Mk2 CF-27 and CF-25 ( Yes I will have to partation the hell out that 40GB SSD, lmao.

The fit will not be what I will be focusing on. But the speed of transfers, etc. I even plan on a couple of drop tests while the unit is running.

 

Hello Ador, it will be interesting to receive your feedback, we hope that the adapter will perform well

Please keep in mind that it was designed to be used in CF18 caddy only, although most probably will work with all these models that you mentioned, it will not fit in the caddy.

Good luck!

 

O.K. First post with the "new look". (ugly)

The first annual TDR old stuff extravaganza starts Feb 8 and ends Feb 9.

One topic is the above mentioned adapter on a CF-18.

One half of the TDR consortium is working with Linux variations to keep our vintage Toughbooks alive.

Stay tuned.

Jeff at TDR-HQ.

 

I'm on the CF-18 using free Wi-Fi. Traveling can be tough. I'm waiting for my flight to Sacramento now, and will be headed your way tomorrow morning with a small suitcase full of smaller Linux Distributions to try out. My pick before the fact is MX-14 and / or MicroWattOS R8. But there are many more to sample and try. Tuned

 

CF18 NJ...MK5
500gb... HDD ST9500420GAS
Installed Win 7 pro...on one of 3 partitions.....no problems
Immediately followed by installing Zorin 9 (Linux)
Zorin deleted all partitions and created a new single partition....no issues whatsoever.

I would like to try a dual boot setup. I need to read up on how to do that..I thought Zorin would ask me and set it up automagically.. It did not..Maybe I need a different flavor of Linux..

So far the adapter performs exactly as it is supposed to.

 

Hello Shawn, thank you for the feedback!
Please share your experience if you did try different Linux versions and other OS.

 

"I would like to try a dual boot setup. I need to read up on how to do that..I thought Zorin would ask me and set it up automagically.. It did not..Maybe I need a different flavor of Linux.."

yep ... a different flavor does the trick ... try mint13 w/MATE ... it will prompt/walk you through the procedure during the install sequence .
(i have not tried the newer releases of mint on my '30)
i dunno ... i gave up on dual boot (and quad boot) systems after the third (eventual) pooching that required partition deletions and totally zero writing the first few sectors of the HDD .

 

I'll download Mint and give it a taste.....

http://www.linuxmint.com/release.php?id=18

 

yepperdoodle ... that's the one .
i try to use torrent clients to dl operating systems .

 

It's already half way done downloading....
I'm an addict.... I have 12mb download speed...Not to mention it's early AM..Everyone else is still asleep..

 

heh heh heh ...
that is exactly why i get up at 0dark30 ... also , old army habits are hard to break ... sometimes .

 

Currently restoring a CF30 Win7 image onto the CF18..Using Acronis Universal restore.
Acronis found the drive and is restoring as I type...14 minutes to go.

I am going to burn Linux Mint to a disk and attempt to do a dual boot next.

 

Acronis restore was successful...Only problem was it could not access the misc driver. That's a wrong hardware restore issue. That has nothing to do with the adapter.
I really like Universal restore....Of course Windows was NOT activated on the CF18

One issue I have noticed.. It did it with Zorin and it just did it with Acronis, which is Linux based.
It seems to hang on shut down...The laptop doesn't fully power off all the time. I will test this out again later tonight after work. Windows 7 shuts down properly..

 

Hello everyone!
Thank you very much for the details Shawn, you are right, it has nothing to do with the adapter, btw we have tested it under a lot of load including restoring a huge amount of data for a long time, also the transfer rate was very fast and stable.
The adapter should have nothing to do how the operating system will act since it is not detectable from OS and is passive element.

Thank you once again.

 

Well, I got a DVD of Mint and booted it...I have never done a dual boot before so it was new to me..
I tried to resize the win 7 partition and create a ext2 partition..Mint kept giving me errors in the ext2 partition...I then deleted the ext2 partition and let Mint figure it all out using unallocated space.
This time it installed and booted to Mint from the hard drive when I chose Mint in the boot menu..

I have 2 win7 boot options in the boot menu..No idea why.
The first time I booted to win 7 from the dual boot setup, I got the "Your hard drive may have errors" message...I let it scan the drive for errors and when done it rebooted and had zero errors. I don't know what caused the drive may have errors message, but I figure it was from the Mint resizing, partitioning, and install of the dual boot menu. Grub I think it is, but I really don't know...I am much more of a hardware guy, but I can manage ok with software.....

I did not experience any further shutdown issues...

The drive adapter does seem invisible..Only thing I noticed was in Gparted the SATA drive was reported as being a SCSI...It did not seem to matter as the laptop performed flawlessly for the beat up tired CF18 that it is.

Next I will see what is involved in putting the adapter and a 64gb SSD in a CF-M34....
You said I 'll probably have to lose the drive lid..That's ok by me. I have Kapton tape if needed.

 

Most of my dual boot were before I had enough caddies/disks to put a single OS on a single caddy.
I loaded the M$ program...updated and then installed the Linux one.
Bar none to this date Mint is the friendliest. I just let Mint do it's thing.
Re: the Digitzoom: 7mm drive, left the heater out (by choice...there was room) and it went in slick. (with three pairs of hands) video?....what video?

TDR-HQ says "good product".
Shawnster and I were posting at the same time...I'm not arguing with him.

 

Hello Shawn, we tested the adapter in M34 successfully with 1TB drive, the BIOS initialized it it just fine.. for sure you will need not to use the covers of the caddy, be careful not to short the pins at the back of the sata connector of the adapter and the controller board of the hard drive. It should work ok, please let us know the result, thanks.

Re: Sadlmkr, not sure about the heater in your case but as you can see in the video, it fits with even 9.5mm drive, yes it is a bit tight but if you remove the foam the room is enough. You can check the video on our web site www.digitzoom.com

Thank you.