Syba Dual Compact Flash CF to 44 Pin IDE/PATA 2.5" Adapter Enclosure, Black SD-ADA45006

I bought this to revive and improve an Apple iBook clamshell model, the Firewire Special Edition Key Lime G3 466mhz/DVD iBook. The drive in it was noisy, small (10GB), and a power hog.The product specs say both that this is OS-independent, and that it is compatible with various Windows versions and Linux. No mention of Mac compatibility, System 9.x or OS X. I took a flyer on it. And it does work--it is compatible with Mac OSes.Its form factor meant that I didn't have to tape it down or jury-rig the installation; it fits perfectly in the iBook's hard drive bracket and space. The single hitch is that the iBook's HD connector has one connector pin hole blocked, so this didn't fit stock. I girded my loins and snapped the single pin off the adapter by bending it a few times, and hoped it would work. It does.I put a 16GB 400x card by Transcend in the Master position. Then I put the adapter in the drive space. Put the iBook back together. Put OS X 10.2 in the DVD drive. Booted up from the DVD drive. And installed the OS. There was one abortive installation; not sure why it happened. But the second try worked. I'll be updating the OS to 10.4 Tiger ASAP. (That's the last version of OS X that is PowerPC compatible.)So it works--it boots fairly fast, it makes the previously very noisy computer *completely* silent, is much cooler, performs much better than the hard drive, and extends battery life by (at my current estimate) another 50% (about two hours). Also, unlike some other IDE-CF adapters I've read about, with this one, the iBook can successfully wake from sleep. Note that there is a red LED on the drive that glows through the iBook's case and keyboard. But it is very subtle, unnoticeable in a lighted room and visible only in darkness.So I'm very happy with it. And if I ever want to, I can expand my storage space simply by adding another CF card (okay, the two-hour teardown and rebuild isn't that simple, but it's doable).I don't see why it wouldn't work elsewhere just as well, so, five stars.

This flagship arranger Synth from 1997 can be expanded with one of these! Just put this in your Hard drive slot and format the CF Card, then you're good to go! Useful for storing long samples and lots of MIDI files!

I bought this to use in a Dell C400. It works beautifully after a few modifications. The laptop is now completely silent and MUCH faster than it was with its old hard drive. Booting into Debian takes about 15 seconds with a SanDisk SDCFH-004G-A11 4GB 30MB/s ULTRA CF Card compared with about 45 seconds with a 4200rpm hard drive. I'm very happy with this little gadget.This would have gotten 5 stars if it worked out of the box with my laptop. As is mentioned in the single slot adapter reviews, there are too many pins for the adapter to connect to the PC. I carefully bent the offending pin back and forth until it snapped off, and it fits and works fine. I also had to attach the cover directly to the adapter instead of putting the adapter in the hard drive caddy.I haven't tried the second socket yet, and I'm not sure that I will. I use this as a file server with an external hard drive, so space isn't really an issue. The speedup from switching to solid state was more than worth the cost of this adapter.

I bought this to replace the hard drive in a fit-PC Slim fit-PC Slim Linux so it would run in silent, no-moving part mode.Visually the adapter looks like right size, but when compared to the Fujitsu 60GB drive it replaced, it is both thicker (9.5mm vs 9.0 mm) and effectively longer. In my fit-pc the thickness prevented the adapter from sliding in to the space vacated by the hard drive - there is a slot on the right inside cover where the adapter would not fit in. (To make it fit, I had to remove the top black plastic cover.)Although the actual overall length is the same (100mm), when the cable connector is attached (and I had to bend all of the pins away from the circuit board to get the connector to 'seat'), the connector still sticks out to extend the length of the unit. This is the same connector that allowed to Fujitsu hard drive to fit perfectly. Doubtful another connector would work better as the connector did seat against the black angle pin block. Remember, the fit-pc is very small and its IDE connector is also, so I think Syba just didn't consider this in the size (pin length) and placement (relative to the circuit board) of the angle pin connector block.So I had to trim off the last 1.5mm of the bottom cover. I tried to just put the circuit board into the fit-pc without any of the black cover, but the circuit board was just a little too free to flop around from side-to-side without it.However, after all the modifications, the adapter did indeed work with 4GB Sandisk Ultra Compact Flash card SanDisk SDCFH-004G-A11 4GB 30MB/s ULTRA CF Card (US Retail Package). I was able to boot Linux from a USB drive and install to the CF-adapter 'IDE hard drive' and the fit-pc works (quietly!)So, if you are planning to use this adapter in a space-limited (tight tolerance) location, I'd reconsider the purchase unless you don't mind modifying the adapter (likely voiding the warranty) and likely your connector cable.I have not tried installing a second CF into the slave slot, but I expect it to work. The slave card installs on the bottom and is flush with the bottom plastic cover (which I left on) so it should fit physically.Had the adapter fit both in thickness and length (or rather, had the connector fit properly and seated far enough in to not require modification, I would have rated this 5 stars.

Works great