[OB] Installing a CF in an Omnibook 425 or 430

[Jerry Cadwell]

Yes, Bill I would be very interested to see how you did it. Jerry


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "bjunk" <bjunk at vpes.com>
To: "HP Omnibook Notebook Computer list" <omnibook at lists.elektro.com>
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 9:23 PM
Subject: Re: [OB] Installing a CF in an Omnibook 425 or 430


You can use large compact flash cards, but you can only
format the first 1024 cylinders or about 520 MB.

I have used 5 GB pcmcia hard drives and 4 GB micro drives
with no problems.  You can even load DOS in the first 540 MB and
then format the remaining as a Linux drive.  I've used Slackware
7.1.  There are a few quirks.  I wrote something up
on it some time ago on how I did it.  I could dig it out
for you if you're interested.

I have also formated a CF card with CPM/86 and DOS.  It actually
works pretty good.

As cheap as 1 gb CF cards are, I'd just get a 1 GB card, and format the
first 540 MB and go with it.

Bill



________________________________

From: omnibook-bounces at lists.elektro.com on behalf of hpl
Sent: Fri 12/14/2007 4:04 PM
To: HP Omnibook Notebook Computer list
Subject: Re: [OB] Installing a CF in an Omnibook 425 or 430




Thanks Jerry!

Considering that the 425 comes with a 40 Mb HD, I was concerned
that it wouldn't want to read from a 1 Gb media (pretty much the smallest
you can buy these days) due to BIOS limits.

I read somewhere that a Omnibook 300 ROM is 12 Mb while
a 430 is 500kb or something along those lines because the 430
does not use XIP; instead, it runs it's software from the HD.

The ROM is merely a bootloader and a few minor things.

Considering how similar the 300/425/430 Omnibooks are, and
that a 1 Gb CF card is about 30 USD. Also, the 425 ROM is
avaliable from:

http://24.237.160.4/files/omnibook/ob425/Software/ROM_image/

What I wonder is the following: If someone on the list is willing to
upload a 430 ROM; would it be possible to write it to a linear flash
card (avaliable from ebay) so that the Omnibook runs the 430 ROM,
and then boots from the 1 Gb CF?

This should make possible the use of "386 Enhanced Mode",
newer versions of DOS and Windows, etc...

MS-DOS 6.22 has better memory management than 5.0, "Enhanced
Mode" is necessary for safe multitasking and "Windows for 3.11 for
Workgroups" is necessary for networking.

Quite possibly one might even be able to install Linux.

Has this been attempted before? Suddenly all this sounds familiar...




To Jerry: AFAIK the Omnibook 300 can run the 430 ROM. Although
there is a performance penalty for machines with little memory.

This might be worth it as I hear that the newer ROM's have the
advantage of being able to use more memory, larger storage media,
and so on.

You can try getting a linear flashcard which is 15 Mb or larger
and write the 425 ROM to it. Since it is still XIP there wont't be a
performance hit and you'll get the advantages of having a newer ROM.

If you don't want to chance it with the 425 ROM try asking someone
on the list to upload a 300 ROM newer than rev 1.0.

Notice that it is imperative that you use a *linear* flash card. There is a
long and boring explenation as to why - use wikipedia if you are interested.

BTW. If I seem like I know this stuff - I don't - it is merely the result
of reading list archives for hours.




Jerry Cadwell skrev:
> Yes definitly . You should be able to replace the HD with  a Scandsk  CF
> card and adapter . I say yes because my Omi 300 is set up like that. I 
> have
> saved old emails on paper and can look up the how -to aspect  and send it 
> to
> you if you really get stuck.    I have no hard drive installed in my 300
> just the CF card. I have a working hard drive in my desk drawer that would
> fit into the OB 300. I don't know what to do with the hard drive, does any
> one have any polite sugestions. maybe I can trade it for an OB 300 system
> card better than rev 1.0  Jerry
>

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